Tyler Nay
Rouzie
Eng 308J
3-18-11
Ethical Epiphany
What exactly are environmental ethics, and do I have any? Before taking this course I always thought I was environmentally conscious, but realize now I was living the same lie that most people do today. There is a major difference between caring about the environment and actually working to help it. Having environmental ethics is more than just caring about the environment; you have to change your entire lifestyle. I figure the only way to show you how my environmental ethics changed throughout this course is to take you through the ten-week epiphany I went through.
Prior to this course I always thought of myself as one of the more environmentally conscious group of people. My grandpa owns a 500-acre farm outside my hometown, so I practically grew up with nature. I loved being out in the fresh air, and experiencing the untainted beauty that the farm had to offer. I learned a lot about nature, and how to treat it with the respect it deserves. Also, while growing up my family always recycled, which I thought was natural for everyone to do. I can remember going to friends houses and going to throw away a soda can and asking where their recycling was. Just about every time they wouldn’t have recycling, and would tell me it was just too much work to recycle. I always thought that was weird, because it was a regular thing in my home. That is partly the reason I always considered myself on the better side of environmentally friendly. I thought that since I have recycled my whole life, that must mean I am helping the environment. Although recycling is very beneficial to the environment, I learned from this course that my impact on the environment is only minimally lessened by the simple act of recycling.
The Saving Place readings were a major contributor to the change in my environmental ethics. One reading in particular, “The American Indian Wilderness” by Louis Owens was probably the most influential on my change of awareness. In the writing by Owens, he too has an epiphany about the way he views nature. Owens writes about an experience he had with two elderly Indian women. While working as a ranger in the U.S. Forest Service, Owens had the job of tearing down an old dilapidated shelter in response to the Forest Service’s plan to rid the area of all human-made objects. Owens did so, and quotes “feeling smug about returning White Pass to its original state”(69) . Owens smug feeling soon turns to regret when he crosses paths with two women on his way out of the forest. Owens, being a ranger asks the two women where they are headed, and they tell him up to White Pass. They explain to him that they have been making the trek up there for years in memory of their late father who built the shelter with his own hands. The two women are from Indian descent, and tell Owens about how the land used to be “all our land” (70). Leopold, having Indian blood as well, feels terrible and confesses his actions. He expects the two women to be heartbroken and angered by the news, but their smiles never break. “They forgave me without saying it-my ignorance and my part in the long pattern of loss which they knew so well” (70).
Owens view of nature is completely turned upside down after his encounter with the two sisters. He says, “I began to understand that what I called wilderness was an absurdity, nothing more than a figment of the European imagination” (70). Owens blames the European way of thinking for the disconnect our society has from the natural world. He states that our Indian ancestors coexisted with nature, rather than try to control it as society does today. That was a real eye-opening moment in the piece for me. Nature is a beautiful part of us and if we lose that our world will not be the same. Society today views wilderness and nature as a getaway, instead of part of our home. People think that by fencing off a small piece of “wilderness” and giving it a name that we are one with nature. That is obviously wrong. The fenced-off parks that people call wilderness are more of a way to ease our guilty conscience for ruining the vast and fruitful land that is now becoming part of our past.
The documentary “Food Inc.” not only changed my view on environmental ethics, but also changed my eating habits forever. I personally found the documentary rather disturbing. I have a personal experience with salmonella food poisoning, so seeing the secrets of the food industry made me absolutely sick to my stomach. I still cannot believe the food industry can get away with such terrible and unbearably disgusting actions. I am upset with every aspect of agribusiness. Like mentioned earlier, my grandpa has a farm that has been in our family for three generations, and seeing the way big business treats farmers like him disgust me. Fortunately my grandpa was not drastically affected by the food industries antics. He slowed down his production many years ago due to his age and the fact that all of his children were grown and out of the house. I can almost guarantee that if he had continued his production the food industry would have somehow got their noses into it.
