Environmental Ethics and the Via Verde

What Environmental Ethics has to says about the Via Verde Project

What is Environmental Ethics?

• A systematic and critical study of different moral approaches to the environment such as…–Extensionism–Agrarianism–Biocentrism–Ecocentrism–Environmental Virtue Ethics

Today’s Agenda

• Use these approaches as lenses through which to examine the Via Verde Project in terms of environmental ethics

• Give a brief account of each approach

• Raise questions from each approach to help structure an inquiry into the project’s ethical implications

Environmental Ethics RectangleAnthropocentric Non-

anthropocentric

Holistic Agrarianism: Humans transform nature for agriculture but understand farm as ecosystem (Berry, Jefferson, Jackson)

Ecocentrism: “A thing is good if it promotes the integrity, beauty, and stability of the biotic community.”Focus on biotic community conceived holistically

Individualistic Extensionism: Individualistic ethical approaches such as Utilitarianism and Deontology are extended to cover non-humans. (Singer for Utilitarianism and Regan for Deontology)

Biocentrism: obligations not to interfere with teleological centers of a life. Basic , non-human telos can trump non-basic and even basic human interests.

Classify according to method

Individualistic• Human has complete nature

apart from social or natural context

• Complex wholes (like ecosystems) can be reduced to sum of their parts

• Reductionistic (Methodological individualism)

Holisitic• Humans are internally and

essentially related to their natural and social environment

• Whole cannot be reduced to parts.

• Wholes are greater than the sum of their parts

Classified according to range

Anthropocentric

• Anthropocentric: Centered around humans. (Comes from Greek word anthropo which means human)– Humans are the central or

sole inhabitants of the moral community

Non-anthropocentric

• Non-anthropocentric: Not centered around humans– Moral community not

centered around humans. Animals, plants, small organisms all count in the moral scheme of things

1a. Extending the umbrella of utilitarianism to cover animals (Peter

Singer)

Individualistic and Anthropocentric

Singer: Animal Liberation• Utilitarianism– Actions and policies derive their moral worth from

their consequences– Maximize good results and minimize bad results

• All sentient beings have moral worth– Sentiency includes consciousness and ability to feel

pleasure and pain

• The umbrella of moral consideration is extended to animals because they have sentiency– Their pleasures and pains count

Via Verde Questions

• How will project effect sentient beings?

• What are its potential benefits?

• What are its risks?

• Is this an optimal balance?–Given the status quo (Using petroleum) –Compared to other available alternatives • Renewable and non renewable resources

1b. Extended moral rights to animal (Tom Regan)

Anthropocentric and Individualistic

Regan: The Case for Animal Rights• Animals are moral patients and have

“preference autonomy” – = preferences along with the ability to act on them

• Humans have duties to recognize and respect preference autonomy of moral patients including animals

• Rights would include right to life, right to a livable environment (=environment in which they can pursue their preferences)

Via Verde Questions for Rights

• Identify basic human and animal rights – Right to a livable environment (human and animal)– Right to exercise autonomy (pursuit of preferences)

along with rights to health and safety

• Will the project, in any of its phases, violate any of these rights?

• If so, can it be modified so as not to violate these rights while still keeping its goals in tact?– Diversifying energy resources; responding to increased

energy demand

2. Agrarianism: Living in small farms and practicing

traditional agriculture fosters key civic and moral virtues (Paul Thompson, Spirit of the Soil, and Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of

America, A Place on the Earth

Holistic and Anthropocentric

Wendell Berry• Unsettling of America– Adverse consequences of industrialization of agriculture

• Farms distorted by incorporation of big business practices• Had small farm in Kentucky; treated it as an ecosystem

• Accords Jefferson’s view that small farms were essential to democracy– Fostered development of moral and civic virtues– Dispersed power (Decentralized)

• A Place on Earth: main character of novel is a farm– Personification of the land

Questions from Agrarianism

• What is the impact of the Via Verde project on local, small farms?

• What is the impact of the Via Verde project on the communities that surround these farms?

• Does it threaten PR agrarianism? – Fosters development of “Jibaro”?• Lives close to the land• Takes dignity and integrity from the practice of

traditional agriculture• Caretaker or steward of the land

3. Biocentrism: Each living thing is a “teleological center of a life”.

There are moral obligations to recognize and respect these “centers”

Non-anthropocentric and individualistic

Paul Taylor: Biocentrism

• Hursthouse summarizes: – “Environmental Virtue Ethics” in Working Virtue edited by

R. Walker and P. Ivanhoe. Oxford: 163.

• Every living thing has a telos = a good of its own. – Fish swim, birds fly– Its nature or being is fulfilled by exercising its

proper telos

• Positive duties to promote the telos

• Negative duties not to interfere with telos

Questions from Biocentrism• Identify basic non-human interests using the concept of

a “teleological center-of-a-life”

• How impacts does the Via Verde have on the “teleological centers of life” that live within the sphere of its influence?

