1. Exxon's 987-foot tanker Valdez was passing through Prince William Sound on March 24th, 1989, carrying 50 million gallons of oil when it fetched up on Bligh Reef, tore its bottom, and spilled II million gallons of oil at the rate of a thousand gallons a second.44 The immediate cause of the disaster was negligence by the ship's captain, Joseph J. Hazelwood, who was too drunk to perform his duties. Additional procedural violations, lack of emergency preparedness, and a single-rather than double-hull on the ship all contributed in making matters worse. This was one of the worst spills ever, not in quantity, but in its effect on a very fragile ecosystem. No human life was lost, but many thousands of birds, fish, sea otters, and other creatures died.
Discuss how each of the human-centered and nature-centered ethical theories would interpret the moral issues involved in this case, and apply your own environmental ethic to the case.
2. What ethical theory would you apply to our relation to the environment? Explain why you favor it, and also identify how extensively its practical implications differ from at least two alternative perspectives, selected from those discussed in Chapter 8 Section 2.