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Step 1
Set the scene
After taking my Ecological Footprint calculator, it seems that to support the lifestyle Im living, it would take about 5.4 earths to sustain the human population if everyone like me.
My ecological footprint is 9.2
Step 2
Write a comment about your footprint
Looking at my footprint I think it is way above the average and shocking. This test changed my view on environmental protection. I realised place too much pressure on the environment by the way I live my life and the way I use the resources.
Part A
You need to say something about your footprint based on what you have just read in the “Sustainability?” section. How do you feel about?
Based on my footprint calculator I do not live a sustainable lifestyle .I clearly have a bad impact on the resources and earth. I use more than what the earth can accommodate for me. Although I do try practise sustainability by making sure that everything has to be recycled however I still have to make a few adjustments to make a shift towards sustainability and reduce my ecological footprints on the globe and to progress towards a sustainable future.
I have to change my way of living remembering what Kant said a thing is only ok if you can imagine generalizing it to all people, and if all people are using more than their fair share we would run out of planet Earth right
I feel like there is a whole lot we can do to influence how we are governed or how corporations operate. Our future is designed, equipped and governed by the ideas of every one of us, and empowered by the choices that we make in our everyday lives and through our lifestyles for a better future without having to compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs
Part B
Next we want you to think back to your previous assignment – assignment 06. In that assignment we asked you to actually answer the virtue ethics questions of
Do I really practice these values? Yes
Can I really claim that these are my virtues? Yes
and is what I am saying really what I do? Yes
In light of what you have discovered in this assignment in relation to your own ecological footprint, we want you to critically reflect on the answers that you submitted in assignment 06. Do you think that they might need some adjustment or are you still happy that they are an accurate reflection?
Based on my previous answers in assignment 6 I have to adjust quite a lot.
Focusing on the first point where my answer was yes. Do I really practice these values? Yes
Although I think I live and practice these values I discovered theres a lot more I am not doing right and I wasnt really aware that it isnt the right way of living a sustainable lifestyle. As much as I try to separate trash for recycling and reducing possible pollution by not littering I have however notice that I have a negative impact by driving to work daily , catching up on my favourite T.V shows KUWTK , Netflix etc. and throwing a load of laundry in the washing machine are negatively impacting the ecology .
Can I really claim that these are my virtues? Yes
No I cannot claim this as my virtues although I can still say partly they are my values like I said on my assignment 6 that theres no way I would harm the Rhinos. Although I was saying it from a different perspective of thinking I am not going to the fields to harm the wildlife but on assignment 7 I realised theres a lot more I do which harms the nature and its habitants without realising. For example carbon emissions from car exhausts and stoves absorbed by the oceans which leads to acidification. Trees and animals would definitely not be healthy by consuming acidified water.
Is what I am saying really what I do? Yes
Unfortunately I cant say its what I practice but surely that can be changed. Firstly I have to make sure that I reduce too much consumption of resources and reduce pollution. I need to make sustainable choices by adjusting my daily activities, such as driving, washing clothes, watching TV etc. to reduce my ecological footprint. Although it will take collective action from everyone from all over the world to change the way we use resources I therefore believe it is possible to make a change eventually
Part C – counts 60% of the total grade
Finally, the technical part is that we also want you to think about your ecological footprint from the perspective of some of the stuff you learned about in the ethics core. In particular we want you to think back on three of the traditions
.
It’s all in the outcome – Consequentialism Here we want you to think about utilitarianism and the sustainability problem (Hint: You might want to go and have a look at what you wrote in Assignment 03);
Us as humans our demands already exceeds the long-term carrying capacity of the planet. The world is already over populated, because we turn resources into waste faster than waste can be turned back into resources. Humanitys annual demand on the natural world has exceeded what the Earth can renew in a year since the 1970s. The population has continued to grow over the years, reaching a 50 per cent deficit in 2008. This means that it takes 1.5 years for the Earth to regenerate the renewable resources that people use, and absorb the CO2 waste they produce, in that same year. It was discussed in the learning unit that one possible solution is that a wipe out is needed to bring the available footprint up to the current consumption, reducing the number of people on planet Earth, to sustain various consumption levels as discussed in assignment 3, by the act of letting 20 000 children die every day is justified on the basis of the good of the whole species would be wrong from my view. From a utilitarian perspective, there is really no difference between killings and letting die.
Utilitarianism- is described as a tradition in which actions are judged as good or bad based on the aggregate good or bad which that act would lead to.
We can try to reduce population ( reduce per capita) simple explained as the maintenance of a population at a constant level by limiting the number of live births to that needed to replace the existing population. We can try to achieve zero population growth by taking some of the steps below
Delaying the age of first childbearing this will slow the population growth.
Birth control lowering the birth rate is breast feeding
National programs to reduce birth rates
Fairs Fair – Distributive Justice here you need to think about what is fair for our children – for future generations; and
To delay conception might produce a better world, or produce a world with higher levels of overall well-being. By producing a small number of children which could have a higher quality of life.
What would be fair, is for the current generation to preserve the opportunity to develop and sustain social institutions. What we owe to future generations is a level of each of the primary goods on a persons list, sufficient to sustain the most basic of human needs and to secure enough beyond that minimum. We need to save a sufficient amount of our precious resources to guarantee enough economic and other resources for future generations. If I were to pull on the veil of ignorance, not knowing whether my children would have a high quality life, or a life that is barely worth living, would I accept the fact that we must preserve our resources and the economic value they have, to reap the benefits for my children? My personal answer is yes. If not, then there will be no resources left for future generations to live a well-deserved life.
Greenies – Environmental Ethics here you can chose any angle you like. Surprise us!
Respecting animals intrinsic value is the first step towards a better planet. As humans we have intrinsic value so as all other living like animals and other things that exist to sustain humanitys existence. The ecological footprint resulted from lack of enough resources to fulfil humans unlimited wants resulting to lack of natures balance. Humans have a responsibility to life on Earth, because we are capable of thinking and perceiving Earth as a whole so as the animals have right to their habitats which is mostly harvested by humans.For example people cut down trees to build houses or for making fancy furniture, trees inborn value in this situation is ignored. People can still make decisions that would benefit themselves, but we must make sure our decisions arent harming the nature.
