PHL 375 Environmental Ethics - Integrated Research Paper
Professor Daniel Thorburn
March 26, 2007
Perspectives on Global Warming
In my view, one of the most pressing environmental issues facing the world today is global warming. As many of us are aware, some of the consequences of global warming are the melting of our ice packs at the North and South Pole, the flooding of our coastal cities worldwide, and the increasing process of desertification. As Al Gore quotes Mark Twain so eloquently in his movie "An Inconvenient Truth", "What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know, it's what we know for sure that just ain't so." He goes on to assert "We are filling up that thin shell of atmosphere with pollution." The melting water from the ice packs could shift the Gulf Stream farther south, with some estimates being as far as seven hundred fifty miles. The warm waters of the Gulf Stream heat the Northern hemisphere.
According to "Global Warming-Climate: Uncertainties", scientists have identified that our health, agriculture, water resources, forests, wildlife and coastal areas are vulnerable to the changes that global warming may bring. For example, if we take water resources alone,
| One of the reasons that the melting glaciers is a problem is water resource management. Many areas of the world (West Coast North America, West Coast South America and Western Europe) depend on snow melt for a good portion of their fresh water needs. Winter snow stores water and releases it slowly. This allows more of the water to soak into the aquifer and gives a more consistent flow to streams and rivers. If the mountains supplying these areas with water receive a larger percentage of rain or if the snow melts, faster flooding increases, erosion increases and less water becomes ground water. In California, for example, they are experiencing Winter and Spring flooding that can not be captured by existing dams. They are also experiencing Summer water shortages. It is not practical or in most cases not possible to build artificial water storage facilities capable of replacing the storage lost by the melting glaciers and snow packs of the Rockies. Similar conditions are being felt in areas dependent on water from the Alps, Himalayas, and the Andes. (Robert B. Moore P.E., Environmental Engineer, from Scripps Institute of Oceanography and a recent report in the Journal of Nature) |
The implications these consequences have for world food supplies are numerous as well. Desertification reduces the amount of land available for farming. Increased temperatures cause existing deserts to become larger and new ones to form. It already appears most of the glaciers are melting at an alarming rate and the Sahara desert has been expanding, in some areas as much as a mile a year. The rising sea current along the coastal areas could reduce or eliminate rice supplies. "Projections of Global Warming, resulting from increasing levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases, need to be set in the context of what has happened in the past" (Remembrance of Things Past: Greenhouse Lessons from the Geologic Record). The Little Ice Age that began about five hundred fifty years ago, although not as drastic as the last natural Ice Age, caused socioeconomic upheaval in Northern Europe. The first effect of any Global Warming after flooding would be to accelerate the process of desertification. The rainy patterns would shift south. That in itself is a major upheaval.
Global Warming causes mass migrations and shifting populations. "With the increased crowding would also come decreased arable land, less food, and probably starvation for animals and humans on a massive scale, as well as political and social instability" (Population and Climate). For example, around fifty five million years ago during a period of Global Warming (four to seven degrees), "the Deep Ocean Circulation in the Southern Hemisphere abruptly stopped. This resulted in a mass extinction of marine life" (Robert B. Moore P.E., Environmental Engineer, from Scripps Institute of Oceanography & Journal of Nature).
| Scientists expect that the average global surface temperature could rise 1-4.5 degrees F (0.6-2.5 degrees C) in the next fifty years, and 2.2-10 degrees F (1.4-5.8 degrees C) in the next century, with significant regional variation. Evaporation will increase as the climate warms, which will increase average global precipitation. Soil moisture is likely to decline in many regions, and intense rainstorms are likely to become more frequent. Sea level is likely to rise two feet along most of the U.S. coast. (Global Warming-Climate) |
Having taken all of this into consideration, from an anthropocentric point of view, we should take appropriate measures in order to ensure that humans and all living organisms that benefit humans are safe. Of course, from an anthropocentric perspective, we are primarily concerned with the survival of our own species, Homo sapiens, because only we have moral standing. According to Paul Taylor,
| human actions affecting the natural environment and its nonhuman inhabitants are right (or wrong) by either two criteria: they have consequences which are favorable (or unfavorable) to human well-being, or they are consistent (or inconsistent) with the system of norms that protect and implement human rights. From this human-centered standpoint it is to humans and only to humans that all duties are ultimately owed. We may have responsibilities with regard to the natural ecosystems and biotic communities of our planet, but these responsibilities are in every case based on the contingent fact that our treatment of those ecosystems and communities of life can further the realization of human values and/or human rights. We have no obligation to promote or protect the good of nonhuman living things, independently of this contingent fact. (VanDeVeer & Pierce, p. 202) |
The anthropocentric stance most likely has been as long as Global Warming didn't affect humans, there was no need to worry about it. But since we now know it has, does, and will affect us directly, the anthropocentrist will take necessary measures to ensure our safety and well-being. This is also how someone who adheres to speceism will view the dilemma Global Warming brings to the table. To a speceist, it is imperative we take all measures in order to ensure the survival of our own species, whatever it entails, because it is his/her belief that "members of one species or their interests are more valuable than the interests of other species-or more extremely, that the interests of only one species has any intrinsic value" (VanDeVeer & Pierce, p. 654). Those who subscribe to Confucian and Kantian ethics would be in favor of anthropocentrism.
