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Environmental Ethics and the Global Environmental Problems: An Analysis

Article in International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research · April 2024

DOI: 10.36948/ijfmr.2023.v05i05.7114

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 International Journal for Multidisciplinary Research (IJFMR)
E-ISSN: 2582-2160 ● Website: www.ijfmr.com ● Email: [email protected]

Environmental Ethics and the Global

Environmental Problems: An Analysis
Dr. Amit Kumar Sharma

Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, DDU Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur.

Historical Background: Morality is a set of values and principles that guide an individual behaviour
and decisions. Moral codes are often complex. It is a code of conduct that is commonly accepted in a
particular society and culture. Morality refers to the concept of human ethics which concerns to matters
of good and evil, often referred to as “right or wrong”, used in three contexts – Individual Ethics,
Systems of Principles, and Judgments. These three collectively called moral values. Morality is a
collection of beliefs as to what constitutes a good life. Morals reflect a cultural predominant feeling on
ethical issues. Most of the cultures have high esteem for life and hold that all individuals have a right to
live. Morals differ from ethics because morals reflect the predominant feeling of culture.
Environmental Reflection on human relations with the non-human world is not new. It is as old as
human society itself. Concerns about the environmental effect of human practices and human treatment
of John Muir (1838-1914) are both still influential in Environmental Ethics; and Aldo Leopold’s, A Sand
Country Almanac, a seminal work in the field with its essay on the Land Ethic, was published in 1949.
Environmental ethics is theory and practice about appropriate concern for, values in, and duties
regarding the natural world. By classical accounts, ethics is people relating to people in justice and love.
Environmental ethics starts with human concerns for a quality environment.
Environmental ethics has changed during the early 1970’s when environmentalist started pray
philosophers to consider the philosophical aspects of environmental problems. Environmental ethics
consider the ethical relationship between human beings and non-human world. It asks about the moral
relationship between humans and the world in contrast to traditional ethics, which concerns with
relationship among the people only.
Environmental ethics focuses on the philosophy of identification of human ego with nature.
Environmental ethics expands the foundation of ethics to include the nature and considers it's
sustainability to ensure human beings.
The four most critical issues that humans currently face are peace, population, development and
environment. All issues are interrelated. Human desires for maximum development drive population
increases, which increase rapidly exploitation of the environment and fuel the forces of war. Those who
exploit persons will typically exploit nature as readily -animals, plants, species, ecosystems and the
Earth itself. Eco-feminists have found this to be especially true where both women and nature are
together exploited. The interests of environmental ethics done from perspectives of political ecology,
sustainable development, bio-regionalism, eco-justice, an ethics of stewardship, or human virtues in
caring, or a sense of places. All these tend to be humanistic and to recognize that nature and culture have
interlinked destinies.
Climate Change, Global Warming, Acid Rain and Ozone Depletion etc. violate several human rights i.e.
including the right to live, health, food, water and shelter. Climate Change exacerbates existing

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inequalities and disproportionally affects vulnerable population such as low income communities,
indigenous people and small island developing states.
The Present Paper describes The Environmental Ethics and The Global Environmental Problems:
An Analysis. The paper is divided into Five Sections. Section I deals with The Needs of Environmental
Ethics and Ethical guidelines to Work With Earth; Section II explains The Different Views on
Environmental Ethics; Section III discusses The Importance and Principles of Environmental Ethics;
Section IV discusses The Global Environmental Problems and Environmental Ethics; Section In the
last, Section V provides Conclusion along with Suggestions and Ways Forward.

Objectives:
• To study the need of Environmental Ethics and Ethical guidelines to work with Earth.
• To study the different views and importance of Environmental Ethics.
• To study the inter-relationship between Environmental Ethics and Global Environmental Problems.
• To study the Ethical Solution for Global Environmental Problems.
• To study the Man’s right and Environmental disruptions.

