Environmental Ethics: A Dialogue of Cultures

This volume is the outcome of the National Symposium on Environmental Ethics organized by the SDF. It contains papers on the ethical values prevalent in different cultures and societies and the potentials of these values to ward off the emerging environmental crisis in the world.
All ancient cultures and civilization are founded on creative human-nature relations with a built-in mechanism to correct minor ecological disturbances. Rapid industrialization, urbanization and population growth have given rise to the imbalances which cannot be corrected through self-correcting processes.
Unless people seek meaning in life and living beyond the narrow ends of consumerism and exploitation of nature and fellow human beings, new technology will bring only new and more miseries. This dialogue calls for a more austere style of life laying emphasis on cultural enrichment and less on the amount of goods consumed. Such a life style requires a new system of ethics where in the concern for life in whatever form it exists in nature is the uppermost.
Science and technology cannot be blamed for all the ills of the society. Much depends on how we use them. How we use them depends on our values system, which in turn determines the ethical code. Instead of trying to look for scapegoats in science and technology, we should introspect and change our values. Thus alone can a pollution and poverty free society be ensured and ill-effects of science and technology removed.
Environmental ethics cannot be imposed by law. It has to be articulated, systematized, codified and followed by each and every individual. This needs comprehensive environment sensitive education policy in each and every country of the world.