1. Environmental Worldviews, Ethics, and Sustainability25
Environmental Worldviews, Ethics, and Sustainability

2. Core Case Study: Biosphere 2 – A Lesson in Humility
Constructed near Tucson, Arizona
Designed to mimic the earth’s natural chemical recycling systems
Many unexpected problems
Life-support system issues
Some successes
Waste and wastewater recycled

3. Figure 25-1: Biosphere 2, constructed near Tucson, Arizona, was designed to be a self-sustaining life-support system.
Fig. 25-1, p. 684

4. 25-1 What Are Some Major Environmental Worldviews?
Major environmental worldviews differ on which is more important—human needs and wants, or the overall health of ecosystems and the biosphere

5. There Are a Variety of Environmental Worldviews
How people think the world works and what they think their role should be
Environmental ethics
Beliefs about behavior is right and what behavior is wrong with regard to the environment

6. Environmental Worldviews
Planetary Management
■ We are apart from the rest of nature and can manage nature to meet our increasing needs and wants.
■ Because of our ingenuity and technology, we will not run out of resources.
■ The potential for economic growth is essentially unlimited.
■ Our success depends on how well we manage the earth's life- support systems mostly for our benefit.
Stewardship
■ We have an ethical responsibility to be caring managers, or stewards, of the earth.
■ We will probably not run out of resources, but they should not be wasted.
■ We should encourage environmentally beneficial forms of economic growth and discourage environmentally harmful forms.
■ Our success depends on how well we manage the earth's life- support systems for our benefit and for the rest of nature.
■ Resources are limited and should not be wasted.
Environmental Wisdom
■ We are a part of and totally dependent on nature, and nature exists for all species.
■ We should encourage earth- sustaining forms of economic growth and discourage earth-degrading forms.
■ Our success depends on learning how nature sustains itself and integrating such lessons from nature into the ways we think and act.
Figure 25-2: Comparison of three major environmental worldviews (Concept 25-1). Questions: Which of these descriptions most closely fits your worldview? Which of them most closely fits the worldviews of your parents?
Stepped Art
Fig. 25-2, p. 685

7. Most People Have Human-Centered Environmental Worldviews
Two human-centered worldviews
Planetary management worldview
We can and should manage the earth for our own benefit
No-problem school
Free-market school
Spaceship-earth school
Stewardship worldview
We have an ethical responsibility to be caring stewards

8. Case Study: Managing Public Lands in the United States
35% of the country’s land is managed by the federal government
National Forest System
Bureau of Land Management
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
National Park System
National Wilderness Preservation System

9. Case Study: Managing Public Lands in the United States (cont’d.)
Four principles should govern use of public lands and their resources:
Primary use for protecting biodiversity
No subsidies for using or extracting resources
Fair compensation for use of land
Fully culpability for environmental damage caused by users

10. Case Study: Managing Public Lands in the United States (cont’d.)
Developers wish to open more federal lands:
Sell public lands to private corporations or individuals
Slash federal funding related to public lands
Cut diverse old-growth forests
Open national parks to oil and gas drilling
Eliminate the National Park Service

11. Can We Manage the Earth? Criticism of the human-centered worldviews
Wrongly assumes we can be good stewards
We do not know enough about the earth

12. Some Environmental Worldviews Are Life-Centered and Others are Earth-Centered
Inherent or intrinsic value of all forms of life
Environmental wisdom worldview
We are all part of the community of life and the ecological processes that sustain all life
The earth does not need our management

13. Biosphere Biodiversity) Ecosystems All species on earth
All people on earth
Nation
Figure 25-6: Levels of ethical concern: People disagree about how far we should extend our ethical concerns on this scale. Question: How far up this scale would you extend your ethical concerns?
Community
and friends
Family
Self
Fig. 25-6, p. 689

14. Figure 25-7: The earth flag is a symbol of commitment to promoting environmental and economic sustainability by working with the earth at the individual, local, national, and international levels. Question: Explain why you agree or disagree with the earth-centered worldview.
Fig. 25-7, p. 690

15. 25-2 What Is the Role of Education in Living More Sustainably?
The first step to living more sustainably is to become environmentally literate

16. We Can Become More Environmentally Literate
Three foundations of environmental literacy:
Natural capital matters
Our ecological footprints are immense and growing rapidly
Ecological and climate tipping points: irreversible and should never be crossed
Requires answering key questions and having basic understanding of key topics

17. Figure 25.8 Achieving environmental literacy involves being able to answer certain questions and having an understanding of certain key topics (Concept 25-2). Question: After taking this course, do you feel that you can answer the questions asked here and have a basic understanding of each of the key topics listed in this figure?
Fig. 25-8a, p. 691

18. Figure 25.8 Achieving environmental literacy involves being able to answer certain questions and having an understanding of certain key topics (Concept 25-2). Question: After taking this course, do you feel that you can answer the questions asked here and have a basic understanding of each of the key topics listed in this figure?
Fig. 25-8b, p. 691

19. We Can Learn from the Earth
Formal environmental education
Is it enough?
We have much to learn from nature:
Ecological, aesthetic, and spiritual values of nature

20. Figure 25-9: Solar cells provide this Mongolian family with electricity in their yurt, or hut. The yurt and solar cells can be moved easily to support their nomadic way of life.
Fig. 25-9, p. 692

