Environmental Ethics

Today was the first of 2 special lectures on Environmental Ethics, from the Environmental Diplomatic Leader program at Tsukuba University. Open to all without registration, I joined to learn more about ethical considerations in environmental policy.

The main question of environmental ethics is, given the facts, should we act, and then, what should we do?

Also important is how to answer these questions. Science and technology often refer to risk assessment or cost/benefit analysis to determine policies. This leads to the main conflict: who decides what is acceptable risk, and are all risks equal? Many environmental issues are often only handled by technological scientists, but those bearing the risks are often not included in decisions.

Often in global politics we are confronted with the right of the strongest, 'justice is the advantage of the stronger', or 'might is right'. Ethically, we should respect the dignity of each individual and consider ourselves better than other people. How can this practically lead to policies that we all can agree on, if we are to respect everyone's values? Theoretically a free market might lead to everyone's preferences being satisfied, but the rights of minorities cannot be protected without additional measures.

The lecture covered several historic streams of thoughts and explored modern day questions, such as 'does it make sense to talk about human rights of future generations who do not yet exist, and what about animals?' Should we then look at individual animals, or at species as a whole? Concerning climate change, the big question was, if we don't know the exact consequences, what should we do? Some people argue to act on the side of caution, while others say, we don't know what will happen so why do anything at all?

In my opinion, having rights also includes a responsibility for safeguarding those rights for yourself and the world. This links to the new Future Earth initiative: "Future Earth is a new 10-year international research initiative that will develop the knowledge for responding effectively to the risks and opportunities of global environmental change and for supporting transformation towards global sustainability in the coming decades. Future Earth will mobilize thousands of scientists while strengthening partnerships with policy-makers and other stakeholders to provide sustainability options and solutions in the wake of Rio+20."  Sounds interesting? Sign up to be on their committee before March 14 and actively participate in the future of the planet.