Data Source and Methodology: Present study is exploratory in nature and based on secondary data
which is taken from various national and international sources. Research Studies, Articles, Books,
Reports and Definitions by Philosophical Institutions, Government Websites, and Journals are the major
sources to obtain in this background. Literature Review: Some important Literature Reviews are given
below;
• According to the IPCC (2007), “Climate Change, over the next century, is likely to adversely affect
hundreds of millions of people through increased coastal flooding, reductions in water supplies,
increased malnutrition and increased health impacts and these adverse effects include forced
migration, sickness, injury and death”.
• According to the IPCC, “The higher the temperature, the worse the problem “As global average
temperature increases exceeds about 3.50c, model projections suggest significant extinctions (40 to
70% of species assessed) around the globe”.
• According to Bell (2012), “For seeing the resurgence of cholera in Latin America in 1991 and the
pneumonic plague in India in 1994 and Hantavirus in the southwest of the U.S in 1994, Scientists are
wondering if Global Warming is a factor in the resurgence of about 10 diseases in the 1990s”.
• According to Devall & Sessions (1985), “Deep ecologists argue that all things living and non-living
have intrinsic values, therefore they have rights”.
• The U. S. based Theologian and Environmental Philosopher Holmes Rolsten III (1975) argued that
Species protection is the moral duty of our whole society.
• For The Animal Right’s Tom Regan (1983) argued that those Animals with intrinsic value (Inherent
Value) have the moral right to respectful treatment.
• According to Commest (2010), “The problem like Global Warming, Ozone Depletion and Disposal of
Hazardous Waste that concern the whole world and talk about international cooperation must be
tackles at global levels”.

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Section (I)
Need of Environmental Ethics for The Global Environmental Problems: The modern technological
civilization has been affecting the nature greatly, therefore, it has to be analyzed the ethical
consequences of human actions. Until a few decades back, only a small section of people realized that
human’s activities could be changing the global environment. Now, the modern science demonstrates
how humans have changed and are changing the global environment in ways not previously understood.
For example, it has been proved that burning of fossil fuels and deforestation have increased the carbon
dioxide (CO2) concentration in the atmosphere, and that this may lead to irreversible changes in global
climate. We can say that new knowledge and better understanding of nature is raising new ethical issues.
Perhaps the most important question in environmental ethics is whether moral extensions confines non-
humans. Does nature have rights? Do other species have rights as well? Are they (other species) moral
agents or at least moral subjects? Do we have a moral obligation to leave the environment in good
conditioner our humans have liberty to use environmental resources to the point of depletion within life
time? These expanded concerns lead to a need of environmental ethics. Environmental ethics try to
define the moral basis of environmental responsibility. So, we can say that environmental issues require
a consideration of ethics and morals.

Ethical Guidelines to Work with Earth: Various ethicists and philosophers proposed the following
ethical guidelines to work with the earth which is given below.

Ecosphere and Ecosystems:

• We should not deplete or degrade the earth’s physical, chemical or biological capital, which supports
all life and all human economic activities.
• We should try to understand and cooperate with The Nature.
• We should work with The Nature to sustain the ecological integrity, biodiversity and adaptability of
the earth’s life support systems.
• When we alter nature to meet our needs, we should choose methods that do the least possible harm
to us and other living things.
• We should carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to evaluate proposed actions and
discover how to inflict the minimum short – and long-term environmental harm.

Species and Cultures:

• Every species has a right to live or at least struggle to live, because it exists.
• We should work to preserve as much of the earth’s genetic variety as possible because it is the raw
material for all future evolution.
• We have the right to defend ourselves against individuals of species for our vital needs but we
should strive not to cause destruction of any wild species.
• The best way to protect species and individuals of species is to protect the ecosystem in which they
live and help to restore those we have degraded.
• No human culture should become inactive because of our actions.

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Individual Responsibility:
• We should not inflict unnecessary suffering on any animal for hunt for food or use for scientific or
other purposes.
• We should not use more of the earth’s resources than we need. It is the individual responsibility for
the protection of resources
• We should try to maintain the earth as good as—or better—than we found it.

