Environmental Ethics Essay -- Ethics Philosophy Global Warming Climate

"At the current rate, we're headed for and environmental disaster," many say, but how much truth does that statement hold. Have humans really destroyed, pillaged, and polluted enough to cause a serious, wide scale, disaster? If not, then can we continue on without changing, and not learn from our mistakes? If so, then can we do anything today that will bring about a tomorrow available to us? All of these questions hold great pertinence for our current situation. Humans don't exactly hold the best track record for environmental protection and preservation. Throughout time we have exploited nature and its creatures for our own benefit. We have made technological advances that threaten and disrupt the environment with total disregard for that fact. We took slipshod short cuts that are now catching up to us today, and we can think of no available alternatives that will remedy the problem quickly and usefully. We have developed a huge and thriving society; and in the process we deforest huge sections of land for living and livestock grazing. This decreases oxygen and increases carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; possibly adding to global warming though the greenhouse effect. This mass population produces mass amounts of waste, so to deal with that we just throw it into the ground, which in turn contaminates our water supply and contributes to further deforestation. We develop motorized transportation; and then burn non-renewable fossil fuels that put lead, carbon monoxide, sulfur and nitrogen oxides, ozone, excess carbon dioxide, and other harmful particulates into the atmosphere (Skjel & Whorton 95-108). This produces dangers like smog and cancer and contributes to global warming. In the production of fuel we exhaust o... ...the environment, but how badly we?ve endangered ourselves. The environment is not possibly headed towards disaster, we are. Works Cited * American Chemical Society. Chemistry in Context. New York: Primis Custom Publishing, 2000. * Crichton, Michael. Jurassic Park. New York: Baltine Books, 1990. * ---. The Lost World. New York: Alfred A. Knoff, Inc., 1995. * Curran, Roger and Lawrence Haw. Environmental Issues in the 21st Century. 2001: http://www.library.thinkquest.org/C0127068.html. * Michaels, Patricia A. Environmental Philosophy: Good for the wallet, Good for the Soul, Good for Nothing. http://environment.about.com/library/weekly/aa031697.htm. * Singer, Peter. Practical Ethics. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. * Skjei, Eric and M. Donald Whorton. Of Mice & Molecules. New York: The Dial Press, 1983.