Problem
Shallow ecology policy
Other Names:
Superficial environmental policies Nature:
Shallow ecology policy goes so far as to recognize that the environmental crisis has to do with ecosystems, but it only attempts to find technical fixes to modify or moderate industrial environmental impacts. Such an approach embodies a "management of resources" ethic that sets humans apart and superior to the rest of the biophysical universe. Under this approach environmental systems are perceived as "goods" and hence become understood through the traditional economic frameworks of technocratic-industrial societies. It assumes that society can continue with the same forms of response and that no fundamental change in patterns of behaviour is required. For shallow ecology, for example, education is primarily public relations to make people aware that they must "shop green and recycle". Cost-benefit analyses fail to appreciate the multitude of intrinsic values in the natural world which are open to human life. Broader Problems:
Ineffectual environmental policy Aggravates:
Disregard for intrinsic value of natureInadequate integration of environmental and economic issuesSimplistic technical solutions to complex environmental problems Strategies:
Greening international institutionsCapturing environmental valueDeepening ecology policyExtending environmental policies Subject(s):
Geography → EcologyEnvironment → Environment
Policy-making → Policy
Related UN Sustainable Development Goals:
Problem Type:
F: Fuzzy exceptional problems Date of last update
04.10.2020 – 22:48 CEST