The Lacking Ethics of Environmental Conservatism

          According to the influential, early 20^th century American environmental scientist and conservationist Aldo Leopold, "We abuse land(environment) because we see it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as the community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect". Conservatism is the tendency to resist greater or sudden change. Therefore, an approach to the environment through the concept of conservatism means, The protection or guarding of the natural environment against sudden change (mainly negative in nature).From the short explanation above, the ethics of environmental conservatism can be said to be the moral principle of protecting our natural environment against all sort of negative changes such as environmental degradation, global warming etc. From all indications about the current menace our environment face from different types of degradation, environmental conservatism as an ethic should be adopted in every part of the world, if we are ever going to maintain a safe planet, but having said this,  challenges looms large ahead.

          As Aldo Leopold has said, we need to see the environment as the community to which we belong, that way we will begin to care for and protect the environment. This can be achieved only by inculcating and exercising the ethics of environmental conservatism. Exercising the ethics of environmental conservatism can range from the meagre act of managing the waste produced in our various homes or schools to the much bigger act of cutting or reducing global greenhouse gas emission. Cultivating this moral principle on a personal level and passing it on to others is very important, through acts of preventing environmental degradation and mobilizing others to follow suit, campaigning on the need to prevent wastage of resources such as water, planting of trees and adopting an eco-friendly means of energy generation.

          The importance to be derived from a worldwide adoption of the ethics of environmental conservatism is enormous. If this concept had been adopted right from time(decades or even centuries ago) I?m sure the world would not find itself in its present condition, with increasing rate of desertification in countries such as Nigeria and some other sub Saharan countries, the rising level of the sea due to the melting icebergs of the Arctic and the ever increasing level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere leading to climate change. Desertification would have been effectively combated through afforestation, the rising sea levels would have been reduced to bearable minimum and the menace of climate change throughout the world could have been averted by reducing global greenhouse gas emission.

          As pointed out earlier, achieving a world where the ethics of environmental conservatism is adopted pose a huge challenge, due to different reasons particular to different places. In Africa and Nigeria in particular the main challenges are Illiteracy, Lack of technology and most importantly Poverty. Due to lack of education and information, Many are ignorant of even the most simplest ways of protecting the environment, such as the need to replace every tree that is cut down by planting another, knowledge about proper waste management, the need to conserve energy and prevent wastage. For those that have the Knowledge and are educated the low and sometimes lack of technology to combat some of the environmental challenges they face becomes a problem, for instance in areas such as adopting a cleaner means of energy generation, wind turbines and solar panels are not easily accessible instead they resort to using firewood and fossil fuels. Furthermore poverty which fuels both Illiteracy and lack of technology has caused a huge problem for the environment, how do you ask an hungry poor man to protect the environment by using clean and adopting a proper waste management system?   

          In conclusion, I believe the adoption of the ethics of environmental conservatism despite its challenges can help save our home planet. International frameworks should be created to push for the spread of this logical way of thinking, through the United Nations to the Governments of every country especially African countries. We have to start now because time is not on our side.