Gambella University

Faculty of Social Science and

Humanities
Department of Geoaphy and
Environmentalgr Studies
Course Title: Environmental Policy,
Ethics and Governance(GeES4014)
By Tikidam Oman (MA)
April, 2024,
Gambella University
 Environmental Policy, Ethics and
Governance(GeES4014)

UNIT ONE
1.Introduction to Environment
1.1.The Concept of Environment
LEARNNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this unit, you will be able to:
 Describe evolution of environmental issues,
 Identify environmental values,
 Compare and contrast advantages and disadvantages of
environmental values,
 Identify contemporary environmental issues,
 Explain effect of contemporary environmental issues,
 Discuss about global environmental problems
 1.1.The concept of Environment
• What does environment mean?
‘Environment’ refers to the surroundings or conditions
•

that a living organism (people, animals, plants) finds

themselves in.
• Our environments keep us alive. If our ecosystems were
damaged and unable to support us with healthy air, food
and water, we would struggle to survive.
• Environments have a significant impact on the survival of
those living within it.
• For example, if an environment is too hot or cold for an
animal, and relocation wasn’t possible, the animal
wouldn’t be able to survive. This simple principle applies
also to people, and plants.
 1.1.The concept of Environment
• There are three commonly described types of
environments; natural, constructed and managed.
• Natural environments refer to places that occur naturally,
without human interference.
• Some examples of natural environments include rivers,
mountains, forests and beaches.
• Features of these environments are also developed
naturally, such as soil, vegetation and rocks.
• Naturally occurring eco – systems also fall into this
category, and can be further classified as being either
terrestrial or aquatic. Aquatic ecosystems refer to the
ocean, rivers and lakes (both saltwater and freshwater),
whereas terrestrial ecosystems refer to tundra, forests,
grasslands and deserts
1.1.The concept of Environment
• Constructed environments are man – made,
meaning they are created by humans.
• These are environments that couldn’t occur
naturally and are usually constructed to make
people’s lives easier.
• Some examples of constructed environments
are bridges, roads, houses, schools and train
stations. These kinds of environments are
usually built from constructed features, such as
walkways and fences, but can also include
some natural features such as grass and trees.
1.1.The concept of Environment...
• Managed environments include naturally
occurring features such as trees, grass
and water, but have also been managed
by humans.
• An example of managed environments
include gardens , farms and park
• The terms “ecosystem” and
“surroundings” are the common
synonyms for the word “environment”.
 Cont...
• However, they differ in such a way that the
term “ecosystem” includes the interaction
between the organism and its surroundings.
• The surroundings, in turn, refer to that which
ambiances an organism or a population.
• In this regard, the environment is a rather
vast concept whereas the term “surrounding”
is relatively more specific. Another related
term is nature
 Cont...
• What’s the difference between environment and
nature?
• Similarly, the definition of nature includes all living and
nonliving things on Earth but what characterizes
nature is that it is a natural entity as opposed to the
artificial that implicates an attribute that is not occurring
naturally, and by that it is man – made or “built”.
• Environment is a system that can be created and
recreated either naturally or anthropogenic ally. The
natural environment encompasses biotic and abiotic
elements (flora and fauna) as anthropogenic includes
cultural land scape.
1.2. The Essential Functions of the
Environment
• The essential functions of the environment
are stated below
• Environment support life; the
environment provides services that sustain
life but does not involve human action.
Some of them are climatic stability,
protection from ultra-violet rays, and
ecological diversity. It enhances and
Upgrades the Quality of living.
Cont...
• Environment Produces Resources for
Utilization; all natural resources, like renewable
and non-renewable energy sources, are
produced by the environment. Most of them are
essential for living.
• Organisms use both biotic and abiotic sources.
Vegetation and animal products are obtained
from plants and creatures. Fossils fuel is
generated from the dead and decaying matter of
organic substances. Other constituents of the
ecosystem, including freshwater, wind, and
metals, are provided by the environment.
Cont...
• Environment provides services in almost
all spheres of the earth’s surface. This
ranges from terrestrial via ecosystem to
atmospheric services.
 1.3. Environmental issues
• Environmental issues any such issues created by due to
human activities and causes harm to the environment.
They are any harmful effects of human activities on the
biophysical environment.
• They relate to the anthropocentric effects on the natural
environment, which are loosely divided in to CAUSES,
EFFECTS AND MITIGATION, nothing that effects are
interconnected and can cause new effects.
• They are interconnected that means one issue accelerate
the other.
• Example: Water pollution accelerate the rate of air
Cont...

• Causes of Environmental issues

 Human population----urbanization, conflict, waste product…
etc.
 Hydrological issues---flood, landslide…etc.
 Nuclear issues---nuclear weapons…etc.
 Land use issues---desertification, land degradation,
deforestation…etc.
 Intensive farming---overgrazing, irrigation, pesticides…etc.
 Climate change----global warming, fossil fuels, greenhouse
gasses…
Cont...
• Effects of Environmental issues
 Environmental degradation-deterioration of the
environment through depletion of resources such as
air, water and soil, and distinctions of ecosystem and
extinction of wildlife
 Environmental health—air quality
 Pollution—air, water, soil, nose and light pollution
 Resource depletion
 Wastes--- waste disposal incidences, toxic substances
Cont...

• Mitigation of environmental issues

 Curbing global warming

 Afforestation

 Preventing pollution

 Practice organic farming

 Implementing and practicing REDUCE, REUSE,

RECYCLE, RECOVERY and LANDFILL
• REDUCE: Lowering the amount of waste
products
• REUSE: using materials repeatedly

• RECYCLE: using materials to make new

products
• RECOVERY: recovering energy from waste

• LANDFILL: safe disposal of waste to landfill

Cont...

• Mitigation strategies
• A. Action to be taken by people on their own
• B. Action taken by people with assistance from
government and non-governmental agencies
• C. Action to taken by government alone.
1.4.Evolution of Environmental Issues

• Over the last fifty years, international law and

policy on environmental protection has
evolved in several main phases, each
representing a fundamental trend.
• In the first phase; starting with the 1972
Stockholm Declaration, there has been a
gradual development of a body of
international law on environmental protection,
with the adoption of a large number of
conventions and soft – law instruments.
Cont...
• The second phase is characterized by
the recognition that environmental
problems are not only a question of
accommodation within the bilateral
relations between states, but involve also
obligations towards the international
community as a whole, and that common
spaces – such as oceans or the outer
space – need to be protected as global
public goods
Cont...
• The third phase; development of general
principles of customary international law
by way of judicial and arbitral practice, and
by their incorporation in domestic law and
in the institutional law of regional
groupings prevailed.
Cont...
• The fourth phase can be distinguished, in
which environmental protection is
increasingly seen as a cross – cutting
dimension of many areas of international
law, such as trade, investment and
human rights, rather than a distinct
branch of international law
1.5. Environmental Values
• Values are desirable goals, varying in
importance that serve as guiding principles
in people’s lives.
• Values determine what people attend to,
what knowledge becomes cognitively most
accessible, how people evaluate various
aspects of the situation, and what
alternatives are being considered, which in
turn affects actual behavior.
Cont...
• Values function as criteria or frameworks
against which present experience can be
tested.
• In the environmental domain, values placed
on different targets (e.g., the self, people in
general, or the biosphere) direct attention
toward value-congruent information, which in
turn affects beliefs, attitudes, preferences,
and norms related to environmental
behavior, and willingness to support
environmental protection
 1.6. Contemporary Environmental Issues
• Contemporary environmental issues focus on
interactions among major components raised in
environmental agenda like;
 Economic and System Influence ---- resources &
their ways of distribution.
 Influence from Population and Society……No of
population & societal views.
 Influence from Cultural Tradition and Ethnic
Consciousness
 Influence from Alienation of Science and
Technology…link between Science and Technology
 1.7. Global Environmental Problems
• Variety of environmental problems affect our entire
world. As globalization continuous and the earth’s
natural process transform, local problems in to
international issues, few societies are being left
untouched by major environmental problems. The
following are some of the major environmental
problems globally:
 Climate change
 Deforestation and desertification
 Land, atmosphere and ocean pollution
Cont...

