Key Question: What would an ethic of care towards the environment look like?

1. What would be needed to create it?

What would be needed to create a ethic of care in the community is to educate people about what is happening in the environment around us. For people to really care about the environment they need to know the negative changes that are happening to it. People can’t care about things that they don’t know are happening or aren’t educated enough about the topic and how it might be affecting their lives in the present time or potential future.

1. What would we have to believe about the environment? How should we see it?

In order for us to have a ethic of care for the environment we would have to believe that us humans are causing the environment to slowly change. Humans need to believe that overall the environment is changing for the worse because of the lasting footprint humans are making on it. Although humans can sometimes be very good to the environment, that respect comes with having a ethic of care towards it. Developing a ethic of care begins when we view the environment as something that needs help, and to be taken care of.

1. How would we act? – give scenarios

We would act as if the environment is our child. You never want to do anything to hurt your child in any sort of way, or do anything to set your child back. For example, we would never want to cut down any trees or litter because that is not good for the environment. We also want to see our child flourish and do anything to help. Having a ethic of care for the environment we can do things that we know will significantly influence the environment in a positive way, such as, planting trees. We know that planting trees will only help the environment flourish and will not hold it back in any way.

1. What would be different about the world if everyone adopted this ethic of care towards the environment? Benefits and drawbacks?

If everyone adopted a ethic of care towards the environment our world would look a lot different today. People have many ethics of care and priorities. A lot of people currently  put the priorities of themselves before the priorities of the environment. One priority being convenience. Humans drive cars because it is more convenient for themselves than riding a bike. However, riding a bike is more convenient for the environment. If adopting a ethic of care for the environment was everyones number one priority everyone would be riding bikes and doing many things differently, such as, not using as many resources for buildings, trying to recycle everything as much as possible, and many other effects. This is beneficial towards the environment because we would not be creating as much waste as we do now. However, this is a drawback because it would make humans lives much harder than they are right now.

1. Should we adopt an ethic of care towards the environment?

I think that it is important to have a ethic of care towards the environment. However, humans should adopt a ethic of care with restrictions. We shouldn’t make our lives harder in the process of creating an ethic of care. Personally I think that people always need to keep a ethic of care for the environment in mind and adapt to a everyday lifestyle using the ethic of care where they can. I don’t think that having a ethic of care towards the environment should be a priority over the ethic of care towards ourselves and our priorities.