Section (II)
Different Views on Environmental Ethics: There are primarily some views on environmental ethics:
• Libertarian Views: Libertinism is one of the main philosophical positions related to the problems of
free will and determinism which are the part of larger domain of Metaphysics. This view is
correlated to the principle of civil liberty. This liberty follows the commitment to equal rights for all
members of the community, development of an ethics to deal with men’s relationship with land,
animals and plants are absolutely essential. Social morals from people to land and nature are
equally inevitable. It is not right to see the natural world in the terms of its economic worth to
human. According to the Libertian Views, Equal Rights or Liberty to all human and nonhuman
members in the environment is the principle doctrine of this view.
• Ecological Views: Ecological view explains about ecological functioning. On ethical ground, it is
believed that earth has its own mechanism for functioning, growth and development. Nature has its
own purification processes and recovery systems of life in worst conditions. This theory is in
contrast to Darwinian Idea of Survival of The Fittest. In support of this view, ecologist argue that
there are different types of algae that are resistance to ultraviolet radiation, and life would continue
and new life would make progress even if the ultraviolet radiation posses the threat to the life on the
earth. This theory alerts human being to change their perceptions and see them as a part of a whole
system. However, it has been seen that as the global temperature rises higher and higher and their
repercussions create more climatic disasters so the planet may not be able to recover as it was
previously thought. With a three degree rise in global temperature, the rain forest will start to die
releasing vast new amounts of carbon dioxide; in the oceans the algae will fail for absorbing carbon.
It is therefore, necessary to recognize fundamental interdependence of all biological and abiological
entities.
• Conservation Ethic: Conservation ethics is an extension of instrumental value to the natural
environment. It focuses only on the work of environment in the terms of its utility and usefulness to
humans. Conservation ethics is the oldest form of ethics that lead to creation of national parks,
wildlife sanctuaries, responsible use of non-renewable energy sources, water conservation efforts,
etc. Conservation is therefore a means to an end and purely concerned with mankind and his future
generations. Most of the international treaties are outline as consequences of this ethics.
• Eco-Spirituality: Eco-spirituality connects the sciences of ecology with spirituality. It brings
together religion and environmental activism. Eco-spirituality has been defined as sign of the
spiritual connection between Human Beings and The Environment. According to the
environmentalist Sister Virginia Jones, “Eco-spirituality is about helping people experience. The
Holy in the natural world and to recognize their relationship as Human Beings to All Creation. It
should be guided by spiritual principle that ensures long term sustainability”. The idea that faith can
be used to save ecology was first used by formation of World Wide Fund for Nature. Eco-

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spiritualism was later extended up to five major world religion (Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism,
Islamic and Judaism).Each religion gives spiritual motivation for environmental action in number of
its programme. Conserve to preserve Green has become ritual across the World.

Section (III)
Importance of Environmental Ethics: The importance of Environmental Ethics are given as follows:
• Environmental ethics is essential for protecting the environment, species, and resources.
• It promotes sustainable practices and encourages people to become more conscious of the effect
and their actions have on the environment.
• It emphasizes the interdependence of all living things and the need to respect them. It encourages
us to think about our place in the world and how we can contribute to conserving the natural
environment.
• Environmental ethics helps to build better relationships with nature, recognizing its intrinsic value
not just its instrumental value.
• It teaches us responsibility towards our environment, advocating for eco-friendly practices that
help to save our natural resources.
• Environmental ethics also promotes better public policies and laws, which ensures that our
environment should be properly cared.

Principles of Environmental Ethics: The important principles are given as follows:

• Regard for the Intrinsic Value of Nature: Nature should not be treated as a commodity or
resource to be exploited and discarded.
• Interrelationship of Species and Ecosystems: Humans depend on nature and natural systems and
must recognize our role in preserving and protecting the environment.
• Ecological Sustainability: We must try very hard to use resources carefully and with this thinking
to preserving Ecosystems and Biodiversity.
• Human Responsibility: Humans are responsible for our own actions and decisions and their
repercussions which affects the environment.
• Human Equity: We must try to make an effort to accomplish an end for a just world where the
rights and needs of humans, animals, and plants are respected and protected.
• Precautionary Principle: We should adopt safety measures regarding environmental harm, even
when scientific evidence is providing nothing.
• Right to Know: Individuals have the right to access information about environmental issues which
is essentials for human beings.
• Right to Participate: Citizens have the right to participate in environmental decision-making
processes.

