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Chapter 25
Environmental Worldviews, Ethics, and Sustainability
Summary
1.
The planetary management worldview is the human-centered environmental worldview that guides most
industrial societies. This worldview has as a key component the idea that humans are the most important
species and that the earth should be managed for our benefit. Variations include the no-problems school, the
free-market school, the responsible planetary management school, the spaceship school, and the stewardship
school.
2.
Life-centered and earth-centered worldviews include environmental wisdom worldview, species centered,
biosphere centered, and ecosystem centered. All of these worldviews have far less emphasis on management
for human benefit alone and all are far less human-centered.
3.
Education is an important component of living sustainably. Education includes understanding ecosystems,
developing environmental literacy, and viewing the earth as a complex, interconnected system.
4.
We can live sustainably through pollution prevention, waste prevention, species protection, and environmental
restoration.