I propose that in modern environmental ethics, there are two distinct problems that have led to the environmental problems that we face today. First, we have the “alienation from nature” in which humans are perceived as separate from nature. We also have an “alienation of nature” in which nonhumans are stolen from their natural state. Both disconnects between human & nature and nonhuman & nature cause an overall antipathy to the environment.
What exactly is nature? John Stuart Mill describes, in his essay “On Nature,” his first definition of nature: “nature in the abstract is the aggregate of the powers and properties of all things… not only all that happens, but all that is capable of happening: the unused …show more content…
“For example, Native American men were routinely described by whites as “uncivilized,” “primitive,” “savages,” (and) “uncultivated,” “heathens” (Warren, 60). This mistreatment continues today. Karen J. Warren refers, on page 15, to Native American tribes consenting to thousands of tons uranium storage and waste disposal on their reservations. Although, the tribe is given say in what happens to their land and even make money off the transaction, they do not fully understand to what they are consenting. Or as Warren explicated the tribes “face the paradox of good money for ruined lives” (Warren, 12). They agreed to a relatively small sum of money when you take into account their high rate of unemployment and how much they sacrifice in this transaction. Native Americans endure many health effects from the exposure to Uranium. Some examples include high rates of miscarriages, birth defects such as a cleft palate, hepatitis, jaundice, bone cancer and 17 times higher rates of reproductive cancers. These incinerators and waste deposits are also destroying the pristine beauty of their reservation where their tribe has lived and will live for a long time. In respect to the area on which Native American tribes used to nomadically travel, reservations are tiny tracts of land. Then invasive Americans are whittling away at what little land the Native Americans have by building incinerators and depositing uranium on their