Pros And Cons Of Human Vices

Superior Essays
How Human Vices Are Destroying the Worlds Forests
There are many environmental issues the world is currently facing-species extinction, global warming, deforestation, and pollution are just a few. Philip Cafaro argues in the book Environmental Virtue Ethics, that there are four main vices in society that lead to personal and environmental harm. The vices are gluttony, greed, apathy, and arrogance. One of the world’s major environmental destructions is deforestation; these four main vices are the cause of this problem.
The world’s forests are complex ecosystems that are rapidly being depleted. According to the World Wildlife Fund, forests make up thirty-one percent of the planet. The forests are responsible with providing the world’s oxygen
…show more content…
Sagoff believes that resources like oil are less expensive and more abundant then they used to be. He says that the world energy council has declared the fears of resource depletion to be unfounded. According to Sagoff’s reasoning, society should not worry about running out of trees because there will always be more (83-86). The image to above shows the data found by BBC when the organization looked at the earth’s depleting resources. The image shows multiple resources like the Amazon rainforest, coal, gas, and multiple minerals. The image then list different key years and evaluates what resources will be left. As you can see according to the data, by 2062 most fossil fuels are expected to run out along with many important minerals. And by 2087 a huge majority of the world’s rainforest like the Amazon will be exhausted. The data disproves Sagoffs main claim that the world is not running out of resource’s. Sagoff’s type of reasoning or arrogance about how the earth’s environment works is very common in today’s culture. This growing idea is one of the main struggles environmentalists face. How can a group save trees if the culture around them believes there is an infinite amount? This first objection by Sagoff is invalid because quiet simply, there are no infinite resources. While society has found ways to better find oil, it does not mean there is an infinite supply. These fossil fuel …show more content…
This means that it is acceptable to simply use resources up until there is little left, and then repeat that process endlessly with all the worlds’ resources. This way of thinking matches up with Cafaro’s greed and gluttony vice examples. If a society is set on continuing to live their unsustainable way of life in both a greedy and gluttonous way then resources like the forests are doomed to disappear. This mentallity will hurt forests because it will encourage deforestation to try to find more oil or gold. Sagoff’s idea does not take into account how harmful some resources are to the environment. Just because you can burn fossil fuels for another thousand years doesn’t mean it is morally acceptable to do so. If it is made known that fossil fuels lead to extreme pollution that causes health problems, then should society continue to endlessly burn it until it is scarce? While later in his paper Sagoff mentions multiple times that there are new developments in green technology that should continue to be developed, he still maintains the world has unlimited resources (83-86). It appears as though Sagoff is encouraging green technology simply because it is more efficient and not because it will help the environment. In his paper Sagoff says something that contradicts his argument. Sagoff states, “Whale oil has substitutes, such as electricity and petroleum-

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In the article, Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math, which could be found in the Rolling Stones Magazine, the author Bill Mckibben thoroughly outlines the most conventional political thinking about the issue Global Warming and Climate change that civilization and society has failed to resolve . However in order for this issue to be properly resolved, the ways of changing the methods of living and well being of society are going to be strongly impacted. First and foremost , Mckibeen uses three simple numbers s to describe the situation, Firstly, 2.8 C., 565 Gigaton’s, and 2795 Gigaton’s. Secondly, he then discusses in further detail that the fossil-fuel industry is one of the most reckless on earth, and how “there is no other force that is greater, and how these various fossil fuel companies are good for global economies” (Mckibben,2012). Mckibben intuitively exaggerates these two following factors to describe the situation more in depth and with extensive clarity.…

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This week, the reading selections were quite interesting. We have these two authors, Taylor and Epstein, who truly approach the environmental topic in separate ways. On one hand, we have Paul Taylor defending our environment all the way in the article “The Ethics of Respect for Nature”. In this article, Taylor insists that we switch our current perspectives, regarding the environment, to ones that further zoom in on the sake of nature. In fact, Taylor states that “once we reject the claim that humans are superior either in merit or in worth to other living things, we are ready to adopt the attitude of respect” (330).…

    • 689 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Author Sandra Steingraber argues that the fossil fuels humans are so dependent upon are harming the Earth, the animals on Earth, and the people on Earth. “Follow the first branch and you find droughts, floods, acidifying oceans, dissolving coral reefs, and faltering plankton. Follow the second branch and you find pesticides in children’s urine, lungs stunted by air pollutants, abbreviated pregnancies, altered hormone levels, and lower scores on cognitive tests.” (745) “Indeed, according to the most recent assessment, one in every four mammal species is now threatened with extinction.” (746)…

    • 2039 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Over the past century we have seen not only our population skyrocket, but also our technological capacity increase exponentially. My worldview, primarily eco-centric, is focused on the incredible potential of technology to create sustainable harmony between humanity and the earth. We have gotten to a point in our evolution where it will be impossible to revert to our pre-industrial state. Our resources are limited and should not be wasted, this traces back to the fundamental property of the universe: energy and matter cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be converted between forms. So much matter is wasted and converted into a state in which it is impossible to recover it, and instead of draining the earth we should be focusing on developing inexhaustible…