The Environment as an Ethical Determinant: The environment determines the ethical outlook of an
individual. It also influences a child's moral development (Ebo, 2014). A child born in Saudi Arabia is
likely to be an Ethical Muslim. The choice has been automatically imposed on the child by the
environment. If the same child were born in Rome, he is likely to be an Ethical Christian. In such
scenario, the environment is the determinant. Even within the same society, the environment determines
to a reasonable extent, the moral development of an individual.

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In a society where corruption is the norm, it would be very difficult for even a Saint to keep his hands
clean. But in a society where corruption is generally shocking, even a thief would struggle to look like a
Saint. A child raised in Somalia has more chances of taking to terrorism poor than a child rose in Dubai.
The Somali child is more likely to end up in poverty than the child born in affluent Dubai. The poverty
indices of both areas are not the same. Lastly, we can say that the environment is an Ethical
Determinant.

Section (IV)
Need for Environmental Ethics and Global Environmental Problems: The important Global
Environmental Problems are discussed below:

(A): Environmental Ethics and Climate Change: Climate Change Ethics is a field of study that
explores the moral aspect of Climate Change. Global environmental changes-including urbanization, the
spread of Non-indigenous species, and, in particular, the impacts of climate change—have become
important issues for environmental ethics, in some cases leading environmental ethicists says to rethink
their prioritization of environmental values. Climate Change refers to the any change (Cooling or
Warming) in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity.

Ecological Restoration and Climate Change: Ecological restoration aims to recreate or accelerate the
recovery of an ecosystem that has been disturbed. Disturbances are environmental changes that alter
ecosystem structure and functions. A common disturbance includes Logging, Damming Rivers, Instance
Grazing, Hurricanes, Flood and Fires. The practice of ecological restoration has long been challenging
issues in the field of in environmental ethics. In 1982, Elliot argued that ecological restoration could not
restore, all the value lost in an ecological destruction, even if the restoration was in every way identical
to the pre-destruction original. Because of this reasons that we should have value our particular
environment. He argued that environment is not human origin (they are, in this sense, wild or natural).
Because restorations are because of human origin, they lack the value of naturalness, even if they
recreate other values. Katz, developing this view, argued that restorations are artifacts, i.e. products of
human design and interests, and should be understood as examples of human superiority over nature.
Climate Change is a catastrophic problem for human life. Human’s emissions of Green House Gases
(GHGs) are changing the world’s weather patterns and climate by increasing the global average
temperature. This phenomenon is known as Anthropogenic Global Climate Change. Climate change is
caused by the buildup of GHGs in the atmosphere. Like a blanket, these gases trap heat radiated from the
earth’s surface. The heat originally comes from The Sun in the form of Ultra Violet Rays But as Green
House Gases concentrations increases, the atmosphere traps more heat and it in turn heats to the land and
oceans. The temperature mostly increases Ocean Level and also increases The Ocean Acidity, Arctic and
Antarctic Iceland of Glaciers Worldwide, Rising Sea Levels, Intensified Heat Waves and Droughts, and
increases the extreme weather conditions.
Climate change is also hazards to human beings in the form of flooding, drought, wildfire, insects, ocean
acidification and other global change drivers (e.g. land use change, pollution, fragmentation of natural
systems, overexploitation of resources, etc). Climate Change will bring more rainfall to some regions,
less to others.

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Climate Change throws this debate into a new context. A changing climate means that aiming at a goal
of historical state of being faithful in restoration will frequently be impractical. This creates a discussion
about both the meaning and significance of historical fidelity in restorations. Although most
environmental ethicists still preserve a place for historical fidelity.

