ENVM 510 - Environmental Ethics and Values (3)

This course exposes students to the main ethical issues involving the environment, such as the value of nature, climate change, sustainability, over-population, effects of industrialization, animal rights, pollution, impact on the poor, and more. Students learn the major ethical theories and principles and how to apply them (e.g., duty-based ethics, utilitarianism, religious-based ethics, virtue ethics, etc.). The goal is for students to be able to recognize an ethical issue and then reason in an informed and intelligent way to an ethical conclusion. To foster application of the class material, each student selects a particular environmental issue (e.g., water runoff on the Samford campus or toxic waste sites in poor Alabama counties), ethically analyzes it, and then presents a solution to the issue.