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Previously it has been established by many philosophers that human intrinsic value should not be commodified, and that in some cases they are even resistant to commodification. Non-human intrinsic values do not seem to be allotted the same courtesy or respect. This could be because of the distinction previously discussed by Rolston, where non-human intrinsic values like nature, can not be considered the same way as human intrinsic values, meaning they are more susceptible to commodification. However, Mark Sagoff, an environmental philosopher and economist, disagrees with this claim, and argues in his book The Economy of the Earth: Philosophy, Law and the Environment that the environment cannot be considered an economic good and therefore should be considered as an end in itself and be preserved. Sagoff’s views are consistent with views presented by Elizabeth Anderson with regards to the constraints set on markets, arguing for the ethical consideration of the environment.…

    • 1101 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    2060: the predicted year that Earth will have run out of all oil and natural gas. In approximately 200 years, humans will have used up all of the available resources. And considering the earth is 4.5 billion years old, this is disgusting. If the predicted year is correct, I will be 59 years old when everything the world depends on is gone.…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Many believe that consumption does not increase with overpopulation, however, as the population gets bigger more products are needed to be produced, to keep up with high demands; thus causing high amounts of waste. Ellis and Pearce both agree that there is no such thing as a capacity limit in our world. Pearce argued that as population decreases, consumption than goes up and he stated “women only started having fewer children when they got educated and the economy got rich.” (Pg1) A huge portion of the world’s pollution issues comes from buying resources that are short lived and then later disposed of. He, mentioned that “the worlds richest half billion people…are responsible for half of the worlds carbon dioxide emissions” (Pearce, Pg2) from purchasing high amounts of material items.…

    • 1100 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dear Rex W. Tillerson CEO, As you must know, climate change is real and well in effect. The sea-level is rising, the ice caps are melting, the ocean is acidifying, and Earth’s temperature is rising at an unprecedented rate. Why, must you ask? We humans have become so powerful and influential that we have changed Earth’s climate and the way Earth works. As the population will continue to grow at a high rate, the need for resources will increase as well.…

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Article Summary The article written by Al Engler discusses the possibility that the increase of carbon dioxide in the air is a leading cause in forwarding the effects of global warming. Due to the increase of this (and other) greenhouse gases, consequences of global warming will continue to escalate until we put a stop to adding to the natural greenhouse effects with our own carbon emissions. However, as Engler states, “The problem is capitalism.”…

    • 676 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Poverty vs Wealthy In this world poverty prevails around the world, and it’s the biggest issue that people are facing today. In the other hand there’s the wealthy that we could call the minority. The natural resources that our planet is giving us to survive are running out and everyday are less. Garrett Hardin illustrates in his article “Lifeboat Ethics: the Case Against Helping the Poor” that wealthy people or nations are the only ones that have access to those natural resources.…

    • 1146 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Argument of Fact Unsustainable fossil fuels have been in controversy in the more recent years. The world’s population is constantly growing and changing with that the need for more energy grows as well. Right now, the main way to fulfill the need of these growing populations come from the use of fossil fuel. One major problem. Fossil fuel is unsustainable, and the need is overcoming the what the earth can create and produce.…

    • 877 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Chapter 1. The carbon emissions curve is exponential. What does that mean, and what observations or implications do the authors draw from it? When they say that the carbon emissions curve is exponential, it means that they are “the type of curve you get when the more of something you have, the faster that something grows” (p. 56-57).…

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I have always been interested in climate change, in the same line as global warming. I would like to learn more about how the communities and big businesses is causing damage to the climate. I remember one of my friends told me that if you leave your water running outside in your lawn you will be fined, which came as a shock to me. I never thought of getting a fine for watering your own lawn. In our society today, human emission caused more pollution than ever; there must be a solution that we can work together to improve our health and cleaner air.…

    • 1666 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Trees naturally sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and thus decrease global warming and its repercussions. Carbon dioxide is an essential component of the Calvin Cycle for the production of glucose, which is the primary energy source for plants as well as many herbivorous and carnivorous consumers. With the rapid increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels from anthropogenic activity since the Industrial Revolution, scientist suspect that carbon dioxide fertilization will amplify photosynthesis and, therefore, sequester more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to the terrestrial carbon sink in the form of trees (Bonan 2008).2 Forests are a major terrestrial carbon sink and contain approximately 45% of terrestrial…

    • 1415 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    This issue often goes unnoticed because humans are so caught up in their everyday lives. Many people support only what is best for humans in their lifetime and don’t look at the bigger picture. People fail to consider how their actions affect not only plants and animals in their ecosystem, but future generations as well. Throughout the years we have harmed and destroyed forest ecosystems and everything that lives in them, so it is only fair that we do everything we can to help limit the amount of damage we deal to our forests and wildlife. Deforestation has been around since…

    • 1292 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays