Essays on Environmental Ethics

The following sample essay on "How Does Location Affect the Number of Particles in the Air ": what is air, what is wind, and other facts about the atmosphere. Air is a very important thing on earth. Air density is 8 pounds per cubic foot or 1.3 kilograms per meter; air pressure is 14.7 pounds per square inch at sea level. At an altitude of 20,000 feet, the air pressure is 6.8 pounds per square inch. A person breathes about…...

In reference, to a High Country News article, when wildland fires loom, the masses look to planes and helicopters to extinguish the raging infernos. With Very Large Air Tankers (VLATs) dropping upwards of 12,000 gallons or more per trip, who doesn’t love seeing that glorious red retardant drench everything in its path below? It instills hope to those in peril. Political entities and news outlets clamor for more with every drop made. But are aerial retardant drops safe and effective…...

Many feminist and ecofeminist theorists have criticised the traditional and patriarchal approaches to animal ethics for overvaluing reason as a tool for moral decision making. Erin McKenna concludes in “Feminism and Vegetarianism: A Critique of Peter Singer” a major shift in “legitimizing feelings and desires” needs to happen for people to truly break their habits in regards to non-human animal treatment (McKenna 34). In this paper, I will examine the feature of an ecofeminist ethical framework that advocates for taking…...

The Land Ethic, Aldo Leopold discusses how humans should consider themselves as a part of a community; instead of viewing nature as property. This includes enlarging boundaries to add soils, water, plants, and animals to the community. In some cases, a weakness and a conservation system that is based on economic motive are excluded and have no economic value and have to show evidence to be economic to be valid. Many conservation systems are based around economic interest that eventually…...

There is a problem in Theravada Buddhism in Myanmar and environmental ethics of Konbaung dynasty. Despite expressing the historical background of that period by most scholars, there is rarely provide how Buddhism is related with environmental ethics. This problem has negatively affected the people and country because it is not completed in the historical field. A possible cause of this problem is that they are difficult to collect the data with original language. Perhaps a study which investigates Konbaung dynasty…...

Corporate Social Responsibility is making sure that a corporation conducts itself in an ethical way in regards to the community, economic, and environment it operates as well as human rights consideration. In this scenario, TechFite make a commitment to sponsor events within the community and show their support for programs designed for youths. They also make an investment towards Dellberg’s infrastructure. Ethical Desirability Company officials for TechFite should feel ethically motivated to work towards making improvements in the way the…...

The existence and progress of human world as well as the historical process of man and woman is mainly created by the public who are working with endeavor. So, the principle of human history is the people who are working. Past history is the lessons for present and present is for future ones. Without studying history, one cannot understand the real situation of country and people. History actually cannot give us a program for the future, but it can give…...

Dairy is a resource that is used by adults and children all over the world on a daily basis, but do u ever wonder where ur cold glass of milk that u drink every morning comes from? There are nearly 1.8 million dairy animals living within Canada, each creating around 8000 liters of milk every year. The life of a dairy cow isn’t easy, as they have to work extremely hard to supply so much milk. On best of that,…...

My Main Contributing Factors:My diet: I eat a lot of meat, including beef, poultry, and dairy products.My housing: While I am not living in a single home, my roommates do not take any measures necessary to cut down on their energy bills.I do not usually eat locally grown foods and most of my foods are packaged and processedI never take public transportation. I drive a lot due to my where I live as compared to my job, internship and school.I…...

Planting a garden seems like such a tedious task involving way too much work, but the confidence and sense of independence you gain is definitely worth the effort it takes. Not only does it reduce your carbon footprint because you aren’t using that energy to drive to the store for your produce, but it invites you to become environmentally aware. Growing your own food also releases the dependency you may have on other people to provide for you; you’re growing…...

The human species relies on many resources to ensure survival and to proceed with our daily lives. These resources that we use today can range from many things. For an example, crop fields in the United States will ensure that everyone single person in the U.S. is fed. Water, and ensure that no one dies of dehydration and also to water the crops. But what happens when these resources run out, we might soon find out.A method of living in…...

Environmental justice is something huge all throughout the world, and it has a significant impact on the environment and the citizens in the environment. Also, citizens in the environment are trying to fight for their rights and speak up. Taking the Hole Story, a documentary by Richard Desjardins into consideration, which talks about environmental justice and how mining companies impact the environment and the citizens in the environment. Also, how the mining companies release its chemicals and toxic minerals into…...

The world we live in today has many issues people are concerning themselves over. One of the biggest predicaments that happens to involve everyone is our environment, how we are manipulating it, and why. We are affecting ourselves in negative ways because of how we live and how we consume products and treat each other globally. If something is not done to change this soon, a disastrous future lies ahead for us. These are the main points heavily addressed in…...

