Growing populations put an ever increasing strain on nature.
Traditional ethics refers to a code of conduct that determines what actions are right and wrong, according to the Encyclopedia of Earth. Environmental ethics refers to the care and duty for nature by humans, according to Holmes Rolston in "The Blackwell Companion to Philosophy". The population explosion brings up questions on how man should interact with the world around him.
History
English economist Thomas Malthus was one of the first people to write about population growth and environmental ethics. His "An Essay on the Principle of Population"--written around the start of the Industrial Revolution in 1798--claimed that society would eventually outstrip nature's resources unless war, disease and famine could control it, according to JRank.com.
Anthropocentric View
Industrialized nations tend to take an anthropocentric view on the environment, according to the Encyclopedia of Earth. The anthropocentric view believes that man can extract resources from the earth forever--or at least find alternatives--to develop and meet the needs of a growing population. However, in the modern world, the earth has few unexplored frontiers.
Considerations
Environmental ethics became a formal academic subject during the 1960's and 1970's according to Rolston. Books like "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson made the world more aware of the negative effects of human growth and development on the natural world and other humans. Environmental ethics has even led to some real policies to try to curb the effects of human population growth, such as the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
Effects
Environmental ethics usually ties nature into the social contract--the idea that people must coexist peacefully and not steal or lie to each other. However, since people often take the anthropocentric view, we have environmental problems tied to overpopulation, such as global warming, acid rain, deforestation and overfishing that harm all parts of the world: animals, nature and people.
Solution
Environmental ethics believes that human population can grow, but not forever and only in a sustainable way, according to the Encyclopedia of Earth. Earth has limited resources, so we must conserve them and allow other people and animals to use them. Important conservation methods include developing renewable energy like solar, and saving oil for future generations.
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