Ethics refers to a set of moral principles which well-founded on standards of either wrong or right (McShane and Pojman). Usually, ethics prescribe what human beings or people are supposed to do, normally in terms of specific virtues, fairness, benefits to the community or society, obligations, man). Among the achievements of Leopold is that the community is not only made up of human beings, but it is also made up of non-human elements such as animals, plants, waters, and soil.

On the other hand, there also exists the ethics of deep ecology, whose founder was a philosopher called Arne Naess. This branch of ethics provides an inspiration for ecologists, activists, as well as philosophers around the globe to involve non-violent actions as a way of protecting the environment. As it is globally known, many people including some governments of the world take for granted the whole matter of protecting the environment (McShane and Pojman). In fact, in some nations or countries, it is the government themselves as well as influential people or personalities in the said countries who are involved in activities that pollute the environment. The activities include; deforestation and dumping of factory wastage anyhow. This greatly contributes to a factor that negatively affects the environment. In such circumstances or situations, the aforementioned personalities; environmentalists, activists, as well as philosophers take some non-violent means to address unacceptable behavior or conduct. That includes organizing peaceful demonstrations in major cities or towns of the affected countries. This philosophical ethic by Arne is very reliable and effective. It is capable of making the voice of environmentalists to be heard to the intended audience.

There exist some philosophical similarities and differences between the above two ethical principles; Aldo Leopold’s ethics and Arne Naess’ deep ecology ethics. The first similarity is that both of them champions for having a better and cleaner environment. This philosophical ethic calls for human beings around the globe to keep the environment clean. Its sole purpose is to have the environment clean which can be very attractive to both animals and human beings. Some aspects which contribute to keeping an environment clean and better may include; re-afforestation which is the planting of trees where others have been cut, avoiding deforestation, which is cutting of trees without any plans, as well as dumping wastes appropriately. That is some of the ways of keeping the environment clean.

Similarly, Arne Naess’ deep ecology ethics exist for the purpose of having the environment clean as well as ensuring that the surrounding is a better place. This is a philosophical ethical principle which calls upon several individuals to participate in the process of making the environment clean. Among the individuals brought on board include; environmentalists, activists, as well as philosophers. Its aim is to have all these individuals work for a common good or course of keeping the environment clean. The method or process used is normally a peaceful one. Such a peaceful manner or way may include peaceful demonstrations which are staged in major towns or cities. These are a potential place where they can easily get a large audience, as well as their actions or activities, can easily be captured by the media; both the print as well as television radio stations. In such a way, it becomes very easy for their message to be shared across the entire nation as well as reaching the intended audience. In the process, the grievances of such persons; environmentalists, activists, as well as philosophers will easily be taken into consideration by the relevant authorities.

Another similarity between the two ethical principles is that all of them are concerned or talk about the environment. As it is known, none of the two ethical principles talks about anything else rather than the environment. All of their concerns is just about the environment. Moreover, all two ethical principles talk about keeping the environment clean.

Similarly, there also exist some differences between the two ethical principles. The first one is that whereas Leopold’s land of ethics calls for individual initiatives as a measure of protecting or keeping the environment clean, Arne Naess ethical principle calls for cooperation of individual from different quarters. The quarters include personalities from the fields of activism, philosophy, as well as environment among others.

As for the case of Leopold’s land ethics, individuals or persons from different quarters are called upon to take an initiative in the process of protecting or making the environment better, more so the land. The individuals, probably all citizens of a nation, are supposed to participate in activities which will protect the environment. In this case, these individuals usually find it their responsibility in taking part in activities such as afforestation or re-afforestation. All these activities involve planting of trees. Trees are a very important part of an ecosystem because they act as a water catchment area. Hence, in the particular locality, there will be sufficient rain which is necessary for the growth of agricultural products such as maize, beans, millets, and sorghums among others. Additionally, individual from such a locality are advised to shun away from activities such as deforestation. This is a bad habit of cutting trees without any aim of replacing them.

However, in the case of Arne Naess ethic of deep ecology, it does not just involve separate individuals. It involves the cooperation of individuals from different areas such as activism, philosophy, as well as environment to come up together and peacefully stage some mechanisms of that facilitates the whole process of making the environment better. The main or major theme of this ethical philosophy is to have the cooperation of several individuals. The best way or manner of these individuals to execute their plans is to stage peaceful demonstrations in places which are densely populated; preferably in major towns and cities. From there, they can then condemn the government or influential people of the society from engaging in unbecoming behaviors such which greatly contributes to the pollution of the environment. In major towns and cities, their cries can easily be heard by the relevant authorities, hence the right mechanisms are taken to address the situation.

Wilderness philosophy refers to a topic which deals with the larger context of the various permutations of environmental crisis. These include the likelihood of mass extermination of life as well as total domestication or industrialization of the planet Earth. The main idea or theme of wilderness philosophy is to have the whole of the planet Earth being occupied by human beings or being used for human activities such as industrialization. Additionally, this philosophy calls for human beings to acquire the inhabited regions, which are mostly wilderness, in a manner that will keep on making the environment better or clean.

The wilderness philosophy has some great benefits to environmental philosophy. First of all, it calls for the entire surface of the Earth to be occupied by a human being to live as well as a place whereby human activities such as industrialization takes place. In this manner or way, there is no part of the Earth that is left unused. The wilderness, a region which is always hot and dry, gets modified so that it acquires capabilities which can make human beings to settle in such a region.

One good way of making arid or wilderness to be a region which can accommodate human being to live in is to plant drought resistance trees. These trees are capable of acting as water catchment regions once they grow up. Later when they are all grown, they will attract human settling because various food crops will be in a position of growing in such places. Hence, the regions will be slowly transforming to be like any other regions which support human activities. Moreover, such regions will also be in a position of attracting human activities such as industrialization. This may include the building of factories since the crops grown in such regions will act as raw materials.

Wilderness philosophy is a very useful or important ethical principle. It is because at per now, the population of the world generally is increasing daily. Therefore, for the purpose of catering for this large number of individuals, this philosophy exists for the purpose of creating more space to be accommodated by the growing number of the population. Similarly, there is also a high percentage of unemployment rate worldwide. This philosophy provides an opportunity for the unemployment people by having industries built-in regions which are wilderness. These industries provide endless opportunities to the unemployment youth, thus raising their living standards.

Works Cited

McShane, Katie, and Louis Pojman. Environmental Ethics. 2017. Print.