Ethics

This section of the Groundswell site will be devoted to developing a dialogue and debate about our values, and how they affect our approach to the impact human activity has on the physical environment we jointly inhabit with our fellow creatures and plants, and for future generations.

Ethics is about our understanding of right and wrong. In the past we have been able to make do with an ethical code which was essentially parochial. In today’s global context we have to develop a new ethics, one which takes much more account of our interdependence, our existence on a planet with finite resources, and our limited capacity to control the physical world. We are essentially dealing with an age old problem called ‘The Common Dilemma' where the interests of the individual conflict with those of the wider world - in this case people, creatures and plants.

The changes which are happening to the world’s environment as a result of human activity are extraordinary and profound. These changes are unprecedented in human history in their speed and impact. The ethical issues raised by these changes are also profound. They include:

1. That the people most vulnerable to the effects of these changes are those who have contributed the least. The ethical issue here is justice.

2. That the often the most influential levers of change appear to be economic and technical and the underlying moral and ethical aspects are therefore obscured. A good paper published in Nature in 2006 provides a trenchant critique of market-driven approaches to conservation. The ethical issues concern denial.

3. That the catastrophic effect of human activity on entire ecosystems, and also on the survival of individual species of plants and animals is often cast in terms of conservation efforts. The ethical issue here is that we may avoid the real issue.

4. That the forces of nature are much more powerful than we are: witness hurricane Katrina and the might of the United States. The ethical issue here is hubris.

5. That the actions of the past and present not only impact on our contemporary world but also influence the future. What we do today can be considered to be dangerous and harmful to the individuals who follow. We have to consider our role as stewards of the earth's environment and understand our relationship in this chain of causation that affects future generations. The ethical issue here is intergenerational justice.

Furthermore there are ethical challenges for those who profess an ethical code: the faith communities, the professional bodies, for example my own is psychology and they have commented to some extent, but not in ethical terms, and the representative bodies – local and national governments.

Have a look at the websites of your parish, town, district or county council. You may find a bit about our moral responsibility in this field, but there won’t be much. So we have to find new ways to think about these issues.

Please email me if you have ideas about how to develop this ethical dimension to our environmental challenges.

Tony Wainwright: tonywainwright [at] hotmail [dot] com