Environmentalism: Philosophy, Ideology And Social Movement

India’s leader Mohandas Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi) was influenced by David Thoreau 's Civil Disobedience arguments while sitting in jail. Gandhi loosely adopted the term “civil disobedience” for non-violent protests and refused to cooperate with injustice. Following his release, he protested the registration law by joining labor strikes and organizing a large non-violent march. After the marches, the Boer government finally agreed to end the most divisive sections of the law. In 1907, he campaigned in South Africa and wrote a translated synopsis of Thoreau 's argument for the Indian Opinion.

Mahatma Gandhi Manav Patel Mahatma Karamchand Gandhi was a humanitarian who used peaceful topics to fight for the freedom of India. He walked 250 miles from his Ashram to Dandi, a coast off of Eastern India. He then proceeded to pick up a lump of salt, thereby defying British Law. This story leads us to ask the question, why did Gandhi’s nonviolent movement work? Basically, he could convince the people to join him instead of killing off nonbelievers.

Mohandas Gandhi is one of the greatest nonviolent activists ever. Gandhi came up with the word ahimsa, which meant nonviolence. He also introduced to the world the word satyagraha, which meant peaceful civil disobedience. In 1930 Gandhi and a group of followers began a march of more than 200 miles. Three and a half weeks later they made it to their destination, the sea.

The environmentalist movement began simply to protect wildlife from the greed of corporations, like stated by author, John Muir. Farmers began to use techniques that mirrored the same, environment-damaging business tactics as corporations (which encouraged heavy amounts of chemicals to be used to catalyze production). This caused environmentalists like Wendell Berry to speak out against the chemicals and tactics used, developing the environmentalist movement. The biggest shift in the movement happened when society realized its impact on the environment. Authors like Rachel Carson urge humanity to preserve the environment by outlawing the use of chemicals. Meanwhile, Bill McKibben calls out consumer greed to be the main offender of environmental damage. Diana Lind, a more recent author, pitches ideas that support the

“..I shall proceed with such co-workers of the Ashram [Community] as I can take, to disregard the provisions of the Salt Laws.” (Document A, Gandhi). Gandhi knew he had people to back him and fight, (nonviolently speaking), with him. Even before the Salt March truly began people lined up behind Gandhi and joined him in his march for freedom. The loyalty of these people is what really kept the movement alive.

In the early 1960’s, the original state of the American environmental justice movement can be traced back to the emergence of the American Civil Rights movement. Prior to the concerned environmentalism with humanity’s adverse impact upon the environment, but there are arguments that are primarily concerned with the impact of an unhealthy environment that forcefully pushes upon a collective body of life, entailing both human and non-human existence, including in some instances plant life. I found the Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice more interestingly and I chose to write about that.

The process by which one becomes an environmentalist, that is, someone who cares for nature itself, begins by seeing “the pretty” within the natural world and “it expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language” (Leopold, 96). John Muir recognized the importance of beauty and wrote of its presence in all places, not just the pristine, as “beauty…is made manifest in the little window-sill gardens of the poor, though perhaps only a geranium slip in a broken cup, as well as in the carefully tended rose and lily gardens of the rich” (Muir, 97). Thus, humans must connect primordially to nature so that it reveals itself and inspires “wonder and awe” within the viewer (Cooper, 343). These emotions are translated into care for the land so one who comes to love the land, they are an environmentalist. Thus, everyone can develop a land ethic, not just the elite, and the classist nature of the environmental movement is

Gandhi talked about Gandhi and Thoreau are recognize how both talked against the

Thomas Hill has an interesting perspective when it comes to human being’s relationship with the environment. Hill proposes that human beings should start looking at the problem of environmental destruction from a different view point. Instead of asking questions that pertain to the relativity of the environment to human beings, plants, God, and their intrinsic value, it must be asked what type of person, and their character traits, lead them to want to destroy the environment. More specifically, Thomas Hill raises the question of “What sort of person would destroy the natural environment--or even see its value solely in cost/benefit/terms?" (Hill 2008, pg 211).

The reading assignments for this week has been very educative about the environment and making it a better place for living. In this written assignment, I will examine some of the ethical issues related to population growth and their effect to the environment. Also, I will propose solutions to these problems base on the reading material available for this Unit. But before I continue, I wish to introduce us to environmental ethics and its definition which I think it is very important for us to understand so as to know our role to play in this beautiful planet.

This leader accomplished the most incredible events. The salt march, was one of the biggest events that Gandhi lead. The salt march was a march of the Indian people intended to end the purchase of salt from the British. The salt march was indeed an example of Gandhi leading people non violently. The march was a success, and the people used nonviolence to do it.

The inhabitants right to an “environment that is not harmful to their health and well-being” and the right to “ecologically sustainable development” is violated. Environmental ethics, on the other hand, is the area of applied ethics that discusses, reflects and reasons on normative measures (values, rules, norms, criteria) for dealing with non-human natural entities in a responsible way (Karafyllis 2013, p.292). In particular, it refers to the value that mankind places on protecting, conserving, and efficiently using resources that the earth provides. Simply put, environmental ethics poses the question - what, if any, moral obligation does man have to the preservation and care of the non-human

The ever-changing environment that surrounds us is another influence of mine. The environment is currently suffering from pollution and we humans are creating a mass of it. Emissions from manufacturing plants, the burning of fossil fuels, and household and farm chemicals are all ways humans are polluting the environment. And this issue has brought upon great concern for me as well as many others.

Environmental ethics refers to the relationship that humans share with the natural world (Buzzle, 2011), it involves people extending ethics to the natural environment through the exercise of self-discipline (Nash, 1989). Herein the essay will give examples of anthropocentrism and non-anthropocentrism as forms of environmental ethics, criticizing anthropocentrism in contrast with a defence of non- anthropocentrism precedents. Anthropocentrism also referred to as human-centeredness, is an individualistic approach, a concept stating that humans are more valuable, and the environment is only useful for sustaining the lives of human beings (MacKinnon, 2007). The practise of human-centeredness is associated with egocentrism (Goodpaster, 1979), by contrast non-anthropocentrism is a holistic approach

According to www.conserve-energy-future.com, the first factor causing environmental degradation is overpopulation. Rinkesh, World’s Top Eco-Conscious Bloggers and website owner, stated that overpopulation leads to excessive consumption of goods and necessities which impacts natural resources. This is because more people demand more food, clothes, shelter and fuel. Because of this demand, their living space needs to be expanded in order to grow food and provide homes for people.