Species Preservation, Assisted Migration and Climate Change: As the climate changes, species that
are unable to move (for instance, due to a barrier caused by urban expansion) and that cannot easily
adapt to increasing temperatures or changing rainfall patterns may be threatened with extinction. From
most perspectives in environmental ethics, species are valuable for instrumental reasons. It is believed
that it have some kind of intrinsic value. The Famous ethicists such as Nolt argue that some species
(Plants and Animals) are valuable and humans are morally responsible for this threat so it can be said
that species loss (Biodiversity Loss) matters ethically. One way of preventing such species loss, for
selected species at least, would be for humans to deliberately relocate members of threatened species to
new more suitable habitats, a practice called assisted migration, assisted colonization, or managed
relocation. Such relocations, however, have provoked substantial recent ethical debates. Some argue that
assisted migration poses a significant risk of creating new harmful Non-native species, thereby
dangerous species and ecosystem values in the beneficiary systems. Others argue that, even in cases
where interfering is not a worry because many species carry place-specific historic and cultural values
and their ecological roles in native ecosystems are context dependent so their value will not transfer to
new locations. But not all ethical responses to assisted migration are negative. Environmental ethicists
also argue that, in at least some cases, assisted migration can protect important values without
threatening others and may contribute positively to the new location, either ecologically or culturally.
One important difficulty that has emerged from the debates about both restoration and assisted migration
in the context of climate change. Climate change, however, in some cases, means that human
intervention is necessary to preserve species, so it may become necessary to choose between preserving
wildness and protecting species. How to negotiate such decisions will be an important area of future
debate for environmental ethics.

Geoengineering, Ethics, and Climate Change: The threat of significant negative impacts from climate
change and failure to successfully conclude binding international agreements on restraining greenhouse
gas emissions, has precipitated proposals for geoengineering (intentionally manipulating the climate in
response to climate change). Two main forms of geoengineering have been suggested: those that remove
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (e.g., carbon capture and storage technology, afforestation, and
ocean fertilization) and those that reduce the amount of solar radiation reaching Earth by blocking or
reflecting sunlight (e.g., space or desert mirrors, cloud whitening, injecting sulfur aerosols into the
stratosphere). These proposals have generated significant debate among ethicists.
Many environmental ethicists conclude that we should continue research into Geoengineering
technologies, anticipating a time in the future when using Geoengineering might turn out to be lesser or
evils. Almost all environmental ethicists maintain that we should change our behavior and economic
systems, rather than further manipulate the climate. However, as threat from climate change become
more acute, this debate in environmental ethics is likely to grow and intensify.

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Environmental Justice: There are issues of justice in the environment. Sometimes, the environment is
used as a tool for the oppression of the weak. There is a disparity in environmental justice between the
upper class (usually the ruling class) and the lower class in the society. More often it is clear that
members of the upper class live in clean areas of the city with healthier environment and better
government facilities while the lower class live in slums and also deprived of government facilities that
make for healthy environment. Powerful countries sometimes visit environmental oppression on weaker
countries by dumping toxic wastes in their environment. Nigeria suffered this from Italy in 1988
(Ogbodo, 2009). The crisis in the Niger Delta region in Nigeria is largely caused by environmental
injustice. Their environment is degraded by forces far more powerful than the local communities. Some
of the multinationals involved in the environmental degradation in the Niger Delta cannot try such
activities in their home countries.
The powerful class always influences government policies on the environment. The controversial Land
Use Act (1978) of the Federal Government of Nigeria that gives the ownership of land and the resources
below it to the Federal Government is a typical example.
In the ecosystem, stronger species dominate and sometimes eradicate the weaker species. A number of
animal species are on the threshold of extinction due to human activities. The quest for environmental
justice has given birth to lots of Non-governmental organizations that are engaged in one form of
activism or another to ensure environmental justice. Notable among them are animal rights activists and
Green Earth activists. Environmental justice covers non-conscious part of the ecosystem.