 Overpopulation
 Accelerating trends of urbanization
 Ozone depletion
 Water scarcity (freshwater)
 Reduction of biodiversity
 Scarcity of natural resources and energy
 Depletion of biological resources
 Residue production
 UNIT TWO
2.Introduction to Environmental Policy
• Learning outcomes
• At the end of this unit, you will be able to:
 Define environmental policy.
 Explain through which environmental policies
evolved.
 Describe environmental policy frameworks.
 Distinguish and interpret models of environmental
process.
 Elaborate the approaches to environmental policy.
 Identify Policy Actors and Environmental Policy
Analysis techniques.
 2.1. The meaning of environmental
policy
• What is Environmental Policy?
 The answers vary. Some argue that any action
deliberately taken by government as the only
actor for ensuring that man – made changes
have no harmful effects on the environment.
  a set of principles and intentions used to guide
decision making about human management of
environmental capital and environmental services
  A means for ensuring environmental quality or
natural resource use.
Cont...
• Sector policies are designed to minimize the
negative environmental impacts associated
with development . For example in the 1960s
and early 1970s, a number of environmental
crises forced the implementation of mandatory
standards, requirements, and limits.
• 1970s, environmental policy was mostly
restricted to promoting end-of – pipe or end –
of – smokestack solutions, bolting
environmental controls onto existing industrial
plant.
 2.2.Types of Policies

• There are several types of polcies that desgined by

many scholars to study in the world
• 1. Regulatory policies
- policies specifying conditions and constraints
for individual or collective behavior
eg. Environmental protection; migration policy;
consumer protection
• 2. Distributive policies
- Policies distributing new resources
Eg. Agriculture; social issues; public works;
subsidies; taxes
Cont...
• 3. Redistributive policies
- Policies modifying the distribution of
existing resources
• Eg. Land reform; progressive taxation;
welfare policy
• 4. Constituent policies
- Policies creating or modifying the states’
institutions
Eg. Changes of procedural rules of parliament
 2.3.Approaches to Environmental
Policy
• Specifically, there are four general approaches to
environmental policy making
• 1. Command and control regulations
• A type of environmental regulation that allows policy
makers to specifically regulate both the amount and
the process by which a firm should maintain the
quality of the environment.
• It is policy that directly regulate polluters with
rules and standards-no incentives.
 Cont...
• It is policy that prescribes how much pollution an
individual source or plant is allowed to emit and/ or
what types of control equipment it must use to meet
such requirements. Such a standard is often defined
in terms of a source-level emissions rate.
• 2. Market –based incentives
• Market-based approaches (Payment for
environmental services) to environmental protection.
• A policy that encourages conservation practice and
pollution abatement through incentives.
• Market-oriented approaches (or market-based
approaches) create an incentive for the private
sector to incorporate pollution abatement into
Cont...
• 3. Hybrid approach
• These approaches combine aspects of
command-and-control and market-
based incentive policies. As such, they
do not always present the most
economically efficient approach. Either the
level of abatement or the cost of the policy
is likely to be greater than what would be
achieved through the use of a pure market-
based incentive approach
 Cont...

