The Sierra Club – John Muir Chapter welcomes contributions from our members. The following memo and litmus test was sent to us by one of our active members, Peter Slaby.
TO: My Fellow Sierrans
FROM: Peter Slaby
RE: Environmental Ethics Litmus Test
Hi everybody,
Peter Slaby here… an 80-year “seasoned citizen.” Today I offer a tool to help enhance a person’s awareness and/or acceptance of a personal environmental ethic.
This ethic tool, as I see it, ought to be used by any human, anywhere, in this world of ours.
The litmus test:
1) Is designed to be neutral: politically, socially, academically, professionally, et al. (No favorites here… all humans are equal).
2) Specifically requires the three questions to be answered only “yes” or “no.” No hedging allowed here, no maybe/maybe not stuff.
3) Allows a person to refuse or postpone answering the questions. Profound implications by how one answers the questions may very well, legitimately, force the human to reconsider any previously held opinions.
4) Does not ask how much do humans affect the environment: only that they do, to some degree! To what extent can be addressed later. Here, a goal is to ferret out the real inner being of "fencesitters," hopefully to activate them to positive action or the "true-blue" naysayers to reconsider what a "no vote" means.
Well, Sierrans, there you have it. My proposed tool is for anyone to latch onto. Use it as is or modify to local conditions. However, keep in mind using this tool can be expected to demand follow through: meaning the original hook of the three questions may lead to multiple follow up contacts.
Sincerely,
Peter I Slaby
P.S.: Those fine words to be pondered: "in wildness is the preservation of the world" were coined by Henry David Thoreau, way back in 1851. In his "Walking" essay, Thoreau was referring to his local rural area and the future western expansion. It seems to me his vision helped set the stage for later 20th century broadening of "wildness" to "wilderness" to address our environment, on a global basis. Quo Vadis, world?
Take The Environmental Ethics Litmus Test:
1) Do you accept the reality that all human beings on this planet and all other life forms (flora and fauna) are integral parts of the total, global, biological chain of life?
Yes or No
2) Do you accept the reality that all human beings on this planet affect this total, global, biological chain of life in some way?
Yes or No
3) Do you accept the reality that each of we, individual human beings, depend on this integrated biological system of support in order to live, to exist?
Yes or No
Optional open ended question, no right or wrong answer here: What do you know about a human malady (an American legal concept) called “willful blindness”?