Читать книгу Environmental Ethics онлайн

64 страница из 125

Each agent must educate themself about the proximate Natural world in which they live relating to their agency within this ecosystem: (a) what their natural place in this order is vis-à-vis their personal agency; (b) how their natural place (vis-à-vis their personal agency) may have changed in recent history; (c) how their social community’s activities have altered the constitution of the Natural order and how this has effected community agency; (d) the short-term and long-term effects of those changes vis-à-vis agency; and (e) what needs to be done to maintain the natural order in the short and long term so that the ecosystem might remain vibrant.²⁴

First, there is the requirement that people educate themselves as much as is practically possible about the proximate environment in which they live. This will require particular attention to the land, water, air, animal life, plant life, and meteorological events. In the age of the Internet, it should be possible for a large number of people on earth to obtain easy access to these facts.²⁵ What is important, of course, is that they connect to reputable scientific sources.