Age of Humans?: Examining the Cosmic Perspective and the Individual

This paper looks at environmental ethics and specifically the Cosmic Perspective Argument. This argument puts forward that with new developments in cosmology it is unlikely that Earth is unique in terms of life and ecosystems. Furthermore it claims that with this information we should not be concerned with environmental degradation. The ethical framework and conclusions laid out by the Cosmic Perspective is applied to the individual level to determine if this is a complete ethical argument. Once the Cosmic Perspective is applied to an individual the logic becomes problematic. After examining the Cosmic Perspective at an individual level the problems that arise intensify and not only break the argument at an individual level but on a much larger scale as well. With these problems it is clear that the Cosmic Perspective is not a sufficient environmental ethics framework. These problems show the need for an environmental ethics framework that takes into full account the complex and interconnected nature of the environment.