Abstract
In this chapter, some aspects of environmental law and theology will be addressed. Accordingly, first the authors will conceptually analyze the doctrinal foundations of the right to the environment, and then discuss the general doctrinal principles of this right from the perspective of Theological law. The basic presumption of this article is based on the grounds that the right to the environment can not achieve their goals regardless of religious and metaphysical status to ensure a healthy environment.
TopIntroduction
The destructive activities of human beings cause the crisis of climate change, deforestation, air pollution, water pollution, extinction of biological species, etc., and endanger human life if they are not reduced or not controlled. Therefore, moral, religious, and philosophical issues related to the environment have been formed for many years, and scientists have proposed various opinions and theories in this field and have proposed solutions to control human behavior towards the environment.
In a paper entitled “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis” (White, 1967), one historian writes that the roots of this crisis lie in the Judeo-Christian way of thinking that man has the right to rule over nature. In this view, nature is alien and merely a source of exploitation, and the history of this humane and authoritarian attitude goes back to the “journey of Genesis”, especially to verse 28 of its first chapter: “And God made them (Adam and Eve) He blessed them and told them: “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and dominate it, rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky and all the animals that live on the earth” (Penn, 2003).
White writes that the pattern of ownership separates human beings from nature and places them in the form of a kind of duality as soul-matter, or soul-body, according to which the soul must rule over matter and man must rule over nature. While the pagans were in perfect harmony with the earth before the Judeo-Christian tradition, they thought that spirits nested in animals, trees and streams. According to White, in the current Mazan, under the influence of the Christian duality, wild animals and the whole organic and plant world are considered dead.
White sees panpsychicism as opposed to the anthropocentrism of Christianity. In the worldview of non-Abrahamic religions, it is disgusting to harm trees, plants and animals unless there is a reason and they have already performed certain rituals because they carry the sacred. But Christianity, by eliminating the animism of these religions, caused the human spirit to ignore the feelings of natural objects and exploit them.
On the other hand, Thomas Berry and some other Christian scholars consider the environmental crisis to be influenced by crises in the field of spirituality and morality. He believes that it is this boundless materialism that has led to the aggression and plunder of nature, and in fact the separation of religion from secular life may be one of the reasons for this crisis. Therefore, according to this group of researchers, a philosophical and religious understanding of ourselves as natural creatures is essential for us humans (Bourdeau, 2004).
Some have considered science and the spread of technology as the most important causes of environmental crisis. Simultaneously with the evolution of civilization and its manifestations from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, attention to nature has been abandoned. Descartes believed that nature is composed of tangible qualities such as size and weight and lacks intrinsic and immeasurable values such as beauty. People like Galileo, Newton, and Kepler have founded a science that emphasizes experience, observation, and the partisan view or theism, in which nature is no longer respected and sanctified.
Francis Bacon also considers the acquisition of knowledge to gain power so that he can occupy the world and nature (Pedersen, 2018). Like Kant, he speaks of the domination of nature and the ability to change and adapt nature to the needs and desires determined by man. Because of this thinking, the value of nature is raised and that nature has no value and is made only from raw materials for consumption in connection with human ideas. Therefore, some believe that the general and important difference between technical and ethical results today can be eliminated only when the study of science is supervised and directed to the findings and activities that are ultimately beneficial to humans and the environment(Dallal, 2010).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Polluter Pays Principle: The polluter pays principle stands for the idea that “the environmental costs of economic activities, including the cost of preventing potential harm, should be internalized rather than imposed upon society at large.” All issues related to responsibility for environmental remediation costs and compliance with pollution control regulations involve this principle.
Equity: Defined by UNEP to include intergenerational equity - “the right of future generations to enjoy a fair level of the common patrimony” - and intragenerational equity - “the right of all people within the current generation to fair access to the current generation’s entitlement to the Earth’s natural resources” - environmental equity considers the present generation under an obligation to account for long-term impacts of activities and to act to sustain the global environment and resource base for future generations. Pollution control and resource management laws may be assessed against this principle.
Public Participation and Transparency: identified as necessary conditions for “accountable governments,... industrial concerns,” and organizations generally, public participation and transparency are presented by UNEP as requiring “effective protection of the human right to hold and express opinions and to seek, receive and impart ideas,... a right of access to appropriate, comprehensible and timely information held by governments and industrial concerns on economic and social policies regarding the sustainable use of natural resources and the protection of the environment, without imposing undue financial burdens upon the applicants and with adequate protection of privacy and business confidentiality,” and “effective judicial and administrative proceedings.” These principles are present in environmental impact assessment, laws requiring publication and access to relevant environmental data, and administrative procedures.
Prevention: The concept of prevention can perhaps better be considered an overarching aim that gives rise to a multitude of legal mechanisms, including prior assessment of environmental harm, licensing or authorization that set out the conditions for operation and the consequences for violation of the conditions, as well as the adoption of strategies and policies. Emission limits and other product or process standards, the use of best available techniques, and similar techniques can all be seen as applications of the concept of prevention.
Transboundary Responsibility: Defined in the international law context as an obligation to protect one’s environment and prevent damage to neighboring environments, UNEP considers transboundary responsibility at the international level as a potential limitation on the sovereign state’s rights. Laws that limit externalities imposed upon human health and the environment may be assessed against this principle.
Precautionary Principle: One of the most commonly encountered and controversial principles of environmental law, the Rio Declaration formulated the precautionary principle: To protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of complete scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation. The principle may play a role in any debate over the need for environmental regulation.