Environmental Ethics
Did You Know?
The environmental sustainability movement is growing?
You’re being greenwashed?
Tap water is safer than bottled water in a lot of cases.
Aldo Leopold is my hero? Yeah, figured not.
Things that you might learn while reading this post:
1. Environmental milestones | History of environmental justice
2. Consumerism (Anthropocentrism vs. Ecocentrism)
3. My comedic version of the sad story of bottled water.
4. Who Aldo Leopold is and a few quotes to take away from him.
The Rundown:
Since the early 1960′s, society has been slowly entering the realm of realization of the strong human ties with nature. Much of this enlightenment comes from scientific based research, public scares, and environmental milestones in history. So here’s a little bit to get you educated in case you’ve never had exposure.
Environmental Lessons:
1949- A Sand County Almanac is published by the environmentalist, forester, ecologist, and environmental writer: Aldo Leopold
1962- Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring to address the threats caused by chemicals to the environment and to us.
1968- UN Biosphere Conference in Paris
1968- Paul Ehrlich publishes The Population Bomb
1970- Earth Day is created. Millions of people gathered in protest of environmental concerns, that too often went ignored. This helped initiate important laws such as The Endangered Species Act & the Safe Drinking Water Act.
1972- The Limits to Growth was published.
1973- OPEC, CITIES, and MARPOL
1974- CFC’s
1974- Worldwatch Institute
1982- Stockholm Conference in Nairobi
1983- U.S. EPA and U.S. National Academy of Sciences drop the bomb. They publicly released the information on C02 and other greenhouse gases were going to lead to global warming.
1984- 10,000 plus people are killed in India from a toxic spill of pesticides.
1986- Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion, exposing hundreds of thousands to radiation.
1987- Montreal Protocol. This was to help acknowledge as well as minimize the amount of chemicals produced that deplete the ozone layer, since we kind of need to breathe.
1989- Exxon Valdez dumps 76,000 tons of oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound. 250,000 birds dead.
1989- The Basel Convention. Controls the transport and international trade of hazardous waste.
1991- Worst oil spill in history. 1.25 million tons of oil spilled by Iraqi army, while in retreat.
1992- The Convention on Climate Change for C02 reductions; treaty falls short thanks to US’s poor support.
1992-Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro. HUGE in sustainable development track for better quality on Earth.
1992- The Kyoto Protocol: Climate Change Convention
The list is much more extensive. These are just some of the major milestones in understanding the degradation we (as humans) have put on the planet throughout the 20th century. It is absolutely appalling knowing that in just a short amount of time, one species alone has had the ability to f*** everything up.
In case you were not aware, this is what the world is facing because of us:
Extinction crises- The current era of anthropologically induced plant and animal extinction, estimated to be between one thousand and ten thousand times the historical average, or background extinction rate. (Paul Robbins)
https://www.worldwatch.org/brain/features/timeline/timeline.htm
If you’re a consumer, read.
Which one are you? Which one do you want to be?
1. Anthropocentric- An ethical viewpoint that believes humans to be the central factor in considerations for right and wrong action towards nature. (Paul Robbins)
This version is the most popular among society as a whole. People tend to think selfishly for themselves and forget about all the other species that make up the planet.
2. Ecocentric- An environmental ethical viewpoint that argues that ecological concerns should, over and above human priorities, be central to decisions about right and wrong action.
This version is a holistic comprehension. People who believe that all species on earth are of equal importance and we should not assume we are the center of the universe. But instead understand we are only a small piece of the puzzle that keeps us alive and thriving.
I encounter people on a weekly basis who are not obviously as enthused with our connection to all things green as I am. Although many claim to recycle, or buy expensive “organic” or “natural” products, or even attempt to garden, many of these people only seem to be involved thanks to current societal trends. The mix between environment and society is a tricky tangled mess. Throughout my childhood, as I mentioned in my previous blog post, I was raised to respect the land. However, in my teenage years I was punk just like every other high school kid. I threw trash and cigarette butts out the windows of moving cars, I vandalized a few structures, I’ve poured chemical based household products and paint into the woods. My past decisions towards environmental degradation is result of just how disconnected man has become with the very structure that supports life.
Greenwashing- The exaggerated or false marketing of a product, good, or service as environmentally friendly. (Paul Robbins).
^ Do your research before feeling good about what you purchase. They could be big fat capitalist money-bearing liars.
Green consumption- Purchasing of products that are purportedly environmentally friendlier or less harmful than their alternatives; a model of environmental protection that relies on the consumer choices to change the behavior of firms or industries rather than regulation. (Paul Robbins).
Don’t get me wrong, it is good to recycle and want to buy products that healthier. It is just important to remember every decision we make affects someone or something elsewhere as an externality. Ex. When you pour a coke in the grass before throwing the plastic bottle away in the trash. The unnatural content of the liquid infiltrates into the ground, moves into the fresh groundwater, and exits into rivers and streams as (believe it or not) a pollutant. The bottle is taken from the trash and goes one of two places. It either is taken to a landfill where the eventual deterioration by heat and compaction is evaporated into the atmosphere as yet again, a pollutant. Or the bottle somehow gets lost along the way, washes down to the nearest shore, is carried by global currents until it finally reaches its destination at one of the world’s floating plastic gyros (your plastic bottle could kill a dolphin. Do you love dolphins? Then don’t litter bottles).
Food waste that goes to the landfill breaks down anaerobically and produces methane; methane is 21 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas. (Environmental Protection Agency)
Just a thought next time you decide to throw your half eaten leftovers in the trash can to smell up your kitchen. Think instead of composting it or tossing it in the woods, which if you were to cover the food with organic matter (such as leaves) you would essentially be composting it back into nature (covering it also helps prevent wild animals from thinking they are your new pet).