• 4. Voluntary initiatives
• It includes agreements on environmental
performance negotiated with industry and public
programs in which firms can volunteer to
participate and they are increasingly popular in a
number of countries
• Environmental Policy Approaches (EPA) has
pursued a number of non-regulatory approaches
that rely on voluntary initiatives to achieve
emissions reductions and improve management of
environmental hazards
Cont...
• In general, market-based incentives and
hybrid approaches offer the regulated
community an opportunity to meet
standards with increased flexibility and
lower costs compared to many
command-and-control regulations, while
voluntary initiatives may allow
environmental improvements in areas not
traditionally regulated by EPA
(Environmental Policy Approaches)
Cont...
• In determining the effectiveness of a policy
approach, policy makers should consider the
following factors and questions:
• Environmental Effectiveness: Does the
policy instrument accomplish a measurable
environmental goal? Does the policy
instrument result in general environmental
improvements or emission reductions? Does
the approach induce firms to reduce emissions
by greater amounts than they would have in
the absence of the policy?
Cont...
• Economic Efficiency: How closely does the
approach approximate the most efficient
outcome? Does the policy instrument reach the
environmental goal at the lowest possible cost to
firms and consumers?
• Reductions in Administrative, Monitoring,
and Enforcement Costs: Does the government
benefit from reductions in costs? How large are
these cost savings compared to those afforded
by other forms of regulation?
Cont...
• Environmental Awareness and Attitudinal
Changes: In the course of meeting particular goals,
are firms educating themselves on the nature of the
environmental problem and ways in which it can be
mitigated? Does the promotion of firm participation
or compliance affect consumers’ environmental
awareness or priorities and result in a demand for
greater emissions reductions?
• Inducement of Innovation: Does the policy
instrument lead to innovation in abatement
techniques that decrease the cost of compliance
with environmental regulations over time?
 2.4. Policy Actors and Environmental
Policy Analysis
• Environmental issues are growing in visibility in local,
national, and world areas, as a numerous of human
activities leads to increased impacts on the natural world.
Climate change, endangered species, wilderness
protection, and energy use are regularly raised
environmental issues
• Environmental policy analysis
• It is intended to present the environmental and social
impacts of policies, in the hope that better decisions will
result when people have better information on which to base
those decisions. Its conducting requires people who
understand what it is and how to do it. Interpreting it also
requires those skills. The challenges of managing natural
resources and environmental quality are well-recognized and
becoming increasingly important.
 UNIT THREE
3. GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE AND
GOVERNANCE PRINCIPLES

• Learning outcomes
• At the end of this unit, you will be able to:
 Define environmental governance.
 Explain how global environmental governance
emerged.
 Identify Approach to Global Environmental
Governance.
 Describe types of Environmental Policy Instruments
(EPI).
 Distinguish Environmental Governance Principles.
 Examine environmental conferences and key reports
3.1. Definition and concepts
• Governance is a means of achieving and
sustaining change, but it can also be an
obstacle to change in society and in
governance itself.
• Environmental Governance is a concept
of Environmental policy or environmental
politics that helps to manage political,
social and economic aspects of human
activities by focusing on sustainable
development.
Cont...
• Global Environmental
Governance(GEG) is the sum of
organizations, policy instruments,
financing mechanisms, rules, procedures
and norms that regulate the processes of
global environmental protection.”
• The end goal of global environmental
governance is to improve the state of the
environment
 3.2. Elements of Environmental Governance

• Some of the essential elements of environmental

governance are enumerated as below:
 Participation of all stakeholders at different levels in
the decision-making to implement the decisions.
 The country and the state laws and policies reflect
the needs of both the development and
conservation.
 To give required recognition to the private sector
which plays an important role in the environment and
supports the public good by finding a way in between
private gain and social development.
3.3. Key principles of environmental governance

 Environmental governance is based on

some of the key principles that include:
Preventative action is to prevent
environmental damage in the first place
instead of restoring the damage later on.
Sustainable development management
framework to ensure close inspection to the
environmental trends which should be within
sustainable limits and for long-term to
mitigate adhocism in case of hazards.
Cont...
Economic efficiency to include services
of environmental resources by attaching
economic value to the environmental
resources.
Equity refers to the participation of the
relevant stakeholders in the decision-
making processes in matters related to the
use of environmental resources.
 3.4. Challenges facing environmental governance

The Challenges facing environmental governance include:

Inadequate continental and global agreements
Lack of cooperation and coordination among international
organizations;
Lack of integration of sector policies
 Lack of implementation, enforcement and effectiveness
in GEG;
 Inefficient use of resources;
Inadequate institutional capacities
GEG outside the environmental arena; and
 Non – state actors in a state-centric system
3.5. Why International Cooperation on Environmental Issues?

• Most environmental issues are of a trans-

boundary nature and many have a global
scope.
• They can only be addressed effectively
through international cooperation.
• International Environmental Governance
describes the interplay of global and regional
environmental agreements, decisions,
policies, institutions and processes that
regulate environmental protection.
 Cont...