Necessity to Consider The Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change: Climate change has significant
implications for international equality, as both the causes and effects of climate change are unequally
distributed around (and within) nations. In general, countries that is least responsible for climate change
have the lowest socio-economic capacity to survive with the adverse consequences of climate change,
which is a significant ethical problem for them. Climate change, mobilized by the search for scarce
resources, has the ability to cause conflict. The need for an ethical solution is therefore conclusive. Other
ethical concerns include: how present and future generations, developed and developing countries, etc.,
can identify and distinguish responsibilities.
Climate change on the predicted scale will profoundly affect the environment and human activity in
many fundamental ways. Food insecurity will increase and many regions will experience water
shortages as rainfall patterns shift and mountain glaciers disappear. Rich countries can probably afford
to adapt their agriculture with changed crop varieties and new technology, but all scenarios show a
severe decline in food production in developing countries. The greatest human impact of climate change
will be on the poor, who are especially vulnerable to the predicted increase in extreme weather events
such as floods, cyclones, and droughts—the latter particularly pertaining to Africa. Ocean fisheries will
also be affected. Already fish stocks in the North Sea are shifting to other areas. As populations are
displaced there will be increasing flows of environmental refugees, possibly reaching tens or hundreds
of millions, and the related social disintegration could lead to increasing anarchy and terrorism. Natural,
economic and social disasters will become more common and more severe.
A research conducted by the UK government estimated the annual cost of climate change if no action is
taken at over $600 billion, or the equivalent of both World Wars and the Great Depression, while
mitigating action would only amount to 1% of global GDP. Immediate action will be very cost effective,

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and any delay will raise the cost significantly. So, it is concluded that ethical dimension of Climate
Change is necessary for all human beings.

Main Ethical Challenges Exacerbated by Global Climate Change: Uncertainties in the scientific
knowledge base that limit our ability to predict when and where the different effects of climate change
will occur, and with what severity. The origins of such uncertainties include the following:
• Distributive Justice Issues: The ethical challenge lies in deciding specifically what is unjust and
unequal in the distribution of the detrimental effects of climate change, but also in the distribution of
the benefits of climate change-causing acts.
• Procedural Justice Issues: Who should engage in decision-making processes on climate change
reduction, mitigation or adaptation measures? Vulnerable communities need meaningful
opportunities to engage in climate-change adaptation and decision-making.
• Human Rights Issues: We need to investigate the degree to which global climate change create an
effect on the fundamental right to liberty, which includes the right of a person to use his / her
property to better his / her well-being, as well as the right to choose his / her own way of life freely.

(B): Global Warming: Global Warming is the environmental threat which means that earth is
warming. Humans are primarily causing of warming through greenhouse gas emissions and
deforestation, and that this warming be a danger to the well being of billions of people today and in the
future.
An economic activity creates negative externality (Pollution) which creates the harmful effect to
human’s beings and other life forms. It can take any form of matter or energy that has been introduced
into the environment. Combination of air, water, soil by toxic chemicals of industrial origin is perhaps
the most common examples. Anthropogenic pollution had little environmental significance before the
development of cities. From very earlier times, however, the concentration in cities of fires for cooking,
heating and industry undoubtedly polluted the air locally, and metal smelting introduced toxic chemicals
into soil, air and water. More harmful, however, were human and animal wastes which form the
combinations of soil and water and then again spread into infectious diseases like Common Cold,
Hepatitis, COVID-19, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), etc.
In the developed nations during the twentieth century, and especially during the economic expansion
following World War II, heavy industry, coal fired power generation, chemical agriculture, above-
ground nuclear weapons testing, and petroleum-powered transportation systems became significant
sources of pollution. Smog blanketed industrialized cities in Europe and U.S. in December of 1952 the
so called Great smog killed thousands in London. The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio, Japan was so
polluted that in 1969 it caught fired. Modern life is almost everywhere becoming more urban, and cities
almost everywhere are becoming crowded with fossil fuel burning vehicles. Researches show that the
worst health effects of modern life come from air pollution. Global statistics, however, reveal a different
picture: the chief health threats of modern life come from eating too much of fast foods without getting
enough exercise.
One effect of global warming is a rise in sea level, due both to the thermal expansion of water and to the
melting of glaciers and ice caps. Sea level rise will flood low-lying areas and islands, including many
port cities, creating millions of refugees. The glaciers disappear over decades or centuries, water flow
will ultimately diminish. Inadequate need of water supply, including hunger and thirst, high rates of