On the other hand, the biocentrist will take a moral attitude toward nature. It is through this initial attitude the biocentrist will care about nature for nature itself. "From the perspective of a life-centered theory, we have prima facie moral obligations that are owed to wild plants and animals themselves as members of the Earth's biotic community. We are morally bound (other things being equal) to protect or promote their good for their sake" (VanDeVeer & Pierce, p. 202). Because the biocentric view focuses on the inherent worth in a life-centered system, those who adhere to this outlook are more likely to practice environmentally safe methods such as driving hybrid cars, protecting endangered species, and saving the entire ecosystem from pollution for reasons that differ from those of the anthropocentric. In other words, the two may have differing reasons but arrive at the same conclusion. For biocentrists, all of nature including humans deserve moral standing and have equal moral value. Ethical theorists in agreement with this viewpoint would include: Natural Law theorists, Utilitarianists, and Feminist ethicists.
From an animal rights perspective, Global Warming brings into question whether we should be doing everything we can to save animals from becoming extinct. For example, the Polar Bear is quickly becoming the first mammal to lose nearly all of its habitat to global warming. According to Regan, "the fundamental wrong is the system that allows us to view animals as our resources, here for us-to be eaten, or surgically manipulated, or put in our cross hairs for sport or money" (VanDeVeer & Pierce, p. 143). In the case of Global Warming and the Polar Bear, the Anthropocentrist would question whether the Polar Bear has any benefit to us. The Biocentrist would argue the Polar Bear should be saved for their sake. According to the biocentric outlook, "the Earth's natural ecosystems as a totality are seen as a complex web of interconnected elements, with the sound biological functioning of each being dependent on the sound biological functioning of the others" (VanDeVeer & Pierce, p. 207). One ethical consideration animal rights activists take into account when thinking about animals is that they feel/experience pain/pleasure, and it is, therefore, our moral duty to protect them. "The rationality of humans does put them in a unique position in that they can make moral choices, and this imposes on them certain moral duties which govern their choices, but it does not make them the only valuable creatures on the planet" (Critiques of Contractarianism, Paragraph 3).
We should be concerned about the effects Global Warming will have on individual animals and whole species because that may eventually affect other species (including us) and our entire ecosystem. Russow would argue "individual animals can have, to a greater or lesser degree, aesthetic value: they are valued for their simple beauty, for their awesomeness, for their intriguing adaptations, for their rarity, and for many other reasons. We value and protect animals because of their aesthetic value, not because they are members of a given species" (VanDeVeer & Pierce, 475). Russow would say we would only preserve those animals affected by Global Warming if we found them aesthetically pleasing, regardless of whether or not they were members of any particular species. On the other hand, Rolston would say "there ought to be an ethics of respect for nature and that the species is a real, concrete, entity, more real than the individuals which instantiate the species" (Web Reading). Rolston, would, therefore, preserve animals effected by global warming, but for different reasons than Russow, reasons being it is a member of a greater species.
Al Gore, in "An Inconvenient Truth", speaks about first, separating truth from fiction about Global Warming, and then ensuring these warnings are heard and responded to. For example, "There are millions of ecological niches that are affected by global warming." When climates change, parasites such as the bark beetle and the mosquito move in. There is an upset to the entire ecological balance, and "we are, by far, the worst contributors to the problem" (An Inconvenient Truth). According to Gore, "there are good people who are in politics in both parties who hold this at arm's length because if they acknowledge it and recognize it, then the moral imperative to make big changes is inescapable." He adds, "If we allow that to happen, it is deeply unethical". The anthropocentrist, biocentrist, and animal rights activist, will, most likely, continue to find ways to help alleviate the problem of Global Warming, often arriving at the same conclusions, yet for various reasons. As stated in "An Inconvenient Truth", it is important we connect the dots and as fast as possible. People can do their part by using energy efficient appliances, recycling, reducing carbon emissions, driving cars that are more environmentally safe, etc.
Ultimately, humans are responsible for resolving the problem of Global Warming because it is humans who have perpetuated the problem through greenhouse gases, deforestation, over population, pollution, etc.
| The average surface temperature of earth has increased more than 1 degree Fahrenheit since 1900 and the rate of warming has been nearly three times the century-long average since 1970. Almost all experts studying the recent climate history of the earth agree now that human activities, mainly the release of heat-trapping gases from smokestacks, tailpipes, and burning forests, are probably the dominant force driving the trend. The gases add to the planet's natural greenhouse effect, allowing sunlight in, but preventing some of the resulting heat from radiating back to space. Drawing on research on past climate shifts, observations of current conditions, and computer simulations, many climate experts say that without big curbs in greenhouse gas emissions, the 21st century could see temperatures rise 3 to 8 degrees, weather patterns sharply shift, ice sheets shrink and seas rise several feet. (Resource Race Heats Up in Melting Arctic) |
It is imperative we "connect the dots" as quickly as possible and take necessary action in order to ensure the balance of our entire ecosystem.
Works Cited
An Inconvenient Truth
Global Warming - Climate: Uncertainties, from SCI 300 Geography Mapping The World
Global Warming - Climate, from SCI 300 Geography Mapping the World
Moore, Robert B., P.E., Environmental Engineer, from Scripps Institute of Oceanography and a recent report in the Journal of Nature.
Population and Climate, from SCI 300 Geography Mapping the World
Remembrance of Things Past: Greenhouse Lessons from the Geologic Record, from SCI 300 Geography Mapping the World
VanDeVeer, Donald & Pierce, Christine. "The Environmental Ethics & Policy Book". Third Edition. Holly Allen, 2003.