104437012 Discuss the Role of Ethics in Environmental Planning

7/28/2019 104437012 Discuss the Role of Ethics in Environmental Planning

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Question: Discuss the role of ethics in environmental planning

A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic

community. It is wrong otherwise Aldo Leopold (ONeill,2008,p.104).

This quote by the father of the Land Ethic,Aldo Leopold sums up what exactly to do when

dealing with issues of environmental planning (Pojan, 1998). Leopold wants planners to take

into consideration the ethics, where the issue of nature and the environment is concerned. But

this is much easier said than done as ethics is a very open and ambiguous word. The

dictionary definition of ethics is the philosophical study of the moral value of human

conduct and the rules and principles that ought to govern it. This may all seem very

understanding and logical on paper but ethical values are very different to every individual

and we see this as the essay continues. In this essay I hope to discuss the role of ethics in

environmental planning. By doing so I need to understand what environmental planning is

and what environmental ethics is and fuge the two together to understand the role they play.

An environmental ethics can be seen as an ordinary ethic which is related to situations where

facts about the environment are concerned (Attig and Scherer 1983). Connelly and Smith

(1999) see environmental ethics as presenting a barrier to traditional ethics as it raises

questions about duties towards the plants, inanimate objects and natural phenomena. Cloke etal.,(2005) introduce us to the fact that environmental awareness was also an issue in

civilization, even in the times of Ancient Greeks were they worried about soil erosion or in

London in the thirteenth century where they were concerned about pollution so they

introduced laws to try minimize it. Britain also introduced National Parks and an Access to

the countryside Act 1949. But it was not until the late nineteen sixties and early seventies that

public interest of environmental issues rose. Such groups as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth

and Earth Day have made it a more popular subject. The issue of environmental ethics has

also become popular in recent years due to such matters as serious of alarming publications,

specific images generated to the public- earth seen as a fragile spaceship and all the above

groups. Earth Day was a modern environmental movement that took place in 1970,

conducted by Gaylord Nelson a U.S Senator wanted to publish the issue of the fragile

environment and how it should be preserved. Twenty million Americans lined the streets,

parks and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy sustainable environment

(Earthdaynetwork, 2009).


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But to really begin to talk about this issue of ethics in environmental planning, I first need to

look at what exactly are environmental planning and its importance. Selmon (2000, p.1)

defines environmental planning as its concerned with societys collective stewardship of

the earths resources. The environment refers to the physical and biological systems which

provide our basic life support, and which contribute to our psychological well begin.

Planning is a generoic activity of purposeful anticipation, of, and provisions for the future.

The nature for environmental planning is to understand both the environment and

environmentalism. The need for Environmental Planning is it increased consumption of

environmental goods, increased production of environmental bads and increased

environmental uncertainty. Environmental Planning is there to obtain a sustainable outcome

and the role of environmental planning is it achieves sustainable transition (Selmon, 2000,

p.1).

There are many conflicts in Environmental Planning these days as different groups approach

the same area, issue or resources in different ways. This is where ethics is introduced like

everything in life, everyone has their own unique and different take on situations. The issue

of the environment and how it should be preserved or if it should even be preserved at all, is

no different. Some believe nature is there for mankind to be used and done as they wish with.

Others see nature as to be protected and enjoyed. Aldo Leopard wants every human to thinklike a mountain. (Attig and Scherer, 1983, p.2). He believes the earth is worth preserving, he

also understands that humans have no responsibility to respect the earth, and he sees all

humans as controllers and dominators of the earth, but he does hope we will start a revolution

that will lead humans into seeing the environment as useful and treating it correctly. (Attig

and Scherer 1983). On the other hand W.H Murdy believes humans should look after number

one and pursue their own interests (Attig ad Scherer, 1983). Even religion has its own take on

nature for example Paganism understands the world as occupied by spirits there for nature

should be approached in a spirit of reservation and respect (Connelly and Smith, 1999).