The death of someone can be hard on a person, but the death of a tree can be hard on nature. The fight to not be cut down and left as stump is common in today's day and age.In a time of deforestation, “The Monster snaps his jaws” by Clarence John Laughlin, reveals a black and white contrasted photograph that exemplifies the destructive and dismissive attitudes taken by the contemporary American culture toward nature.With a black and white photo there…...

Eustace Conway is a man who was vehemently opposed to the materialistic life of humanity today. He wanted to escape from modern society to start a new life in the wilderness while living off the land. Most human beings in the late 20th and early 21st centuries see this lifestyle as foreign and undesirable. That is until 1978 when Eustace Conway began his new life: a life that was centered around nature and that is where my analysis begins. From…...

There are two ways to consider the impact of delving into Environmental History. We can mold a better and sustainable future while keeping the health of the environment in mind and we can acquire a better understanding of how society came to be through its dependence on the ecological services the environment provided. Although these are only two ways of perceiving the use of understanding environmental history, there are many perspectives as to why environmental history is important. The first…...

In today's U.S society, we have enough food to feed most. As a society we are not starving, or so it seems at the surface. There is food everywhere, and it is pretty mainstream that there is even an obesity epidemic in the country. If you want to eat anything at any time it is available to you, at the high hours of night or the earliest in the morning. McDonalds, jack in the box, Walmart, WinCo and other grocery…...

In the essay “The Good Oak” from A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold, a well-known writer and conservationist, writes about his sawing of a tree and his analysis of its rings which represent years. While it seems like this may be just a story of making wood and an overview of historical facts at first, the tone and order in which Leopold presents the events reveal an underlying purpose in his writing. Leopold’s intent in writing this essay is to…...

IntroductionThe Keystone pipeline project is one project which requires an intensive, in-depth analysis in order to make the right decision concerning its approval. The most important thing is to weigh between the options available by looking at the pros and cons associated with the project. The best way to arrive at a most appropriate decision will be the use of a PESTEL analysis which looks into political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal issues concerning the project. The following is…...

My first impression of Wendell Berrys book, The Unsettling of America; Culture & Agriculture was What could this possibly have to do with me? I first thought that Berry wanted us all to be farmers, but then I realized this book argues that the way our society behaves is directly related to the decline of small farms and the state of our ecological system. Berry wanted the people who read this book to realize they are responsible for the land…...

Gary Snyder's life has been a seemingly endless journey through various trails across the world and he has gathered many thoughts. His worldly underpinnings of anthropological, religious, and geologic studies lay the foundation for his writing, but his ability to write practically and passionately ignites the fluidity in his words. His writing provides a striking and brilliant expansion from the mystical saunterings of previous environmentalist writers. In the chapter On the Path, Off the Trail, Snyder discusses his vision of…...

Mining is one of the largest commercial jobs. The word mining doesn t sound very important to ordinary peoples who doesn t know geology. After I read this book, I knew our culture need industrial minerals more than they need anything else except food, but even food could not be produced without minerals. There are only a few of the world s five billion people who don t rely on mineral everyday. Unfortunately, there is many factors concerning these industrial…...

The article I read for this week is named In New Ozone Alert, A Warning of Harm to Plants and to People and is written by Jim Robbins. The article talks about the research conducted by a man named Jack Fisherman, a professor of meteorology at St. Louis university and a researcher of ground-level ozone at NASA. While at NASA, Fisherman started studying the effects of ground-level ozone on the health of humans and plants and has been warning people…...

In the article An Early Energy Crisis and Its Consequences, written by John U. Nef, it informs how Britain has adopted a new source of fuel, as the supply of wood ran out during the 16th century. But as there was an argument against switching the current fuel to coal due to the CO2 released by wood as it burns the equal amount taken up by the tree as it grows, meaning over the lifetime of the tree there is…...

Currently our world is plagued by the effects of our massive industry, with overseas exploitation, fueled by overconsumption causing an unsustainable environmental disaster. According to “The Story of Stuff", by Annie Leonard, In the past three decades, one-third of the planets natural resources have been consumed, in the US alone we have less than 4% of our original forests left. The US has 5% of the world's population but consumes 30% of the world's resources, and creates 30% of the…...

It has been 50 years since Rachael Carson's Silent Spring was first published in 1962. Kick starting the environmental movement, Silent Spring awoke a completely different approach to science, and today people worldwide sing Carson's praises. It was her unprecedented ability to "hit home” with readers that paved the way, as her content proved to be both practical and applicable. It was her figurative writing and literary flair that evoked one's protective emotions, causing Americans everywhere to question the use…...

While wading through the reserved reading in the library, I came across the article, "The Land Ethic", which caught my eye, as well as sparked an interest deep within me. It revealed the idea that we, as humans, tend to be quite caught up in the idea of community; community between neighbors, co-workers, etc. seems to be something we strive for in our society. It seems that we have not integrated the land into our idea of community, and I…...