• Do basic non-human interests conflict with basic human interests?– Identify potential conflicts

• Can these conflicts be resolved?– By integrating the interests?– By modifying the design of the project?

Human Goods / Non-Human Goods

Basic Non-Human Good

Non-Basic, Non-Human Good

Basic Human Good Basic human good has priority (Right of Self-Defense)

Do humans have a basic need for energy? Does the Via Verde violate basic non-human needs? Are there alternatives?

Basic human good has priority because a basic good trumps a non-basic good.

Humans need for energy would trump if project did not violate basic, non-human needs

Non-Basic Human Good

The basic, non-human good has priority because a basic good trumps a non-basic good.

Humans need energy for recreational activities. Do these interfere with basic, non-human needs?

Toss up. Some non-basic goods have priority over others.

If non-basic human needs conflict with non-basic non-human needs in the Via Verde project, this is a toss up.

4. Ecocentrism: Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic

Non-anthropocentric (under most interpretations) and Holistic

Ecocentrism• Aldo Leopold, “The Land Ethic” in A Sand County Almanac.

• “There is as yet no ethic dealing with man’s relation to land and to the animals and plants which grow upon it. Land, like Odysseus’ slave-girls, is still property. The land-relation is still strictly economic, entailing privileges but not obligations.”

• “The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.”

• “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”

Via Verde Questions• What is the impact of the Via Verde on the

ecosystems that boarder its planned route?– Does it preserve their beauty, stability and integrity?

• What is the impact of the Via Verde on the human communities affected by its construction and operation– Does it preserve their beauty, stability, and integrity

• Do these two converge?– Do the impacts on non-human aspects of the biotic

community converge with those on the human community?

A Virtue Approach to Environmental Ethics

Wensveen, “Cardinal Environmental Virtues: A Neurobiological Perspective,” in Environmental Virtue Ethics, edited by R. Sandler and P.

Cafaro. Rowman & Littlefield: 176-177

Definitions of Virtue and Virtue Ethics• “Las virtudes son disposiciones y rasgos del carácter del

agente moral a la hora de ejecutar las acciones inherentes al ser persona.

– se trata de un punto intermedio entre dos extremos, ninguno de los cuales representa un valor moral, sino que más bien puede constituir un vicio o al menos carecer de excelencia

– no son meros rasgos del carácter que se operan automáticamente, sino respuestas deliberadas ante las situaciones concretas

– existe un cierto grado de influencia cultural que puede hacer que la manifestación de la virtud varíe según el contexto

– se puede distinguir la “virtud” de las virtudes, en cuanto que la primera se refiere a la integridad o coherencia de la personalidad ante la vida, mientras que las segundas son reacciones a situaciones especificas”

Lugo,E. (2002) Relación Medico/paciente: encuentro interpersonal ética y

espiritualidad. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Puerto Rico: 88

Definition of Virtue and Virtue Ethics• “A virtue such as honesty or generosity is not just a tendency

to do what is honest or generous, nor is it to be helpfully specified as a “desirable” or “morally valuable” character trait.

• It is, indeed a character trait—that is, a disposition which is well entrenched in its possessor, something that, as we say “goes all the way down”, unlike a habit such as being a tea-drinker—but the disposition in question…is multi-track.

• It is concerned with many other actions as well, with emotions and emotional reactions, choices, values, desires, perceptions, attitudes, interests expectations and sensibilities.

• To possess a virtue is to be a certain sort of person with a certain complex mindset.”

Hursthouse, R. (2007) “Virtue Ethics” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-virtue/Accessed 11/11/2008

Virtue Ethics• Virtue ethics does focus on individual actions

but in a different way than other theories

• It assesses the moral worth of an action by “fitting” into different contexts:– Narrative of a morally exemplary career– Practice or community

• So, an environmental virtue = that which, together with other actions, sustains the “beauty, stability, and integrity of the biotic community”

Context 1: Moral Exemplar

• Would this action fit into the career of a morally exemplary …– Engineer– Business practitioner– Community leader

• This action instantiates certain values. Would I want these values to become central parts of my core self identity?– How does this action and the values it instantiates fit

into my own self-narrative?