Ethics is extremely important in environmental planning as its opens up strong environmental

questions such as , how should we think?, what should we take into consideration, or even

who should we take into consideration and how these decisions affect one in years to come?

(Attig and Scherer 1983). Justifying and answering these ethical questions is not easily done

as everyone is individual, everyone in society has their own different morals, their own

differences between right and wrong. Even environmental planners have their own specific

ethics and take on situations, this is important as it makes that planner stand out from the


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crowd in their area of work. Certain countries such as America have a code of ethics for their

environmental planners. The American Institute of Certified Planners [AICP] has a

professional code of conduct involving ethics the role of this is that informs the public of the

principles to which professional planners are committed. The AICP offers help to planners

with ethical and moral problems they may face. There is an ethical principle guide for

planners to use. Some of these principles are; recognising the rights of citizens, assist in the

clarification of community goals, objectives and policies in plan-making, strive to protect the

integrity of the natural environment and the heritage of the built environment, and exercise

fair, honest and independendant judgement in their roles as decision makers and

advisors(AICP, 2010).

Ethics in environmental planning just does not affect nature and the surroundings but also

peoples culture and economics.O Neill et al. (2008) gives the example that if the forest and

lakes of Scandinavia and Germany were attacked this would not just affect their surroundings

but also their economy and cultural identity. To some the cutting down of trees may not be

seen as ethically bad but for others it as seen as wrong. This example just show the

implications when one see themselves as doing the right thing when in reality they are not.

But we need not look to other countrys to see were ethics are an issue in environmental

planning. If you just take are small island were so many issues are intertwined in peoplesethics if you just look at the recent article that was published in the Irish Independent entitled

Councils zoned land for million surplus homes (Melia, 2010, p.6) you will see that councils

across the country rezoned more than forty four thousand hectors of land over the past decade

when in reality there was only need for around thirty thousand. The ironic scenario about this

situation was Housing Minister Michael Finnerans home county of Roscommon had the

highest zoned land where one thousand one hundred and ninety three percent of the land was

zoned then need be (Melia, 2010). One journalist compared the planners to children when he

wrote children with crayons would have made better planners (Melia, 2010, p.24) When

reading this article I began to wonder were did the role in ethics go here? Did the planners not

take morals and values into consideration? Board Pleanala Irelands answer to fair, effective

planning must have over missed this zoning scenario. Connelly and Smith(1999) entertain us

with the idea that the Western worlds values are influenced of that of the Christian traditions

and that Christian attitude towards nature is split in two principles one is that the natural

world is there for mans sole instrumental use and the other is that humans have

responsibilities to the natural world. So if you take that into consideration was it ethical


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wrong for those planners to rezone all that land or did they see it as humans can do what they

see fit with nature. There was no ethical right or wrong there if you are influenced by the

Christian traditions.

The Green Party has many policies when it comes to issues concerning the environment.

They stand for an ethically right environmental approach, they have many policies which deal

with the environment and the way it should be nurtured some of which are: policy 1) Ensure

greater coordination between environmental regulation and planning control, policy 5) the

development of an all- island structure for environmental protection and enforcement, policy

7) Review levels of fines and sanctions available to courts, policy 11) Establishment of

National Environmental Action Plan. These are just four of their fourteen policies in

conjunction with the environment in trying to convey an ethical good environmental

planning. The Green Party has had many achievements in the last year with the environment,

it one, Reformed planning to suit Ireland in 2010, this ment a planning Bill was introduced in

July of this year, it makes community focused, sustainable planning a legal requirement. It

will ensure transparency, openness and democratic involvement in the planning process to

avoid the rezoning disasters of the past. There second achievement was the Ongoing Record

investment in water services. This water service Investment Programme for 2010-2012

provides water infrastructure in the next three years, which will sustain public health, protectthe environment and support economic development. The Greens third achievement in

conjunction to the environment is how Ireland has become the second in Europe for

renewable energy, Ireland has managed to double the amount of wind energy since 2007. The

