The Emergence of Different Sustainable Development Approaches According to Environmental Ethics Theories

Abstract

In recent years, population growth, changes in consumption patterns, urbanization, industrialization, and structural changes in agricultural production have brought about various environmental problems worldwide. At the core of these issues lies the significant impact of viewing nature as a resource repository and a dumping ground for waste in production processes aimed at satisfying increasing consumption. Humanity in the twentieth century came to terms with the fact that these problems also threatened its own existence. Global risks that began with pollution from waste sources and thinning of the ozone layer in the twentieth century have made it imperative for governments to seek solutions beyond their borders in the twenty-first century, particularly with climate change and global warming. The sustainable development approach, under the leadership of the United Nations, has come to the forefront in meetings addressing these challenges. Sustainable development, in essence, envisions restructuring today's activities in a way that they can also be carried out by future generations. However, the fundamental cause of environmental problems is the uncertainty of human domination in human-environment relationships. Measures taken without ethical scrutiny in this context are only aimed at addressing current problems. This study interprets the sustainable development approaches that have emerged in the quest for global solutions to environmental problems through various environmental ethics theories and discusses their theoretical foundations. Within the scope of this study, sustainability approaches are interpreted according to different environmental ethics theories, and different attitudes toward certain environmental problems are attempted to be revealed.