Essay On Environmental Sustainability

It would be a mistake to not recognize environmental sustainability as a problem that needs to be addressed adequately and carefully by scholars, i.e. philosophers in particular. Naïve and childish is the notion that our resources are endless or that future generations will discover new sources of energy and preservation. Whether our obligations to our environment and its sustainability lie in a moral duty or not is not as pertinent as that it is a necessary responsibility for ourselves and those future generations we often don’t consider. However, it is helpful to look at the morality of taking care of our environment and using the resources available to us scrupulously. Philosophers Hardin and Bonevac both present plausible arguments on the population’s moral duty to environmental sustainability, though there are some obvious flaws in each.

Garrett Hardin (2013) uses the argument of “the tragedy of the commons” to explain the individual’s need to further enhance his living and his own comfort and success without regard for the population as a whole. Each person freely uses resources in order to achieve individual needs or wants, not realizing or caring about the impact that his lack for a better word, “selfish,” actions will have on the whole area, or the world (Hardin, 2013). The example of the cattlemen adding more and more head to their herds without considering the consequence of overgrazing demonstrates the negative aspect of the commons in that since each herdsman as opposed to just one commonly makes the decision to add more head of cattle, the negative effect increases (Hardin, 2013). The larger the herds, the more grazing there is. The more grazing there is, the less sustainability there remains for the cattle. Hardin ...

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...e I do believe future generations will discover new resources, I feel that we are at some degree at the height of our technological and environmental discovery. The duties of environmental preservation begin with strategy and are then carried out. Once a strategy is chosen, it must be practiced as consistently as possible, such as using oil less freely, using coal less freely, conserving energy by turning off lights when they’re not needed, less deforestation, etc. It is important to understand that a perfect strategy is not possible and that a perfect consistency is highly unlikely. A major duty is using what we have and what we know, all forms of capital and strategies that worked and didn’t work, to create a success method of preserving the environment. Environmental preservation can be considered a moral duty, but it is an inherent responsibility of humanity.