Land Ethic is posted in a series of six sections. This essay was published previously in New Philosophy (Jan-June 2005). - Editor.
Other sections: 1: Introduction; 2: Instrumental Arguments; 4: Intrinsic Value Arguments; 5: Theological Arguments; 6: New Church Arguments
Utilitarian arguments for the development of environmental ethics make much of the statistics and about the state of the world, but they take the moral sphere and extend it beyond anthropocentrism to all sentient creatures. Very simply put, utilitarianism equates happiness with goodness, but since happiness is so subjective and difficult to measure their focus ends up falling on the alleviation of suffering. Peter Singer is a modern ethicist who has written extensively on the world-view. His ethic extends to all sentient creatures, and in his view, anything that increases happiness or pleasure is ‘right’, anything that causes suffering is ‘wrong’.
This is good so far as it goes. What sane person would actively desire another’s needless pain or suffering that is not for the greater good? Weaknesses in the utilitarian arguments become obvious when extended to the environment. Singer uses a wooded valley with hydropower potential as an example or case study of why ethics are important. Flooding the valley would cause the displacement and subsequent death, therefore suffering, of many sentient creatures. He does not address why the death and suffering imposed by a dam is worse than that imposed by mother nature as a rule of her regular workings. Also, using this logic, if over the long term it could be shown that a greater amount of ‘happiness’ would result from the construction than the ‘suffering’ it would cause, then there would be a moral imperative to build the dam.
His other arguments are primarily anthropocentric, such as when he writes that some people find in wild places, “the greatest feelings of aesthetic appreciation, rising to an almost spiritual intensity” (Singer, 272). So to take the opportunity for such happiness away from those and future people is wrong.
Utilitarians place great weight on the happiness of yet unborn sentient creatures, and Singer chides economists for their use of "discounting" - the practice of assigning greater value to present happiness than it does to future happiness. He finds it particularly egregious when discounting is used to justify exploiting irreplaceable (at least in a human lifetime) natural resources such as ancient forests and pristine rivers (Singer, 275-5). I too grapple with the issue of discounting in economics as it is demonstrably responsible for some of environmental woes, but the purely utilitarian logic breaks down under closer scrutiny. Singer argues that we should not recreate with fossil fuels because doing so impairs future generations’ ability to do likewise. But if using a jet ski makes me happy and harms no sentient creatures, why is it wrong for me to enjoy the rush it affords, even if doing so makes it impossible for a future person to experience the same thrill? It cannot be ‘right’ for those in the present to subscribe to asceticism so that others may be hedonists.
Utlitarianism is a branch of materialism that attempts an end-run around the naturalistic fallacy by supplying an “ought” of happiness. Happiness is good, so one ought to support happiness. Quantifying happiness is difficult under the best of circumstances, and proving that soil erosion causes suffering is virtually impossible. In the long run erosion reduces ecological carrying capacity, but that hardly qualifies as a proxy for happiness/suffering even under the loosest of definitions.
Next: Section 4: Intrinsic Value Arguments.
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Thanks also to Rev. Grant Odhner for his paper, “Key Ideas on Nature from the Heavenly Doctrines”.
Edmund was raised in Bryn Athyn where he attended New Church schools. He lives near Cooperstown, New York where he works as a registered nurse. He is currently plotting his departure from nursing by engaging full-time in setting up a farmstead cheese making operation. He finds the greatest joys in life from his marriage to Normandy Alden, his dear family and friends, and spending time in the woods and fields of his farm.