1.1 environmental value systems

Question 1

what is an EVS?

Answer 1

• paradigm through which we view the environment
• the way we understand, value, and relate to the natural world around us

Question 1

processes of EVS’

Answer 1

• things that might affect the way we process information about the environment
• political views, religion, economic needs, trust in science, aesthetic preferences

Question 2

ecocentrism

Answer 2

• nature-centred view
• proposes self-reliance and minimal disturbance of natural processes –> ensuring sustainability

Question 3

anthropocentrism

Answer 3

• people-centred view
• doing things to the environment based off of human needs

Question 4

technocentrism

Answer 4

• technology will provide solutions to all problems
• science will find alternative resources

Question 5

instrumental value

Answer 5

• something of value because it does or provides something of value
• buffalos are valuable because we can eat their meat and sell their skins, trees are valuable because we can use the wood for fuel and manufacturing, etc.

Question 6

intrinsic value

Answer 6

• the natural world is valuable because it just is
• e.g., we shouldn’t catch all of the fish not because they’ll be no more to catch in the future, but because the fish themselves have a right to exist

Question 7

what helped degrade the environment?

Answer 7

• modernising industrial societies
• rapid population growth
• post modern times we didn’t have the tools to do it as fast

Question 8

creation of yellowstone national park and why it was important in the development of the environmental movement

Answer 8

• 1872
• preservation of natural beauty
• highlighted value of preserving natural landscapes for future generations, rather than exploiting them for short-term economic gain