Question

1. Environmental ethics is a subject that tends to be discussed in rather obscure situations - rarely as a topic unto itself. However, there is an academic journal “Environmental Ethics” in the CBU library. It may also be in a library closer to you. If you have access, take an hour and browse the contents of a volume and see what issues are being discussed. It could well be that some of the issues being addressed in such a journal will eventually be important issues that you will have to deal with within an EIA. Give a one page summary of the information you reviewed. 2. What ethical view do you hold with regard to the environment? What has led you to this view? Has your view ever changed, and if so - why?

Answer 1

1. Environmental Ethics: It can be defined as a branch of ethics that deals with the study of environment and all the moral obligations that human beings have towards the environment.

EIA: Environmental Impact Assessment

It can be defined as the assessment of the conseqences of all the approved plans ie the assessment of the impact of environment .

ISSUES TO DEAL WITHIN EIA

1.Limited technical and managerial capacities: Many countries are not yet developed to that extent so they may face limited technical and managerial capacities in carrying out environmental impact assessment.

2.EIA requirements are often avoided: There are many countries who do not feel the need to implement EIA, which results in the problems as the EIA is responsible to deal with the consequences of the plans formulated.

3.EIA does not ensure sound project: The biggest issue is that the EIA cannot promise to provide the sound project , there may be problems with the plan and project which is formulated and maybe the bad effects of the project may not stop.

4. Post project monitoring not conducted: After the project is implemented, follow up is hardly done, which will definitely cause problems.

2. The ethical view i hold includes many things, there are number of responsibilities that a human being has with respect to the environment like

a) Avoid deforestation: It is in the hands of human beings to avoid cutting of trees, it is one of the biggest ethical issue related to environment as we need oxyzen to breathe and that oxyzen is provided by the trees and the forest but if we keep on cutting the forests at the same pace , one day we will find difficult to survive.

b) Plant uncountable trees: We need to plant 20 trees in place of the 1 we cut, so that we do not do any harm on the nature and environment. This is an ethical behaviour of a human towards the plants as they are also living creatures just like we are.

c) Avoid wastage of water: We know that we are presently running short of water and sme day we might not get water to drink , so it is our responsibility to avoid excess wastage of water and use only as much as needed.

d) Avoid pollution: There are several kinds of pollution like water pollution, air pollution,noise pollution which make difficult for everybody to survive, though it is caused by the actions of human beings still they are the only one who also suffer due to pollution. So it is also considered ethical to avoid pollution.

e) Recycle : Rather than using things which cannot be reused, we shall use the products which can be recycled and used again and again, it is also considered ethical.

What has led you to this view?

The human beings today are taking advantage of the nature , thought we have sufficient amount of plants, forests, water but people need to understand that even the account full of money one day finishes, so is with the nature one day we are all going to lfor the water, forests but we will be unable to get it back. The people are polluting the environment,wasting the resources as if they are in abundance so this is the reason i feel that the above given points are considered ethical as the human beings are unable to follow these common things as well. They have crossed the level of education and experience but still somewhere they lack in environmental ethics and following the above pioints may help it out.

Has your view ever changed?

No my view has never changed because the situation has never been better, though the government tries but the human beings never follow the paths. They are still waiting for the day the resources get exhausted and they need to regret then. Number of articles are present concerning the same topic but still human beings are never ready to understand as they feel that the level of education they have acquired is way too much and they are right.