Carbon Revenue Levy Bill enacted in June of this year, will recover from power generations

a sustainable portion of the unearned carbon windfall gains they currently receive. (The

Green Party, 2010)

Ireland is trying to take the theory of Leopolds think like a mountain (Attig and Scherer,

1983, p.2) when it comes to issues of the environment and planning. The Irish Government

has set up certain designation sites to preserve the environment, this area usually has special

feature of interest or value that stands out from the remainder. Such designations are the

National Heritage Areas, Special Protection Area(SPA), Special Area of Conservation

(SAC), Statutory Nature Reserve and National Parks, these are just a few of the

environmental designations in Ireland. Ireland also has designations such as Amenity

designations such as Area of Special Control in Development Plans. Water designations and

other designations such as the World Heritage Sites. I will briefly look at National Heritage


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Areas. A NHAS is a designation for wildlife, it is considered important for the habitats

present or which holds species of plants and animals that need protection. Under the NHA

there is seventy five raised bogs been given protection cover and an additional seventy three

blanket bogs in total these bogs spread over sixty thousand hectors of land. There is still a

further six hundred proposed NHAs published on a non-statuary basis (National Park and

Wildlife Service, 2010).

When talking about the role ethics play in environmental planning it is hard to give a

definition. There is no right and wrong answer however as time goes on we can see the wrong

ethical way if you just take for example the zoning of land all over Ireland, at the time this

seemed like a sensible environmental move mainly because it benefitted the economy, but as

time went on it was not the best ethical planning. In contrast to this the planners move to

designate sites around Ireland has paid off as it preserving Irelands natural wildlife, fauna

and land. Taking into account peoples views, morals and ethical choices can make a huge

difference to the world we live in.


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Bibliography

AICP (2010)America Planning Association Ethics [online]. United States America: AICP.

http:// www.planning.org/ethics/. Accessed 8 October 2010.

Attig, T., and Scherer, D. (Eds) (1983) Ethics and the Environment. New Jersey: Prentice-

Hall.

Cloke, P., Crang, P., and Goodwin, M. (2005) Introducing Human Geography (2nd Edition).

London: Hodder Arnold.

Connelly, J., and Smith, G. (1999) Politics and Environment; From Theory to Practice.

London: Routledge.

Earthday Network (2009) Earthday Network Protecting the Earth and its people every day:

History of Earth Day[online]: USA

http://www.earthday.net/node/77. Accessed 11 October 2010.

Green Party (2010) Top 10 Achievements [online]: Ireland: The Green Party

http://www.greenparty.ie/en/layout/set/printpromotions/top_10_achievements. Accessed 11

October 2010

Hickie, D. (1997) Evaluation of the Environmental Designation in Ireland (2nd Edition).

Ireland: The Heritage Council.

Melia, P. (2010) Councils zoned land for million surplus homes. Irish Independent, October

17, p.6, 24.

National Park and Wildlife Services (2010) National Heritage Areas (NHA) [Online]:

Dublin: Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

http:// www.npws.ie/en/ConservationSites/NaturalHeritageAreasNHAs/ . Accessed 8 October

2010.

ONeill, J., Holland, A., and Light, A. (2008 Environmental Values. New York: Routledge.
http://www.planning.org/ethics/http://www.planning.org/ethics/http://www.earthday.net/node/77http://www.greenparty.ie/en/layout/set/printpromotions/top_10_achievementshttp://www.npws.ie/en/ConservationSites/NaturalHeritageAreasNHAs/http://www.planning.org/ethics/http://www.earthday.net/node/77http://www.greenparty.ie/en/layout/set/printpromotions/top_10_achievementshttp://www.npws.ie/en/ConservationSites/NaturalHeritageAreasNHAs/


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Pojman, L.P. (1998) Environmental Ethics, Reading in Theory and Application (2nd Edition).

United States of America: Wadsworth Publishing.

Seman, P. (2000)Environmental Planning(2nd Edition). London: Sage

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104437012 Discuss the Role of Ethics in Environmental Planning