Meaning & use
environmental ethics
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Meanings
noununcountable
The study of what is morally right and wrong in how humans treat the natural world.
Grammar: Uncountable; used with a singular verb: Environmental ethics is a growing field.
Patterns
- environmental ethics in something
- a question of environmental ethics
- the environmental ethics of something
She teaches a course on environmental ethics at the university.
The company's plan to drill in the protected area raised serious questions of environmental ethics.
Environmental ethics asks whether future generations have a right to a healthy planet.
nounplural
A set of moral beliefs that guide how a person or group treats the environment.
Grammar: Plural in form and meaning: my environmental ethics are important to me.
Patterns
- someone's environmental ethics
- have strong environmental ethics
- based on environmental ethics
His environmental ethics led him to stop using plastic bags completely.
The community's environmental ethics shaped how they managed the forest.
Different cultures have different environmental ethics about land and water.
Common combinations
- a question of environmental ethics
- Whether to build the dam became a question of environmental ethics.
- teach environmental ethics
- She teaches environmental ethics to first-year students.
- environmental ethics course
- He signed up for an environmental ethics course online.
- environmental ethics debate
- The oil spill sparked a national environmental ethics debate.
- environmental ethics framework
- The report proposed an environmental ethics framework for future projects.
Synonyms and how they differ
- ecological ethics
- Similar but often focuses more on the scientific relationships between living things and their surroundings.
- green ethics
- Informal and broader, often used for everyday choices rather than academic study.
- conservation ethics
- Narrower, usually about protecting species and habitats rather than all moral questions about nature.
Word family
- environmental ethicist noun
- A person who studies or writes about environmental ethics.
- environmental adjective
- Relating to the natural world and the impact of human activity on it.
- ethic noun
- A single moral principle or rule of conduct.
- ethical adjective
- Morally right or acceptable.
Commonly confused: environmental ethics or environmental science? environmental ethics or environmentalism?
environmental ethics vs environmental science
Environmental science studies the physical and biological processes of nature; environmental ethics studies the moral questions about how we should treat nature.
environmental ethics vs environmentalism
Environmentalism is the active movement to protect the environment; environmental ethics is the philosophical study of right and wrong in human-nature relations.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'environmental ethics' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Option 1 is correct because 'environmental ethics' as a field of study is uncountable and takes a singular verb. Option 0 is wrong because ethics is not the same as laws. Option 2 is wrong because the word is uncountable here, so 'a strong environmental ethics' is not standard. Option 3 is wrong because the phrase does not take a singular verb in this sense.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “environmental ethics”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.