• Environmental issues have become increasingly

important in the globalized and industrialized world
which makes International Environmental Governance
necessary.
• States have an interest in cooperation, because:
 a) the international community’s avail is guaranteed
when environmental sustainability can be ensured;
 b) some issues concern the international community
and can only be confronted in cooperation (e.g.
ozone depletion, climate change);
 c) States often benefit directly from regulation.
3.6. Approaches of environmental governance

• Governance approaches to environmental

policy can be target-orientated,
integrated, cooperative or participatory
1. Target-oriented/Strategic approach:
Consensual, broad-based target and
strategy formulation with a long-term
horizon.
To be effective, target-oriented
approaches to environmental governance
should build upon stakeholder interests
Cont...
• Integration: Integration of environmental
concerns, and in particular environment and
development, into other policy areas and sectors
• Participation: Widespread participation by
NGOs and citizens
• Cooperation: Cooperation between state and
private-sector actors in environment-related
decision-making and enforcement processes
• Monitoring: Success monitoring with a
diverse range of reporting obligations and
indicators
 3.7. International regimes &
organizations of environmental
governance

• The term ‘international organization’

refers to intergovernmental organizations
(IGOs). They are increasingly accepted as
subjects of international law.
Intergovernmental organizations are
established by international agreements
between States.
Cont...
• Some of the major actors/ International
institutions/ for environmental
governance were:
United Nations Environment
Program(UNEP)
Global Environment Facility (GEF)
United Nations Commission on
Sustainable Development (CSD)
 UNIT FOUR
4.Environmental Ethics
• 4.1. Meaning of environmental Ethics
• What is environmental ethics?
• Ethics generally focus on what is good or
bad, right or wrong, or moral principles.
• Environmental ethics is a branch of ethics
that studies the relationship between human
beings and the natural environment.
• Environmental ethics believes that humans
are a part of society as well as other living
creatures, which include plants and animals
 Cont...
• Environmental ethics is a philosophical domain
concerned with human interaction with nature
and the morally right ways of behaving toward
and thinking about nature. There are many
ethical decisions that human beings make with
respect to the environment.
• For example,
 Should we continue to clear cut forests for the
sake of human consumption?
 Should we continue to make gasoline powered
vehicles? What environmental obligations do we
need to keep for future generation?

Cont...
• Is it right to human to cause the extinction
of species for convenience humanity?
• Environmental ethics examines the moral
basis of environmental responsibility.
• Thus the goal of environmental ethics
focuses on moral foundation of
environmental responsibility
 4.2 Distinctive features of environmental ethics

1. Environmental ethics is extended.

 Environmental ethics extends the scope of ethical concerns
beyond one’s community and nation to include not only all
people everywhere, but also animals and the whole of nature,
the biosphere, both now and future to include future
generations.
2. Environmental ethics is interdisciplinary.
 environmental ethics, environmental politics, environmental
economics, environmental sciences and environmental
literature, for example.
The distinctive perspectives and methodologies of these
disciplines
environmental ethics offers value foundations for these
Cont...
 3. Environmental ethics is plural.
 environmental ethics has been an area in which different ideas and
perspectives compete with each other.
 Anthropocentrism, animal liberation/rights theory, biocentrism and eco-
centrism all provide unique and in some sense, reasonable ethical
justifications for environmental protection.
 Their approaches are different, but their goals are by and large the same and
they have reached this consensus: it is everyone’s duty to protect the
environment.
 The pluralism of theories and multicultural perspectives is critical for
environmental ethics to retain its vitality.
 4. Environmental ethics is global.
 Ecological crisis is a global issue.
 Environmental pollution does not respect national boundaries.
 To cope with the global environmental crisis, human beings must reach
some consensus and cooperate with each other at the personal, national,
regional, multinational and global levels.
Cont...
 5. Environmental ethics is revolutionary.
 At the practical level, environmental ethics forcefully critiques the
materialism, hedonism and consumerism accompanying modern
capitalism, and calls instead for a ‘green lifestyle’ that is harmonious
with nature.
 It searches for an economic arrangement that is sensitive to Earth’s
limits and to concerns for quality of life.
 In the political arena, it advocates a more equitable international
economic and political order that is based on the principles of
democracy, global justice and universal human rights
 environmental ethics is the fullest extension of human ethics.
 It calls on us to think and act locally as well as globally.
 It calls for a new, deeper moral consciousness.
 4.3. Ethical principles, theories and frameworks