The major food production companies don’t care about the nutritional value or safety of their food. They are just out to make an easy buck. They are producing so-called “meat”, which ironically is barely meat at all. The chemically alter it to make it last longer, and to make it actually taste like meat. These also companies use extremely inhumane and unsanitary methods of production. Their animals are filled with steroids and chemicals to make them fatter, and are forced to live in small over-crowed pens their entire lives. That is in no way how our food should me produced. If everyone boycotted the big businesses of the food industry and started buying from local farmers, it would not only be beneficial to our health, but healthier for the environment as well. I understand that a movement as big as boycotting the food industry is somewhat unrealistic, but something needs to be done. These companies are ruining the environment and our health on a daily basis. The food industry needs a serious reality check in their ethics, and the only way for that to happen is to show them we can live healthier and happier without them.
The Earth Charter was a very inspirational piece. I absolutely loved everything about it. I felt it was a call to action to all human beings for everyone to open their eyes and do what is right. It also approached the issue of sustainability in a different way than I have ever heard. The Earth Charter, instead of focusing on the problems of one nation, stressed the importance of unity among all human beings. The Charter talked about how the earth is home to all humans, and that it is our duty to put our differences aside for the sake of protecting it. Reading the charter got me thinking. I agree fully with the fact that as humans it is our duty to protect the place that has given us life. Everyone is more concerned about who is to blame for our environmental problems, rather than focusing on a solution. We need to get away form the nationalistic ways of our past and start working to clean up the future. Pointing the finger of blame only fuels the fire of environmental destruction. People need to realize if the world goes down, we all go right along with it, no matter whose fault it is. One problem I see with the charter is that not everyone is as open minded as I am, and putting it into action will certainly be a challenge. But a challenge that will hopefully not only help the environment, but bring all nations together as well.
A sad truth is that most people ignore the damages that humans cause to the earth, and will probably continue to do so until it is too late. Our home is slowly deteriorating as we continue to turn the other cheek. Everyone can see it, but few people will stand up for what is right, and try to make a change. The Earth Charter is doing just that. It is telling everyone to put all of our differences behind us and look at the bigger picture. No matter how much we hate to say it we are all in this together. Our home, the earth is the one thing that breaks the boundaries we have constructed to isolate ourselves.
Though all of what I have learned about the environment and how we affect it, I’ve decided to make a change in my lifestyle. I have started paying more attention to the amount of energy I consume on a daily basis. Turning the lights off when they aren’t necessary, not falling asleep with the television on, and even taking shorter showers. I try not to buy bottled water, and use my Brita instead. Buying food is one of the hardest things to do while trying to reduce my environmental impact. “Food Inc.” was probably the sole contributor to my change in the way I eat. I was so revolted by what I learned about the food industry that I knew I would have to change my eating habits entirely. I have stopped going to fast food restaurants because I don’t support where they get their food. One nice thing about my changes in eating habits is that most of the meat I get is raised on my grandpa’s farm. He raises about three cows a year for meat and has them butchered at a local butcher. It’s nice to have fresh meat year round and no exactly where it came from and how it was raised. I will definitely continue to get fresh meat like what I have grown up on in the future. The difference is in the taste. There is nothing like one of my grandpa’s fresh steaks. They beat any steak house any day. It’s 100% fresh beef raised in a humane environment, which is exactly how it should be.
So, the question is what are my environmental ethics now? I can undoubtedly say that my ethics drastically changed throughout this course. Before taking this course I always assumed I was an environmentally conscious person, but in reality I wasn’t. I learned that it takes a lot more that just recycling some soda cans to stop my environmental impact. Throughout this course I learned the difference between what society believes says they are doing to help the environment, and what is actually happening. I realize now that I need to completely change the way I live. I use an abundant amount of unnecessary energy, and need to work on reducing my footprint. One problem with changing my lifestyle though is that I’m a college student. I can’t exactly afford the lifestyle needed to be entirely environmentally friendly right now, but have made a promise to my self and to nature that I will work at making the lifestyle change. One might think environmental ethics are something that you acquire over the span of your life, but my entire ethical view was turned upside down in just ten short weeks.
Work Cited
Catskills NY Real Estate. Web. 18 Mar 2011.
Healthy Living. Web. 18 Mar 2011.
Owens, Louis. "The American Indian Wilderness." Saving Place. Ed. Sidney Dorbin. New York: McGraw Hill, 2005. 68-71. Print
