Please read the case study entitled Yahoo! Answers: Why Should We Save the Planet? that you find in the reading assignment.Afterwards read the first, second, third, fourth and sixth sections of the ar
Source: Photo courtesy of Kim Woodbridge, http://www.flickr.com/photos/kwbridge/2541993688.
Some people argue that there’s no ethical requirement to protect the environment because the natural world has no intrinsic value. Against that ethical posture, here are four broad justifications for environmental protection. Each begins with a distinct and fundamental evaluation:
The environment should be protected in the name of serving human welfare, which is intrinsically valuable.
The environment should be protected in the name of serving future generations because they’re valuable and merit intergenerational fairness.
The environment should be protected to serve animal welfare because there’s an independent value in the existence and lives of animals.
The entire environmental web should be protected for its own sake because the planet’s collection of ecosystems is intrinsically valuable.
On a Yahoo! forum page, a student named redbeard_90 posts the question “why should we save the planet?” and partially explains this way: “With all the constant talk of ‘saving the planet’ and stopping global warming, should we actually try to stop it? Perhaps in a way, this is humans transforming the planet to better suit us?”“Why Should We Save the Planet?,” Yahoo! Answers, accessed June 8, 2011, http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080610193018AA7IQt2
