Environmental Wellbeing

This paper proposes a definition of environmental wellbeing that is on par with human wellbeing. Absent the science of ecosystem functioning, whose shorthand is biodiversity; we risk viewing environmental illbeing as environmental wellbeing, and vice versa, as we do when we admire either formal gardens or pinky-yellow sunsets, caused by dust and haze. Human beings have a duty to monitor and boost environmental wellbeing, since human wellbeing depends on environmental wellbeing. The duty to care for some “cared-for,” which is grounded in Kant’s notion of duty, is central to the ethics of care. By contrast, care aesthetics treats each creature as a cared-for and aims to boost the wellbeing of the surroundings, since every inhabitant contributes to environmental wellbeing. Care aesthetics is thus proactive rather than reactive. Ultimately, the “protection” imperative proves more successful than the abstract “care” imperative, since its holistic demand to promote environmental wellbeing prevents environmental illbeing.