Universal Core of Ethics

Standalone Essays · Triad of Stewardship

Environmentalism: Stewardship in a Connected World

Recognize Global Impact

In a globalized economy, our daily choices often “externalize” harm—meaning the environmental cost of our comfort is paid by people and ecosystems thousands of miles away. Ethical living requires an honest awareness of these hidden consequences. While trade has undeniably improved global living standards, it has also accelerated regional degradation. A nuanced approach to ethics seeks a balance: enjoying the benefits of global connection while actively pursuing fairness, justice, and sustainability for those at the other end of the supply chain.

Address Root Causes

Environmental destruction is rarely a standalone issue; it is almost always fueled by the twin engines of greed and desperation. Where the powerful may plunder resources for excess, the impoverished are often forced to degrade their local ecosystems just to survive. Wars over these dwindling resources only accelerate the cycle of ruin. To truly protect the planet, we must address these human ethical lapses through education, healthcare, and economic opportunity. By reducing exploitation, we foster the stability necessary for sustainable practices to take root.

Commit to Sustainable Action

The scientific consensus on humanity’s ecological footprint is clear and demands a collective response. Addressing systemic challenges—from atmospheric aerosols and ocean acidification to biodiversity loss and nuclear waste disposal—requires a tiered effort involving individuals, communities, and governments alike. An ethical commitment to the future drives us to embrace innovative solutions in carbon sequestration, renewable energy, and nitrogen management, ensuring that our technical progress does not come at the expense of the planet’s fundamental habitability.

Redefine Conservation

True conservation is not the exclusion of humans from nature, but our harmonious integration within it. For millennia, humans have shaped resilient ecosystems through traditional practices like prescribed burning and regulated hunting. Indigenous knowledge, built on generations of direct observation, offers a proven model for this balance. By adopting community-based conservation, we align resource management with local values, proving that human well-being and biodiversity are not mutually exclusive, but mutually dependent.

Without the Noble-Savage Myth

I speak well of the way many indigenous people manage land, but I do not think that all indigenous people are environmental geniuses. While some groups have developed sophisticated systems of resource management that prioritize sustainability and balance with the natural world, others have practices that are far less responsible. When I lived in Africa the people there would let their cattle and goats strip the land of every blade of grass before moving on, and they practiced “slash and burn” methods; as a result, the Sahara desert kept encroaching further and further south. Nor do I lay the burning of the Amazon rainforest at the feet of the indigenous people. That is a different problem entirely—there the country is allowing a massive conversion of land-use to large-scale farming methods, with big companies controlling larger and larger amounts of land and developing monoculture practices. To them, the precious rainforest is merely a nuisance in the way of “progress” and the bottom line. This is exactly why we must examine the root causes of environmental issues rather than simply blaming individual actors.

I don’t follow Rousseau’s mythology that the original “man” was free from sin, appetite, or the concept of right and wrong, and that indigenous people are universally noble. Many tribes have had wise people who tracked the effects of the seasons, the migrations of the animals, and which plants are medicinal or poisonous, and we have much to learn from them. But many tribes have also succumbed to the foolishness of “this is how we’ve always done it” even as they complain that the climate has changed and their lands grow less and less fertile. We should learn from them in both directions—take their wisdom, and don’t be like them where they are wrong.

Modify the Practice, Not the Culture

Respecting local knowledge does not mean replacing a culture; it means working within it. Consider the Chadian pastoralists. They manage cattle and goats, and they live off of these animals. It is not likely that you will get them to give up their animals and convert to vegetarianism—and for good reason. They don’t just eat these animals; they use everything on the animal. Even their clothes and tents come from them. So whatever approach is taken will have to keep the animals in the equation.

Yet some interesting studies done by Allan Savory show that cattle and goats can actually rebuild desolate areas into lush greenery. The trick is to mimic the natural migration patterns of animals like the antelope or the buffalo, rather than keeping them penned in one area too long. So if we were to help the Chadian people reclaim some of their land from the Sahara, the move would be to get at least some of them to adopt Savory’s methods until others can see the benefits. Attempting to completely change their culture and diet would be viewed as denigrating their ancestors and imposing colonial values, and would be rejected out of hand. Building in respect for their ways, but with slight modifications, is the better approach.