21. Figure 25-10: An important way to learn about and appreciate nature is to experience its beauty, power, and complexity firsthand. This involves understanding that we are part of—and not apart from or in charge of—nature.
Fig , p. 693

22. 25-3 How Can We Live More Sustainably?
We can live more sustainably by:
Becoming environmentally literate, learning from nature
Living more simply and lightly on the earth
Becoming active environmental citizens

23. We Can Live More Simply and Lightly on the Earth
Ethical guidelines:
Apply principles such as the principles of sustainability
Protect the earth’s natural capital
Use matter and energy resources efficiently
Protect biodiversity
Leave the earth in as good condition as we found it, or better

24. We Can Live More Simply and Lightly on the Earth (cont’d.)
Voluntary simplicity
Learn to live with less
Start by asking “How much is enough?”
Living more sustainably is not easy
Change the way we think about, and act in, the world
Mental traps:
Gloom-and-doom pessimism
Blind technological optimism

25. Reduce meat consumption
Food
Transportation
Reduce meat consumption
Reduce car use by walking, biking, carpooling, car-sharing, and using mass transit
Buy or grow organic food and buy locally grown food
Drive an energy-efficient vehicle
Home Energy Use
Insulate your house, plug air leaks, and install energy-efficient windows
Resource Use
Reduce, reuse, recycle, compost, replant, and share
Figure 25-14: Living more lightly: Eight ways to shrink our ecological footprints (Concept 25-3). Questions: Which of these things do you already do? Which, if any, do you hope to do?
Use energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, lights, and appliances
Use renewable energy resources whenever possible
Fig , p. 696

26. Case Study: Rebuilding Greensburg, Kansas – From Ruin to Sustainability
2007 – massive tornado destroyed town
Citizens proposed rebuilding as a more sustainable community
By 2012, town has more LEED Platinum certified new buildings per capita than any other U.S. city
K-12 school building uses 72% less energy than a comparable conventional building

27. Figure 25-15: After a tornado devastated most of Greensburg, Kansas (left), the town rebuilt its houses and buildings with a focus on energy efficiency, reliance on wind power, and other elements of sustainability. One result was the new LEED Platinum–certified K–12 school (right).
Fig , p. 697

28. We Can Bring About a Sustainability Revolution in Your Lifetime
Increase energy efficiency
Shift to renewable energy resources
Stabilize climate change
Stop destroying forests
Produce food more sustainably
Reuse or recycle 80% of the solid wastes we produce
Reconnect and work with the biosphere

29. Sustainability Emphasis
Current Emphasis
Sustainability Emphasis
Energy and Climate
Direct and indirect solar energy
Fossil fuels
Energy waste
Energy efficiency
Climate disruption
Climate stabilization
Matter
High resource use and waste
Less resource use
Consume and throwaway
Reduce, reuse, and recycle
Waste disposal and pollution control
Waste prevention and pollution prevention
Figure 25-16: Solutions: Some of the cultural shifts in emphasis that scientists say will be necessary to bring about a sustainability revolution. Questions: Which of these shifts do you think are most important? Why?
Life
Deplete and degrade natural capital
Protect natural capital
Reduce biodiversity
Protect biodiversity
Population growth
Population stabilization
Fig , p. 699

30. Change Time More Sustainable Living Unsustainable Living
Environmental Concerns
Protecting natural capital
Sustaining
biodiversity
Repairing
ecological damage
Addressing
climate change
Social Trends
Reducing waste Using less
Living more simply
Reusing and recycling
Growth of eco-
cities and eco-neighborhoods
Environmental justice
Environmental literacy
Economic Tools
Full-cost pricing
Micro-lending
Green subsidies
Green taxes
Cap and trade
Net energy analysis
Technologies
Pollution prevention Organic farming
Drip irrigation Solar desalinization Energy efficiency
Solar energy
Wind energy Geothermal energy
Environmental nanotechnology
Ecoindustrial parks
Figure 25-17: The concerns, trends, tools, and technologies listed under this curve of exponential growth could all be parts of a major shift toward sustainability. These agents of change are growing slowly, but at some point, some or all of them could take off, round the J-curve of exponential growth, and bring about a sustainability revolution within your lifetime. Questions: Which two items in each of these four categories do you believe are the most important to promote? What other items would you add to this list?
Time
Fig , p. 700

31. Three Big Ideas
Our environmental worldviews play a key role in how we treat the earth that sustains us, and thus, in how we treat ourselves
We need to become more environmentally literate about:
How the earth works
How we are affecting its life-support systems that keep us and other species alive
What we can do to live more sustainably

32. Three Big Ideas (cont’d.)
Living more sustainably means:
Learning from nature
Living more lightly
Becoming active environmental citizens who leave small environmental footprints on the earth

33. Tying It All Together: Biosphere 2 and Sustainability
Biosphere 2 created a microcosm to help us understand how to live sustainably
The takeaway: nature is complex
Our lives depend on natural capital
We need to reuse and recycle
We need to depend on renewable energy resources
We need to mimic biodiversity

34. Tying It All Together: Biosphere 2 and Sustainability (cont’d.)
We need to look for win-win solutions
Satisfying the largest number of individuals while minimizing environmental harms
Example: paying more for the harmful environmental and health costs of our goods and services
We need to band together as individuals to make progress