ENVIRON 102 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Rachel Carson, Henry David Thoreau
10 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Chapter 2: Environmental Ethics, Economics, and Policy (all)
Dam-nation! (etch (etchy prologue
Snow of the Tuolumne Meadows melts into the Tuolumne River which then is captured in the
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
Reservoir has a pipeline to San Francisco’s public water system
Water is exceptionally pure but a fraction of the cost
History of the dam:
o Mayor of SF in 1895 saw that the Tuolumne River had the perfect setting for building a dam
and would solve the problem of the water supply for the growing population
o John Muir (preservationist) influenced President Theodore Roosevelt to not pass the
proposal to build a dam (argued that it went against the purpose of the Yosemite National
Park and defiled one of nature’s wonders
o 1906: SF earthquake made it really expensive to buy water from other cities
o Pinchot (conservationist) believed in using a dam for the greatest number of people
o Paiutes lived in Hetch Hetchy but was not represented in the public debate
Schwarzenegger proposed a study of the costs and benefits of the 312 foot O’Shaughnessy Dam
o Costs for SF to replace the water that the reservoir currently provides
o Costs of removing dam and restoring ecosystem
o Problem of loss of wilderness in California
2.1 Changing Views of Humans and Nature
PRE-INDUSTRIAL VIEWS – many primitive cultures see the environment as a central feature
Animism: belief that nonliving objects possess a spirit or soul
o Common belief in religions of many indigenous people
Domestication of plants and animals
o Became less aware of human dependence on natural environments
Emergence of monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) emphasized the centrality of
humankind among creation
o Man was created in God’s image
Emergence of Eastern religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Shintoism) emphasized human
harmony with nature
Aristotle’s natural ladder of being humans are immediately under God influenced Western
thinking to be human-centered
THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
Voltaire: openly question humanity’s special relationship to God
Jean Baptiste Lamarck: proposed that the human species was just another result of evolution
o Enhanced by Charles Darwin’s theory of national selection
Industrialization also brought about the counter culture of nature
o Emerson Nature
o Thoreau Walden
o George Perkins Marsh Man and Nature – genesis of the modern environmental movement
Conservation vs. Preservation
o Preservationist: parks and public lands that preserve wild nature
o Conservationist: public resources should be used and managed in a sustainable fashion to
provide the greatest benefit to the greatest number of people
THE MODERN ERA
o Aldo Leopold argued for sustainable use of natural resources and preservation of
wilderness
o Use of DDT to kill mosquitoes in wetlands
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
▪ Rachel Carson Silent Spring
o Paul Ehrlich The Population Bomb – rapid growth of human population is threatening
survival and the environment
o Issues of extinction of plant and animal species and global warming
o Edward O. Wilson: documentation of hundreds of plant/animal species lost
o Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore: changed public opinion on
importance of climate change
2.2 Environmental Ethics
Environmental ethics: moral relationship of humans to the environment and its nonhuman
contents
Plato believed in virtue ethics: importance of motivated
Consequence-based ethics: importance of outcomes
o Utilitarianism: consequence-based ethics that defines right actions as those that deliver
the greatest good to the greatest number
Duty-based ethics: rightness or wrongness of actions should be determined by a set of laws
o Presumes an accepted framework (ex: Ten Commandments)
WHO OR WHAT is to be valued
Intrinsic value vs. instrumental value
Anthropocentric ethics: assigns intrinsic value only to humans
o Conservationist
Biocentric ethics: value of other living things is equal to the value of humans
o 1) For a thing to have to intrinsic value, it must be able to experience pleasure/satisfaction
▪ So plants and animals lacking a complex nervous system do not count
▪ Ex: hunting is unethical because it violates the intrinsic value of the individual
organism
o 2) Any organism that is a product of natural evolution has intrinsic value
Ecocentric ethics: places value on communities of organisms and ecosystems
o Collections of organisms have intrinsic value
o Ex: hunting individual animals improves the health of that species’ populations by
removing diseased animals
o Deep ecology movement: all elements of the environment have equal intrinsic value and
deserve moral respect in their own right
ECOFEMINISM AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Francoise d’Eaubonne: exploitation and abuse of the environment and women derive from male
domination
Toxic dumps and landfills are near poor communities with large ethnic population
o Result of direct racial discrimination
Environmental justice movement seeks to ensure that in the management of natural resources
and the environment, people are treated fairly regardless of face, gender, or economic status
2.3 The Environment and the Marketplace
Economic system: made up of institutions and interactions in a society that influence the
production, distribution, and consumption of goods and service
Subsistence economy: society meets its needs from its environment without accumulating wealth
o No currency
o No surplus of goods well-being determined by constant renewal of resources
Market economy: production and consumption of good and services guided by prices
o Currency
o Producers determine price and amount; consumers are given choice to purchase
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Snow of the tuolumne meadows melts into the tuolumne river which then is captured in the. Chapter 2: environmental ethics, economics, and policy (all) (cid:498)dam-nation! (cid:499) (cid:523)(etch (etchy prologue(cid:524) Reservoir has a pipeline to san francisco"s public water system. Water is exceptionally pure but a fraction of the cost. Hetch hetchy reservoir: mayor of sf in 1895 saw that the tuolumne river had the perfect setting for building a dam and would solve the problem of the water supply for the growing population. John muir (preservationist) influenced president theodore roosevelt to not pass the proposal to build a dam (argued that it went against the purpose of the yosemite national. Schwarzenegger proposed a study of the costs and benefits of the 312 foot o"shaughnessy dam. Pre-industrial views many primitive cultures see the environment as a central feature. Animism: belief that nonliving objects possess a spirit or soul: common belief in religions of many indigenous people.