Context 2: Practice

• Does this action resonates with the values professed (and actually constitutive of) my practice or profession?– Doctor: Does this resonate with a practice devoted to

health?– Lawyer: Does this action resonate with a practice devoted

to an adversarial approach to justice and truth?– Engineer: Does this action resonate with a practice

devoted to public wellbeing (health and welfare), client fidelity, peer collegiality, and professional integrity

– Business practitioner: Does this practice resonate with the prosperity and sustainability (taken in its widest sense) of the community?

Context 3: Biotic Community

• To paraphrase Leopold, does this action resonate with the beauty, stability, and integrity of the biotic community (which includes inanimate as well as animate matter).

• This involves four virtues (reconfigured from a human context to a trans-human context)– Virtues of position– Virtues of care– Virtues of attunement– Virtues of endurance

• Louke Van Wensveen: “Cardinal Environmental Virtues”

Environmental Virtues from Wensveen

• Virtues of Position: "Constructive habits of seeing ourselves in a particular place in a relational structure and interacting accordingly.”– Can we integrate the gas pipeline with the surrounding

natural environment?

• Examples:– Humility, self-acceptance, gratitude, appreciation of good in

others, prudence, and practical judgment

• Question: – Does the Via Verde resonate with virtues such as humility? Or

does it express corresponding vices such as greed, arrogance, and imprudence?

Environmental Virtues from Wensveen

• Virtues of Care: "habits of constructive involvement within the relational structure where we have found our place. How widely do we cast our sensors in order to learn what is needed around us?“– Honing in on weak points in the ecosystem and calibrating action

to address these vulnerabilities

• Examples:– Attentiveness, benevolence, loving nature, friendship

• Question: – Does the Via Verde in design and execution resonate with

attentiveness and benevolence? Does fall into vices such as insensitivity and malevolence (or indifference)?

More Environmental Virtues• Virtues of Attunement: "habits of handling temptations by

adjusting our positive, outgoing drives and emotions to match our chosen place and degree of constructive, ecosocial engagement." – Can energy conservation be a source of solidarity and also

defuse the current energy crisis in PR? (reconfigures temperance)

• Examples:– Frugality and simplicity

• Question: – Does the Via Verde express virtues or values like frugality and

simplicity? Does it express the vices of manifest and concealed complexity? (Winner)

More Environmental Virtues• Virtues of Endurance: "habits of facing dangers and difficulties

by handling our negative, protective drives and emotions in such a way that we can sustain our chosen sense of place and degree of constructive ecosocial engagement." – Can Puerto Ricans act resolutely and ethically in the face of

environmental and economic crises? (Integration, compromise, and ethical trade-offs

• Examples:– Tenacity (mean between apathy and obsession), loyalty,

perseverance

• Question:– Does the Via Verde express tenacity, loyalty, and perseverance

especially in relation to the natural environment? Does it target the corresponding vices?

Solutions• Two Paradigms

– Follow the current paradigm• Energy growth• Reduce immediate costs• Diversify sources (using non-renewable resources)• Keep energy production centralized and technologically sophisticated

(complicated)

– New paradigm (new goal)• Energy Independence• Reduce usage through conservation and technology (smart grids and IPRs)• Decentralization and simplification of energy production• Diversify sources• Make use of renewable resources

– Use of “paradigm” is appropriate here—represent two different ways of approaching the PR energy “crises”

Virtue Perspective on Paradigm Choice

• These paradigms also represent two fundamentally different paths for PR

• Choice not only expresses who we are (our collective identity or character) but will, partially, constitute who we will become

• So, seeing these two paradigms and their associated virtues and vices, virtue ethics has us ask what kind of people we wish to become– Each choice expresses fundamental dispositions

Values Expressed by Participants

• Values Sensitive to Context: – Values Expressed by Signal Events (Cogentrix, Copper

Mining, CAPECO explosion, Zoe Colocotroni Oil Spill)– Values telescoped into the image of Jibaro

• Bolt talks of the “common man” in a Man for All Seasons

– Environmental and social justice– Health and Safety– Autonomy– Identification with Land, History, Tradition. These

values, in their thick sense, depend on the quality of the discourse generated within the community.

Conclusion• Examined four approaches to environmental ethics

• Interpreted approaches as lenses that highlighted certain aspects and de-emphasized others

• Each approach generated questions pertinent to the ethics of the Via Verde Project

• Choice between energy paradigms expresses our community character– Choice and action reflect existing character– But they also inaugurate a future that constitutes who we

are to become

• William J. Frey• College of Business Administration• UPRM• freyuprm@yahoo.com• williamjoseph.frey@upr.edu

• http://cnx.org/content/m32584/latest/