The Environmental Crises

Why We Need Anthropocentrism

Abstract

In the face of an ensuing environmental crisis, this paper suggests that currently accepted modes of environmentalist thought have not been effective enough in enacting positive change. Anthropocentrism provides something that environmental philosophy needs – wide acceptance and public appeal. This paper argues that an environmental ethic that is weakly anthropocentric, in that it finds value in the environment via human values, can be both internally consistent and highly pragmatic. It goes on to examine some pitfalls of Deep Ecological environmental philosophy, which could be avoided if a weakly anthropocentric environmental ethic were adopted now.