My Environmental Ethics Growing up in a highly capitalized area, Macau, and being taught the idea that wealth is the ruler of power and status, I learned that I would have to find a job with decent extra benefit and high salary in the future. Until the time I have taken geography and moral education classes in my high school, I started to consider a bigger picture when I was thinking about public policy and my decision making. I knew that what I did could affect anyone around me and possibly the society as well. I did not have any terminology at that time, but if I could bring my knowledge back into the time, I would say my ethic has been shifted from ego-centrism to somewhere between ego- and home-centrism because the ideology grounded in
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Deep ecology is a “new metaphysics that places humans in nature not above it”, “a total intermingling of person with planet” (RE, 92) and it “promotes a sense of human place within the household of nature” (RE, 93). It is resonating with the ecocentric part of partnership ethics that humans are part of the nature and are not superior to other species in any way. We cannot selfishly develop simply for profit or social goods, and cut trees down and release pollutants to the biosphere recklessly. Merchant also mentions that “deep ecology espouses an ecocentric rather than a homocentric ethic. In using nonhuman nature, people have a duty to maintain the integrity of the ecosphere, not to conquer it or make it more efficient” (RE, 93). This is supporting the idea of partnership ethics that “humans act to fulfill both humanity’s vital needs and nature’s needs by restraining human hubris” (RE, 84). I agree that humans could take resources from the nature for food, shelter, and energy, but we have to return and maintain the right for the nonhuman nature to survive and flourish. Despite the coherence between deep ecology and partnership ethics, sometimes, deep ecologists promote the separation of humans from the wilderness, which is opposing the relational state between humans and nonhuman nature. Also, the ignorance of the connection between “the domination of nature by ‘man’ …show more content…
For me, I would implement the partnership ethics mainly through my role as a citizen in the society and as a part of the nature, and through my future career. Getting involved in green politics, ecofeminism or environmental justice in different ways is a must in the future. As an international student, I would like to promote the partnership ethics in my hometown starting by convincing people around me. Macau is such a beautiful and multicultural city in my mind, however, the constant development of the city is diminishing the nonhuman nature in the city rapidly. As Merchant states that “a strong contingent is motivated by the need for humans to reclaim deep spiritual connections to nature and uses ritual at Green gatherings as a mode of energizing people for action” (RE, 181). Although I would say the consciousness of the relation between human and nonhuman nature in Macau is quite low, I will try to influence my peers to adopt the partnership ethics and start to make changes to the city from minimal action like petitioning, to larger action such as participating in public consultation, or even tabling and protest in the city. These actions could be much more difficult to have a lot of people to resonate in Macau compare to in the US because of the lack of wilderness and most of us are born and raised under egocentrism or homocentrism in this city. Ideally, I would be happy to see everyone in the city,
Deep ecology is a “new metaphysics that places humans in nature not above it”, “a total intermingling of person with planet” (RE, 92) and it “promotes a sense of human place within the household of nature” (RE, 93). It is resonating with the ecocentric part of partnership ethics that humans are part of the nature and are not superior to other species in any way. We cannot selfishly develop simply for profit or social goods, and cut trees down and release pollutants to the biosphere recklessly. Merchant also mentions that “deep ecology espouses an ecocentric rather than a homocentric ethic. In using nonhuman nature, people have a duty to maintain the integrity of the ecosphere, not to conquer it or make it more efficient” (RE, 93). This is supporting the idea of partnership ethics that “humans act to fulfill both humanity’s vital needs and nature’s needs by restraining human hubris” (RE, 84). I agree that humans could take resources from the nature for food, shelter, and energy, but we have to return and maintain the right for the nonhuman nature to survive and flourish. Despite the coherence between deep ecology and partnership ethics, sometimes, deep ecologists promote the separation of humans from the wilderness, which is opposing the relational state between humans and nonhuman nature. Also, the ignorance of the connection between “the domination of nature by ‘man’ …show more content…
For me, I would implement the partnership ethics mainly through my role as a citizen in the society and as a part of the nature, and through my future career. Getting involved in green politics, ecofeminism or environmental justice in different ways is a must in the future. As an international student, I would like to promote the partnership ethics in my hometown starting by convincing people around me. Macau is such a beautiful and multicultural city in my mind, however, the constant development of the city is diminishing the nonhuman nature in the city rapidly. As Merchant states that “a strong contingent is motivated by the need for humans to reclaim deep spiritual connections to nature and uses ritual at Green gatherings as a mode of energizing people for action” (RE, 181). Although I would say the consciousness of the relation between human and nonhuman nature in Macau is quite low, I will try to influence my peers to adopt the partnership ethics and start to make changes to the city from minimal action like petitioning, to larger action such as participating in public consultation, or even tabling and protest in the city. These actions could be much more difficult to have a lot of people to resonate in Macau compare to in the US because of the lack of wilderness and most of us are born and raised under egocentrism or homocentrism in this city. Ideally, I would be happy to see everyone in the city,