Bottled H20:
Here’s some facts I put together that I bet you didn’t know. I didn’t before this year.
^ The graph above I made for visual purposes for the information shown below.
Bottled water timeline:
1700s- The bottle water craze all began here. People went to spring houses that contained “spa water”. This water was captured and sold. It allegedly contained magical benefits to humans and could cure illnesses.
1800s- In the 1800s scientific evaluation proved that “spa water” was just regular water.
1900s- Most people around the world (who had access to clean water) received it from underground tanks and wells. When these people heard that others were bottling water to sell in other parts of the world, they thought it was crazy talk. Considering, they received their water for free as common property why should they have to pay for it.
1990s- By this time, bottled water had hit the global marketplace and could be found everywhere.
2009- In 2009, bottled water was being regulated nationally and internationally. Bottled water even had varieties to choose from: spring water, mineral water, purified water, and fortified products.
I bet that at least one person who reads this entry, truly believes bottled water is healthier or “less risky” than drinking out of the tap. That’s what I’m here for. Can you taste the sarcasm?
Facts:
Bottled water is regulated by FDA, which is known for finding loopholes to many policies they carry out. Thus, other fun products such as arsenic (toxic) has been found in bottled water. Bottled water is LESS regulated than tap. That’s right.
Tap water is regulated by the Federal Government through municipal water treatment facilities, which are HIGHLY regulated and heavily treated thanks to the Safe Drinking Water Act.
According to a 2009 case study by Paster, in 2007, “only 7% of the 30 million tons of plastic that entered the municipal solid waste stream” was recovered, as in recycled. (Robbins)
Most bottled water companies (including Dasani, Nestle, and Aquafina) merely bottle tap water. Sometimes they add sodium. This makes you thirstier and you buy more. Capitalists are smart cookies.
The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) found through their studies that in some cases, bottled water can actually be less safe than tap. (This is where the arsenic was found).
Water, like most natural free resources, turns privatized.
Therefore, buying bottled water is more so a matter of personal lifestyle choice rather than a safety protocol. In fact, in many cases drinking bottled water is actually worse for you than drinking straight out of your bathroom sink. Not only is bottled water less safe for you in some instances, but it is ALWAYS worse for the environment. It takes almost triple the amount of Petroleum needed for one bottle just to create the bottle itself. A whole lot of energy goes into the process. The life-cycle of a water bottle starts with the extraction of the resources (Petroleum) to make the product, the energy (C02) to create it (Polyethylene), additional resources (such as gas or diesel) to transport it, and only 10 minutes to drink it and throw it away. It’s a joke. Just buy one non-PCB reusable bottle and fill’er up. Don’t spend time and money to continue degrading time and money. Unless you’re in a foreign country... just don’t buy water bottles. It’s unethical.
The man, the myth, the legend... Aldo Leopold:
Aldo Leopold is my number one hero. Here’s why...
The following paragraphs are short snips from a paper I wrote last week comparing Aldo Leopold’s “The Land Ethic” and the geographer Paul Robbins’ book Environment and Society.
“On the exact day, January 11th, approximately one hundred and six years after the birth of Aldo Leopold, I came into this world naked and nameless—nature’s natural way. My mother was seventeen and I was born all naturally and unexpected. No chemicals or medications were exposed to her. She was a Green Peace advocate. As I grew up I lived in a way that most kids in today’s 21st century society would never understand for they’ve lost touch with nature. I lived in a tent for weeks at a time. At the age of four, I became friends with wildlife and I fished for the food that would be my dinner. We were very poor, but man was I rich.”
“When comparing decisions or perceptions that are looked at as right or wrong, too often are a dozen loopholes worked into the conversation. Both Aldo Leopold and Paul Robbins write of ways to respect nature, understand it, and address ethical stances from multiple viewpoints.” (Leopold = Ecocentric, Robbins = Anthropocentric).
“In “The Land Ethic” (an insert from his 1949 book, A Sand County Almanac), Leopold encourages a more ecocentric way of living harmoniously with nature. This kind of change, he insisted, is necessary and must be carried out on large-scale by every human for stability to remain intact.” -Agreed
“Aldo Leopold addresses in the last section of “The Land Ethic” how uninterested and unattached with nature mankind is becoming. He finds it unnerving that lifestyles have taken such a drastic turn towards “synthetic substitutes” and away from the hand (or land) that feeds us. (p. 224). This falls into Robbins concept of cultural theory. Then the multifaceted question arises, why do so many continue to ignorantly degrade and manipulate the land for the sole benefit of humans? (This is what I meant before by Anthropocene) The answer lies somewhere between “that’s what my daddy done” and “that’s what I was taught”. So bringing it all back together; what did I mean when I said I grew up poor, yet I was wealthy? It was not until society told me that I was poor that I became that. Although my family was not affluent by any fiscal means, I knew how to survive. I was Rich in knowledge, respect, and community involvement of “the land”; my childhood was ingrained with deep ecology.”
Deep Ecology- A philosophy of environmental ethics that distances itself from “shallow” or mainstream environmentalism by arguing for a “deeper” and supposedly more truly ecologically-informed view the world. (Paul Robbins)
“There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot.”
-Aldo Leopold
I cannot.
“Now we face the question whether a still higher 'standard of living' is worth its cost in things natural, wild, and free.” -Aldo Leopold
^ My favorite quote is not from Shakespeare, Hemingway, or Marilyn Monroe, but from an ecologist.
References:
Environment and Society By: Paul Robbins
EPA.gov
A Sand County Almanac “The Land Ethic” By: Aldo Leopold
https://www.worldwatch.org/brain/features/timeline/timeline.htm












