Ethics in ecology?

Question

can anyone help me with a great subject concerning ethics in environmental issues? thank u very much

Answer 1

Ethical dilemmas abound in environmental issues:

If a sufficient number of scientists want people to stop burning fossil fuels, is it OK to say Global Warming is real, and caused by human activity when they cannot prove that?

Is "Consensus Science" really science at all?

Is it OK for a starving man to kill the last breeding pair of an endangered species, to feed his family?

If not, why not?

Is it OK to clear-fell the Amazon rain forest, if the alternative is starvation for you and your children?

If CO2 makes plants grow faster, why is it bad to generate Carbon Dioxide? Should Greenies hold their breath until they are Carbon-neutral?

If the USA could reduce the global temperature by erecting a parasol in space to cut down the heat from the Sun, would it be right to lock the climate down to 1980 temperatures this way, or should we let the last Ice Age end as nature intended, with rising sea levels and warmer global temperatures as a result?

If species becoming extinct is a bad thing, would genetic engineering to breed extinct species like Dodos, Sabre-tooth Tigers and Mammoths be a good thing?

If NASA reports (as they have done) that Mars is experiencing global warming at approximately the same rate as Earth over the last 20 years, how can this be blamed on the Industrial Revolution on Earth? Could it be caused on both Planets by Solar flares? If you knew this second explanation to be true, would you be justified in pushing the "humans caused global warming" slogan, knowing it to be a lie, if you think it will lead to behaviour that is ethically better in your opinion?

Answer 2

one of the major ethical issue in ecology is the human biomonitoring. there a several journal published includes on the informing the subject due to the monitoring.

Answer 3

Here are a few approaches you could take that would investigate ethical issues in ecology - I apologise for answering with questions, but that is the essence of ethics;

- An environmental consultant is paid by their client for advice. An ethical consultant must act independently to present the facts and make an assessment and subsequent recommendations on the facts. Many times the occasion arises where payment by the client for the consultants services is not made because the consultant's advice is not the "right answer". The problem is obvious, if a consultant wishes to be paid they must please their client, if the client is displeased by unfavourable advice there may be an ethical dilemma on the part of the consultant in order to be paid;

- Translocation of species raises some ethical issues. For example, if a naturally rare species is gradually declining to extinction without human interference, the dilemma becomes whether to assist the species survive. Should we try to save all species or allow natural processes to continue where they are not significantly influenced by human activities?

- Translocation part 2. If a species that is being pushed to extinction by human activities can be saved by translocating it to another area, is it ethical to do so if its translocation will affect the distribution of a more common species in the new location?

- A person who enjoys recreational fishing (also an ecologist, for argument's sake) must purchase an annual fishing license in order to legally go fishing. Funds from the sale of licenses go to the stocking of freshwater streams with fish that includes both native and exotic species. In addition to the translocation dilemmas as above, how does the recreational fishing ecologist resolve this conflict of interests where by pursuing their recreational hobby they are furthering the degradation of riverine environments through the introduction of an exotic species, whether or not they choose to fish freshwater areas?

You can probably apply your question to almost any human activity that affects the environment with the underlying question, "just because we can do something, does it mean we should?". Environmental ethics are a subjective human value that vary with culture and education. What one culture accepts on the justification of tradition or other stated needs (eg. hunting cetateans), another might reject on the basis of ethics and other scientific information. But this is beginning to go beyind a "simple" question of ethics in ecology.

I hope this helps, good luck.