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disease and death, loss of productivity and economical crises, and degraded ecosystems are detectable in
Global Warming. The projections for Bangladesh show a 1.5 meter rise will displace 17 million people
from 16% of the country’s area. If the Greenland ice sheet is destabilised—which now appears to be
likely—it will raise the sea level by more than 6 meters. Already some low-lying islands and coastal
areas are being abandoned.
The evidence for accelerating global warming is accumulating rapidly. The global average surface
temperature has risen markedly since the late 1970s. Nine of the ten warmest years on record have
occurred since 1995. The models project an even faster rise in global temperature over the next century
as greenhouse gas emissions continue. The greatest temperature changes are expected in Polar Regions.
A rise of more than 2°C in the mean global temperature could trigger positive feedbacks that would
make major climate change irreversible, and we could reach that point by 2035 if we continue Business
as Usual (BAU), with a rise of up to 5°C possible by the end of the century. This is change at a speed
and scale for which there is no planetary precedent.

(C): Ozone Depletion: A worrisome twist to the environmental dilemma is the formation which is
situated in the ozone layer in the lower part of the atmosphere. Nitrous Oxides emitted by automobiles
react with volatile organic compounds to form ozone layer in the lower parts of the earth. This
development, however, is very bad news. Unlike the ozone layer higher up in the atmosphere that
protects the environment from ultraviolet rays, the ozone layer formed at the lower parts of the
atmosphere reacts with sunlight to produce photochemical smog which burns lung tissues and leaf
tissues. It is a catastrophic phenomenon prevalent in big cities. The overall effect is reduction in the life
span of such city dwellers. It is not uncommon to see smog hovering over the atmosphere in industrial
cities. In Port Harcourt, oil producing sea port city of Nigeria, industrial smog has become a common
coincidence in recent years. It was a very beautiful clean city fondly called the Garden City. But that is
no longer the case as the environment has been severely degraded due to fossil fuel combustion.

(D): Acid Rain: Researches explains the fact that man is responsible for the destruction of the
environment. There is no guarantee that the environment will continuously oppose these attacks. Acid
rains are also new forms of destruction induced on the environment by human activities. Nitrous oxides
and sulphur oxides emitted from the combustion of fossil fuels when significant combination of these in
the atmosphere to rain as acid rain, causing untold destructions in the ecosystem. The effects of the
Atom Bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (6&9 August, 1945) has not yet back. Modern
warfare poses real threat of destructions to the environment. Chemical Missiles that contains explosives
like the Hydrogen Bomb and the Napalm Bomb did untold damage to the ecosystem of Vietnam during
the Vietnam War. The incredible ethical question remains: Has man any rights to willfully destroy the
environment?

Man’s Right and Environmental Disruption: Here, the important questions is does Man have the
Right to Destroy the Environment? The damage caused by fossils fuels is not limited to oil exploration
and exploitation. The side effects of their use are even more threatening to the environment. The greatest
damage to the ozone layer is comes from the fossil fuel combustion. The emission of
chlorofluorocarbons and hydro chlorofluorocarbons dissolve the ozone layer at an alarming rate, pluck
the environment of its natural protective layer from the radioactive rays of the sun. The result is the

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depletion of the immune system of humans, increase in the rates of skin cancer, cataract and general
disruption of the ecosystem. The worrisome ethical dimension is that sometimes the sufferers of these
environmental infractions are far away from the perpetrators. The case of Punta Arenas in Chile, the
most southerly city of the world is pathetic (Sadness). In the year 2000, it was recorded that the cancer
rate in the city shot up by 66 percent. Scientists proved that the irregularity was caused by radioactive
rays escaping the much depleted ozone layer (Bell, 2012). The depletion itself was caused by the use
chlorofluorocarbons gases in the Northern Hemisphere. It was a classical case of a city paying for the
sins of another city. There is no doubt that the environment of this southerly city is seriously being
destroyed by human activities, but in another hemisphere.

