PROMOTING ECOCENTRIC OVER ANTHROPOCENTRIC VALUES IN A BUILT ENVIRONMENT THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
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PROMOTING ECOCENTRIC OVER ANTHROPOCENTRIC VALUES IN A BUILT ENVIRONMENT THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
Abstract:
Today, the mechanised man is capable of defacing the Sun, despite its heat, if it is close and within man’s reach; all to satisfy his desire for delightful comfort, even at the expense of his neighbour.
On a daily basis, man engages in human activities that he believes would improve societal order without considering the high amount of disorder these actions will generate in the natural world.
As long as man sees himself as completely superior to all other components of the natural environment, he will never find reasons to safeguard or preserve the same environment.
There is a need for adequate and ongoing environmental ethics education that promotes ecocentric rather than anthropocentric activities–an ecologically responsible culture that reflects and projects care and respect for nature in order to ensure sustainability.
According to Robert Lynd, nothing distinguishes birds from humans more than their ability to develop while leaving a landscape as it was before. To help with this, the United Nations has designated January 26 as World Environmental Education Day (WEED), separate from other Nature Day events.
A stronger ecocentric engagement with nature requires a deeper interaction with our own constructed world. A strong synergy between all stakeholders and professionals through environmental education establishes a solid platform for achieving ecocentric principles in the built environment.
1.0 Introduction
“We misuse land because we see it as a commodity that belongs to us. When we recognise land as a part of our community, we may begin to treat it with love and respect. Aldo Leopold stated, “There is no other way to survive the impact of mechanised man.”
The term ‘anthropocentric’ was coined in the 1860s, during the debate over Darwin’s theory of evolution, to reflect the notion that people are at the heart of the universe (Campbell, 1983).
Anthropocentrism holds that people are the most significant living form, and that other kinds of life are only important if they affect or benefit humans.
However, ‘ecocentric’ is derived from the term ‘biocentric’, which was coined in 1913 by an American biologist, Lawrence Henderson, to describe the belief that life originated in the universe. It states that every element of the environment has intrinsic value.
Environmental ethics are ideologies that take into account the moral relationship between humans and the environment, as well as the value and moral status of the environment and its nonhuman components. It takes into account the responsibility that humans have towards the environment.
Nature has moral consideration in an anthropocentric ethic because damaging or maintaining nature can damage or benefit humans, whereas nature has moral consideration in an ecocentric ethic because it has intrinsic value, which is apart from its utility to humans.
Consider tearing down rain forests; although the anthropocentric ethic thinks it immoral to do so because rainforests offer potential solutions for human diseases, the ecocentric ethic finds it wrong because it would result in the extinction of many plant and animal species.
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