Answer to Question #219612 in Philosophy for Jayla

Question

how do you give entire ecosystems moral standing and still have a viable environmental ethic that humans can reasonably follow? 

Answer 1

The ethical and moral concerns should extend to the ecosystem because biocentrism focuses on the equal right of living beings and all living deserve to live.

The potential conflicts between the needs of humans and those of more than human nature can be resolved through creating active limitations/restrictions/constraints on the exploitation of natural resources by humans.

Human does have the ethical obligations to preserve wilderness areas. Wilderness in the US culture is described as an area dominated by a human and his works.

The concept of land ethic differs from the way we typically think of ethics because land ethic also considers aspects like animals, plants, water, soil, and humans.