Environmental issues.

Question 1

What are environmental issues?

Answer 1

Environmental issues are defined as problems with the planet’s systems that have developed as a result of human interference or mistreatment of the planet.

Question 2

What are Christian view of stewardship and conservation?

Answer 2

• Stewardship is the care and preservation of earth.
• Principle of stewardship is that everything comes from God as a gift. It must be managed faithfully and responsibly by humanity.
• Creation is for the benefit of human beings graciously given to them by God.
• Humans are therefore put in a position of trust and responsibility for creation and are allowed to share in God’s creative work.
• Therefore, the preservation, care and conservation of the environment must be a matter of ethical and spiritual concern for religious believers.
• Although perfection cannot be fully achieved until heaven, the parable of the talents suggests that each generation should leave the earth in a better condition than they found it.

Question 3

What is the utilitarian principle on conservation?

Answer 3

• The original theory was based on pleasure and pain, so Peter Singer extended its bounds to non-human animals who were sentient and could therefore feel pleasure and pain. It is unclear whether the theory can be extended to include non-animal entities. It would need either a redefinition of pleasure and pain, or a change to the central principle of utilitarinism. Singer sees a problem in trying to imagine the interests of a plant - if we put ourselves in the place of a plant, we wouldn’t mind what happened to us as plants cannot experience positive or negative effects.

Question 4

What does Situation Ethics and Natural Law theory say?

Answer 4

Situation ethics: Situation Ethics is built on the principle of agape. Although this principle could be extended to include the love of animals and of nature, in reality we are faced with choices that might involve helping people or helping nature. Situation Ethics would support cutting down a forest to build a hospital as it teaches compassion for people who are suffering.

Natural law: Thinking can be applied a number of ways here. The central principle is to do good and resist evil, so it would encourage conservation and reject the abuse of the environment. However, humans as conscious beings have a higher purpose than the environment, and observing human nature could lead us to agree with humans taking control over the environment. Some natural law thinkers would focus on the purpose or telos of the natural world, giving the environment intrinsic worth.

Question 5

How far should animals be protected?

Answer 5

• If animals have rights, it means humans also responsibilities to protect those rights and to claim them on their behalf.
• Having rights cannot therefore simply be a matter of being able to express them, therefore animals could be said to have rights.
• Jeremy Bentham in 19th century believed that the time would come when animals would be thought to have rights simply on the basis that they could feel pain.
• Peter Singer in 20th century used the term specisism, to describe the attitude that humans are superior to animals, comparing it to racism, suggesting that it is just as wrong.

Question 6

What are the problems within the animal rights debate?

Answer 6

• Religious people find the role of animals a difficult one since they have to find a balance between recognising animals as fellow creatures made by and loved by God, and maintaining the order of creation in which humans were placed above the rest of creation.
• Traditionally Christians have taught that animals do not have the same rights as humans.
• But Jesus called for stewardship to care for animals and not to exploit them.

Question 7

What do Augustine, Aquinas and Descartes think about animaal rights?

Answer 7

Augustine: all commands concerning the welfare of animals were essentially for the benefit of humans.

Aquinas: Claimed we have no duties to animals and should only treat them with care so that cruel treatment does not carry over to humans.

Descartes: Saw animals as machines like clocks, which move and make sounds, but have no feelings.

Question 8

What is Sustainbility?

Answer 8

Sustainability is a state in which the demands placed on the environment can be met without reducing its capacity to allow people to live well, now and in the future.

Question 9

What are the problems in sustainability?

Answer 9

Population growth: This means there is increasing demand on food resources that are unequally distributed. In less developed countries, this becomes a problem because they already have diffficulties feeding the population.

Depletion of resources: Fossil fuels cannot be recycled and cannot be produced by humans and are thus finite. The world’s dependence of fossil fuels for cars and industry thus becomes a huge problem.

Overfishing and deforestation: Cutting down the rainforest affects the earth’s oxygen levels. Overfishing means certain species can become extinct.

Technological advancement: This makes increasing demands on resources and energy.

Question 10

What is waste management?

Answer 10

Waste management is the precise name for the collection, transportation, disposal or recycling and monitoring of waste.