The book Silent Spring, written by Rachel Carson, is considered to be the forefront of the modern day environmentalist movement. In the book, she highlights the many interactions between humans and the outside, natural world, and describes the consequences of these interactions. On page 51, she explains that "in nature, nothing exists alone.” This in and of itself describes her view of ecology. It reminds me of Newton's Third Law, where "every action has an equal and opposite reaction”. For…...

Everyone in life is able to hold their own personal views of the world. The book "A Sand Country Almanac" by Aldo Leopold holds a strong preservationist viewpoint. Leopold advocates the protection of natural areas, historical sites, and endangered species. This view is different from a conservationists'. A conservationist wants the world to be left alone and be the way it used to be years ago. My personal conservation ethic is ambivalent between the two. I believe that the world…...

From the first sentence, Why Bother by Michael Pollan has an emotional tone. Throughout the several reading analyses completed in this class, a common theme throughout is a strong introductory paragraph to grab the attention of the reader. This tactic is used to draw readers in, probably because the majority of these pieces were originally featured in magazines and newspaper so an attention grabber is necessary. Because this selection is modeled around a Toulmin style argument, there is once again a…...

Greenpeace is an environmental organization with 2.5 million supporters. It was founded in 1971. You may ask, Exactly what is greenpeace? Greenpeace is committed to protecting the global environment and it works in more than 30 countries. They are independent yet they do believe in working with industry, government, and organizations to find environmental solutions. They spend most of their time lobbying decision-makers, conducting scientific studies and researching international best practice to use in the local areas. They have been…...

Although Leopold's love of great expanses of wilderness is readily apparent, his book does not cry out in defense of particular tracts of land about to go under the axe or plow, but rather deals with the minutiae, the details, of often unnoticed plants and animals, all the little things that, in our ignorance, we have left out of our managed acreages but which must be present to add up to balanced ecosystems and a sense of quality and wholeness…...

Most pesticides are manufactured compounds that are designed to kill specific pests, such as weeds and insects. Many pesticides have the potential to harm non-target organisms, especially if the organisms are exposed to high levels or for a long period of time. In the early 1960s, Rachel Carson's widely publicized book "Silent Spring" described the ecological impacts of DDT and other pesticides. Concerns about the unintended effects of pesticides continue to this day, and evaluation of the risk to humans…...

In Thinking Like a Mountain, the author, Aldo Leopold, writes of the importance of wildlife preservation through examples of the symbiotic relationship of animals and plant-life with a mountain. He asks the reader to perceive the processes of a mountainous environment in an unusual way. Aldo Leopold wants the reader to "think” like a mountain instead of thinking of only the immediate, or as the hunter did. Taking away one feature of an ecosystem may eventually destroy everything else that…...

The world today has fallen victim to an illusion of the golden age, however given some time, our perception of the world will collapse. Our population is exponentially increasing but our resources are aggressively diminishing. How will we be able to provide for the world in the future when we are unable to provide for the world now? The documentary, A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash foretells a world without oil.  The documentary shows that once our oil reserves deplete,…...

In this essay, plastic and ways to make college campuses less plastic orientated are discussed. First off, college campuses bring in a lot of people to a town or city, therefore, creating more demand for plastic products. College campuses typically have fast food places, which students use and buy plastic products from which are typically thrown away. Today, Americans discard about 33.6 million tons of plastic each year; but only 6.5 percent of it is recycled and 7.7 percent is…...

                         There is a great urgency all over the world for engineers of the future to develop the world with great consideration of our planet’s carrying capacity. Being an engineering major I have a responsibility to contribute for the creation of not only a developed but a green and a healthy place to live in. The dependency of even the world’s largest economies like that of United States on non-renewable resources like oil and petroleum is alarming to say the…...

Our society and world runs on resources, especially of the nonrenewable variety. Each and every day throughout the world we have millions of cars running on fossil fuels, coal powering our electric grids, and precious stones such as diamonds being sold for thousands of dollars. While there's no doubt these resources contribute to our global economy, there are also some major externalities by extracting said resources. We can see the harmful effects of natural resource extraction through its' effect on…...

In discussing the ethical implications of human interactions with the environment, as well as production and marketing issues stemming from such activities, our group overwhelmingly recognized the importance of these topics in a context that considered the planet, and not simply humanity, as the quintessential stakeholder tied to the continued existence and prosperity of nature and its resources. Similarly, our group reasoned, for organizations in the here-and-now, managers must be cognizant of the ways in which their products are created…...

Edward O. Wilson is a Biologist and considered the world's leading authority on ants.However, in his book The Future of Life, we see that he is one of the world leading conservationists and a naturalist. This book is meant as a warning to the humans to stop destroying our world. If we don't clean up our act then a very bleak future might await us. Although Wilson doesn't go into the gruesome details of this future he explains that we…...