EnviroWave by Robert Green

I re-read Roderick Nash’s book The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics (History of American Thought and Culture) this weekend. This is a fantastic chronicle of the history of environmental ethics that all students of environmental ethics would benefit from reading. Nash’s historical perspective at the time of his writing, coupled with the importance of the topics of today, make this book as relevant today as it was 20 years ago.

For those who have not read this book, Nash’s central theme is the widening sense of identification that humans have developed regarding the environment and other forms of life throughout human history. It is more of a history of “Deep Ecology” as it has matured greatly philosophically from mere conservationism.

It seems to me today, that the trend in philosophical thinking towards Deep Ecology is still moving forward. This movement has instilled in us individual requirements to do something for not only our environment, but more selfishly, for ourselves, even though the benefit is global. I’ve read countless articles concerning the dire state of our ocean fishes being fished to extinction, global warming, and our deteriorating air quality. I’m talking about Green Policies, things like greenhouse gas reduction, carbon reduction mechanisms, efficient and renewable energy sources, and sustainable growth policies, at the governmental, trans-governmental, and economic or commercial levels that can influence a change in [slow] at least the rate of environmental breakdown.

With regards to the Kyoto Protocol and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, I think we at least have a model from which to take on industrial-sized carbon emissions reduction projects. This model may require adjustment, as well as more countries to ratify it to make it more relevant and influential. Various cities and states around the world are also implementing their own methods and markets for carbon reduction projects, which in turn increases the demand for the carbon market.

Individuals have the ability to also practice these conservationist actions with a global impact. These things would be to reduce, reuse, and recycle as well as purchase offsets of your emission-causing activities via operations like Driving Green, TerraPass, Green My Flight, and Cool Driver for vehicle, fleet, airplane and residential emissions.

The fact that we debate these topics, the fact that we have political policies on these subjects, and the fact that we are doing something both individually and collectively to resolve these issues, are all indicative that the momentum of the environmental ethics movement has proliferated from a 1960’s university activity to a global ecological awareness and call to action.

Robert