Section (V)
Conclusion: Economic Analysis is not value free. That is, it is not neutral or independent with respect to
moral or ethical consideration. Environmental ethics is the area of Applied Ethics, which aims at making
the implications of ethical theories in the concrete situations like relationships between nations in the
contemporary world, application of ethical theories for actions in environmental ethics, bio-medical
ethics, and impact on human-nature relationship and in the field of human existence.
Man withdrawn from traditional categories and think innovatively on the management, preservation and
the sustainability of the environment. Ours is not a naively anthropocentric world. Man has
responsibilities to known human members of the ecosystem both living and non-living, although
differentially. Nevertheless, man has the ultimate responsibility for the future of the environment. Mans
are such type of animal that can think about their future.
Climate Change, Global Warming, Ozone Depletion, Acid Rain, etc. are global issues. The planet is
warming because of the growing level of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. Global climate
change itself represents an ethical challenge and there is no clear framework for an ethical response to
the problems of global climate change, not just its future impacts. This follows directly from the fact
that, in different contexts, different actors are expected to respond adequately, humanely and ethically to
the challenges of climate change. Addressing the ethical dilemma of climate change is an opportunity to
build a constructive conversation between States and other relevant stakeholders from which a new
consensus on the issues will emerge.
The emissions from human industrial activities are largely responsible for the checkmate is
unquestionable. Man therefore must rise to the challenge of righting these environmental wrongs. In his
responses, man necessarily must adopt universal benchmarks and universally applicable norms.
Otherwise, tensions arising from inequalities will defeat the accomplishment of such endeavors. It calls
for ethically sound actions.
Almost all environmental ethicists maintain that we should change our behaviors and economic systems,
rather than further manipulate the climate. Environmental ethics ask the humans to establish a correct
view of nature, learn to respect, imitate, and protect nature and get along amiability and peacefully with
nature. In must contain rules and regulations which are followed by Human Nature.
As such, an important aspect of the ethical response to climate change and other problems is the concern
of future generations.
Many environmental ethicists nonetheless conclude that we should continue research into
geoengineering technologies, anticipating a time in the future when using geoengineering. However, as

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threats from climate change become more acute, this debate in environmental ethics is likely to grow
and intensify.
This research paper try to find out that the emergence of new technologies raises novel ethical
challenges and questions that are beginning to be addressed by environmental ethicists. The problems
are become very popular among Academicians.

Suggestions and Ways Foreword: Ecological awareness is lacking, which means we are polluting our
environment. Societies have to understand the difference between ecological balance and ecological
imbalance if we want to create a balanced ecosystem. Environmental awareness promotes the wellbeing
of all those living in and around the environment. As it is said:
“Sarve Sukhinassantu sarve santu niramayah
Sarve bhadrani pashyantu ma kasciddukha-bhagabhavat.”
(May all be happy, May all be free from disease. May all realise what is good. May none be subject to
misery?)
Five different approaches should be adopted for managing environmental issues; (i) Managing
environmental regulations. This includes investing in environment protection and forcing other firms to
make similar investments; (ii) Investing in environment friendly processes or products; (iii) Investing in
environment performance improvement, without increasing costs; (iv) Combining all the three methods
mentioned above to change the basis for competition and re-define the market so that both the firm and
the environment can achieve benefit and ; (v) Looking at environmental issues from a risk management
perspective. This involves putting in place system and process to prevent or minimize the possibilities of
accidents and dealing with them effectively when they occur.
Efforts must be done at National Level as well as International Levels, but individual efforts for
conservations can only solve the problems. We must not be reason for damaging ecosystem, must not
harm other creature, plants, water bodies, forest and at last to our own generations. We should think
Globally, and Act Locally.

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