Managing Environmental Issues
Environmental ethics are concerned with ethical relationships that exist between human beings and the environment. There have been various ethical discussions regarding human responsibility towards protecting natural resources. These debates have come up when developmental or scientific projects conflict with the ecological balance. The simulation provided focuses on managing environmental issues under three major environmental philosophies concerning human responsibility toward the environment. It explores how anthropogenic activities affect natural environment due to the interactions between man and the environment.
In addition, the simulation enables an understanding of the importance of environmental justice. The case study provided describes the importance of rainforests to the ecosystem. For instance, rainforests provide habitats for the world’s biodiversity, fauna, and flora. On the other hand, during the process of transpiration, these vital resources release oxygen and act as carbon sinks. In the biomedical field, rainforests are a vitals source of herbal medicine.
However, environmental degradation has led to the depletion of rainforests. Various stakeholders discussed in the simulation include a multinational corporation that utilizes rainforest to manufacturer pharmaceutical products; other stakeholders are the local communities, as well as, governments of the rainforest countries. The simulation indicates that pharmaceutical companies have convinced rainforest countries that their economies will expand through exploitation of rain forests for timber and non-timber products. However, environmentalists have cautioned that unsustainable exploitation of natural resources may destroy economies due to the destructions of trees. This contributes to a dilemma since; the disappearance of these valuable resources can also interfere with the discovery of new medicines.
High population growth rates have led to an increase in the demand of the rain forest resources. Overexploitation of rainforest has led to various environmental consequences; hence, leading to the need to exploit the rainforests sustainably by giving an equal opportunity for the plants and animals to survive on the planet. There are varying viewpoints on the utilization of natural resources. However, environmental ethics integrates the comparison of the right and wrong, pertaining to the utilization of rainforest. The simulation emphasizes that environmental issues should be given more attention since the environment is too large, and natural resources have permanent economic value.
Consequently, human beings are also affected by the mutual interaction with nature. Therefore, the simulation explains how man can affect the natural processes in terms of the complex relationship between man and the natural world. Furthermore, it also attempts to contribute to the critical study of environmental stewardship. There is a close relationship between the simulation and environmental justice. This illustrated in the relationship between nature and human beings. Attention has been drawn by environmentalists and researchers in disciplines related to nature due to the loss of biodiversity and the implications on human wellbeing.
In this case, the destruction of rainforests can lead to loss of biodiversity; hence, resulting into ecosystems that are non-resilient and more prone to shocks and disturbances, that may jeopardize the future generation’s ability to meet their needs.