• 4.3.1. Environmental Ethics principles

 We should have profound respect for nature
 We must maintain a harmonious relation with other
species
 Everyone should take responsibility for his impact on
nature
 Local and indigenous environmental knowledge
should be respected
 We must plan for the long term
 4.3.2. Theories/types/values/ of
environmental ethics
• There are three major theories of moral responsibilities
1. Anthropocentric (Human-centered)
• It is the view that all environmental responsibilities are derived
from human interest alone.
• It claims that we possess obligations to respect the environment
for the sake of human well-being and prosperity. •
• For example: – Pollution diminishes our health – Resource
depletion threatens our standard of living – The reduction of
biodiversity results in the loss of potential medicine
• All the above issues are related with environmental problems
which affect human beings even though other organisms are also
affected by these problems
Cont...
2. Bio-centric (life-centered)
Attention is concentrated on the need to maintain the
greatest possible biodiversity as this is believed to allow
maximum stability within the ecosystem.
Bio-centric Equality: the right of all organisms to achieve
self-realization (live up to their full ecological and
evolutionary potential).
All members of biotic community, including humans, are
called “plain citizens”).
Each species has an (intrinsic) right to exist; value for its
own sake.
Ethical arguments can complement economic and
biological arguments for protecting biodiversity.
Cont...
3. Eco-centric theory
 It suggests on ecological principles in which the
individual species subordinate to much larger processes at
work in the world biome.
killing individual plants or animal causes few problems
for the ecosystem.
In regard to incentives, it is difficult to determine the
“right price” to facilitate behavior change on things such
as clean air, those things not traded in market.
The key to behavioral change is the immediate context of
behavior, not deeper values.
 4.4.Environmental attitudes
 Environmental attitudes can broadly be categorized into three positions:-
1. The development ethic
 Human race is a master of nature & the resources of Earth exist mainly for human benefit.
Humans through hard work & technological improvements can overcome any limitations of
natural resources.
2. The preservation ethic
 Nature has an intrinsic value and deserves protection. All life forms have equal rights to
humans. Some believed to keep large parts of nature intact for aesthetic or recreational
reasons.
3. The conservation ethic
 Recognizes the limitations of natural resources on Earth and states that unlimited economic
or population growth is not feasible
 It seeks balance between the availability and utilization of natural resources.
 Many of the ideas in this approach have been incorporated into an approach known as
sustainable development.
 These views dictate the behavior of corporations, governments, and even individuals and the
solution to any environmental issues will first require an acknowledgement and some
consensus of attitudes.
Cont...
 In post 1970’s, human attitudes to the environment have changed and have
generally become far more diverse in their outlook.
 At least ten different ways of ‘thinking about’ the environment can be
identified. These are:
 Radical- All living things have rights.
 Emotional- the need to take care of (protect) plants and animals
 Religious- Considers the environment as part of individual existence
 Feminist- the domination of nature by men is wrong. Humans could
reconceive themselves to nature in a non-dominant way.
 Political-Local, national or international perspectives predominate the
environment
 Scientific- interest in environment is to see how things ‘work’
 Vested interest- Economic assets determine the outlook of the environment
 Utilitarian- Considers the environment as resource asset
 Humanist- The environment has been established for human benefits
 ‘Blue sky technologies’- No limit to our capabilities of discovering new
technologies
Cont...
• Naturalist philosophers and environmental conservation idea
Naturalism
Naturalism is a philosophical doctrine.
Nature is a self-sufficient entity, governed by its own laws.
It does not believe in spiritualism. It denies the existence of
a spiritual universe(universe of ideas & values).
Accly, the material world is the only real world. It is the
only reality. This material world is being governed by a
system of natural laws and the man.
For them, nature is everything. It is the whole reality. It
denies the existence of anything beyond nature.
Everything comes from nature and returns to nature.
 Cont...
• Naturalist philosophers and environmental conservation idea
Encerson (1936) in his publication entitled ‘nature’ said that
behind nature, throughout nature, spirit is present.
 danger of commerce in the natural environment.
 invasion of nature by trade with its money, credit, rail and road
 upset the balance of man and nature.
Henry (1861) wrote a book entitled ‘essential facts of life’
 “most men do not care for nature and would sell their share in
all her beauty as long as their lives.
Rachel Carson (1962) published ‘silent spring’
 potential danger of pesticides to food, wild life and humans.
 the effect of contamination of the ecosystem with different
 4.5.TYPES OF ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS
1.Corporate environmental ethics
Corporations are legal entities designed to operate at a profit
which is not in itself harmful.
within a corporation either in production quality or waste
disposal to maximize profit.
pollution is unethical and immoral, but to the corporation, it is
just one of the factors that determine profitability .
Corporations often make decisions based on short-term
profitability rather than long-term benefit to the environment.
Reduction in cost increases the profitability of the corporation.
 Business decisions and technological development have
increased the intensity of exploitation of natural resources.
practicing environmental ethics should be integrated with
corporate , economics and other social responsibilities.
 4.5.TYPES OF ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS...
2.Individual environmental ethics
We have to recognize that each of us, individually are
responsible for the quality of the environment we live in
and our personal actions affect environmental quality, for
better or worse.
many individuals want the environment to be cleaned up, but
they do not want to make major lifestyle changes to make the
environment to be clean.
Decisions and actions by individuals faced with ethical
choices collectively determine the hopes and quality of life
for everyone.
 4.5.TYPES OF ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS...