Practice Informed Stewardship

Ethical living requires becoming an active, informed participant in the world’s health. This starts with mindful personal choices—reducing energy consumption, favoring plant-based diets, and supporting ethical supply chains. However, stewardship goes beyond mere “consumer” choices; it involves a constant reflection on how our actions affect the broader web of life. We must consider not just the immediate needs of our species, but the long-term well-being of the entire biosphere and the animals that inhabit it.

When Stewardship Pays

One issue that I feel is too unappreciated is the rebate system, where companies offer to help reduce the cost of energy-efficient appliances. This is not simply because they are concerned about the environment. It is a business decision: it costs less to offer these rebates than it does to build new power plants to power the more wasteful appliances. Too many people look at environmentally minded people as utopian hippies or something, and fail to realize that many of the ideas to reduce our carbon footprint or improve sustainability just make good business sense. There is a misconception that environmentalism and profitability are mutually exclusive, when in fact they can often go hand-in-hand. Highlight the economic benefits of sustainability—lower energy bills for households, fewer power plants for the utilities—and the narrative begins to shift.

Draw Wisdom from Tradition

The call to protect the Earth is a recurring theme across the world’s most enduring ethical frameworks. In the biblical tradition, for instance, humanity is cast not as a master, but as a caretaker. Genesis 2:15 explicitly calls for “tending and keeping” the earth, while Psalm 24:1 reminds us that the world and everything in it has inherent, sacred value. From the Sabbath rest extended to animals in Exodus 20:10 to the warnings against those who “destroy the earth” in Revelation 11:18, these ancient principles align perfectly with modern ecological science. They remind us that responsible stewardship is a timeless duty, ensuring we nurture the planet for the generations to come.

The Thread from Bedrock to Breath

Sometimes philosophical terms don’t do a concept justice, so let me illustrate. Ages ago magma made its way out from the center of the earth to the relatively cooler upper mantle, where it solidified into bedrock that from the human perspective was immoveable. But that bedrock was part of a continental plate, floating on a sea of molten rock while civilizations rose and fell on its back. The plate pushed against another, and its edge was forced up through the thin layer of dirt that covered our planet, becoming a mountain range where thousands of years later the United States would be birthed.

Century after century the rock was exposed to sunlight and rain, heat and cold. Bits flaked off and tumbled down the slope; leaves and twigs blew off the nearby trees each fall and piled over it. Over time the rock flakes and the organic matter broke down and mixed together until rich earth was formed. Settlers arrived on covered wagons, and a farmer decided to homestead in the beautiful valley and planted a large garden in the earth that had once been bedrock. A century later the farm was much larger and provided food for a grocery store in the small town that had sprung up nearby.

Five decades later a young woman bought produce from that farm for her mother, took it home, and helped cook it—beginning the process of breaking down the chemical bonds in the vegetables. Her family enjoyed a delicious meal, completely unaware that her body was using the nutrients from that mix of ancient bedrock and organic material to make an egg. Later that year she married, her egg was fertilized, and a child was conceived. When that little boy was born and took his first breath to cry, the oxygen he sucked in had been created by phytoplankton in the ocean and the Amazonian rain forests. That is the profound interconnectedness that pervades all of existence, transcending the boundaries of time, space, and scale. Even our most intimate experiences are inextricably linked to a vast network of physical and biological processes, unfolding over millennia and spanning the entire planet—reason enough to approach our lives, and our stewardship, with awe, gratitude, and humility.

Challenges for the Rational Steward

Addressing the following complexities will require a synthesis of scientific research, technological innovation, and behavioral change:

See also: Essays · A Sojourner’s Compass · Sojournism: Full Documentation

Part of the Triad of Stewardship’s Standalone Essays. Companion pieces: Forgiveness and Its Limits (forthcoming) · The Mandates of Conflict · Criminal Justice.