3.Population Environmental ethics

• Population naturally tends to grow”
geometrically”, or as we would now say
exponentially. Food production increases
arithmetically, limited by land and diminishing
returns.
Available resource to the human population is
finite.
A finite world can support only a finite
population.
Population growth must eventually be managed.
4.5.TYPES OF ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS...

4.Societal Environmental Ethics

Society is composed of a great variety of people with
differing viewpoints.
The collective attitude of the society can also be analyzed
from an ethical point of view.
Many poor societies have too little, but a rich society
never says,” Halt! we have enough.”
Mahatma Gandhi said,” the earth provides enough to
satisfy every person’s need, but not every person’s
greed.”
 4.5.TYPES OF ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS...
5.Global environmental ethics
The world community is now agreeing that the environment
has to become a matter of global priority and action.”
Despite their political differences, the Arab, Israel, Soviet
and America environmental professionals have been working
for several years
acid rain has been the major irritant in relation between the
United States and Canada.
• Drought in Africa & deforestation in Haiti resulted in
refugees
• Industrialized countries contain only 23% of the world
population, yet they control 80% of the world’s good and are
also responsible for a majority of its pollution.

4.5.TYPES OF ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS...

6.Pollution Environmental Ethics

Pollution is not a question of taking something out but
putting something in including sewage, chemicals,
radioactive elements and heat wastes into the water,
toxic and dangerous fumes into the air.
 Based on the calculations of utility, the rational man finds
that his share of the cost of wastes he discharges is less
than the cost of purifying his wastes before releasing
them.
 The ancient civilization had imposed self-made
restrictions to avoid forms of pollution, pollution, through
religious and other means,
 The major global environmental problems have to be addressed by
environmental ethics are: Ozone depletion, Climate change in
4.6.ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS GUIDELINES

Ten Commandments as the ethical guidelines, and are

known as the Earth or Environmental ethics:
1. Humans should have and respect the earth, since it has
blessed them with life and governs their survival.
2. Humans should not hold themselves above other things,
and have no right to derive them to extinction.
3. Humans should be grateful to the plants and animals
which provide food for human nourishment and
development.
4. Man should keep each day sacred to earth and celebrate
the turning of its seasons.
5. Humans should limit their offspring, because too many
people will over-burden the earth.
ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS GUIDELINES...

6. Man should not waste resources on destructive weapons

and act
7. Humans should limit the use of a resource up to the
regeneration capacity
8. Man should not run after gains at the cost of nature,
rather should strive to restore its damaged majesty.
9. People should not conceal/hide from others the adverse
impacts caused by them to the earth or the incite by their
actions.
10. People should not snatch away from their future
generations their right to line on a clean and safe planet,
by causing environmental pollution.
University ‘s campus Environment
beautification
 “Let’s protect our environment”
“Let’s make our environment to be
greenery /beautification”

Thank you.