Pollution Regulations And Its Effects On The Pollution Of...

In the past, industry was a huge source of pollution in the Bay, along with sewage treatment plants. After regulations were put in place to correct these pollution point sources, local governments were required to establish and implement plans for improving the pollution from non-point sources and their impact on the TMDL. After years of committing to specific deadlines for a 40 percent reduction in nutrient pollution and missing those deadlines without consequences, the EPA took another approach, a mandatory pollution diet for the Bay that would include penalties for not progressing sufficiently. The â€Å"three recurring problems in the nonpoint source pollution regulatory framework deal with the voluntary participation, scientific and†¦show more content†¦In order to ethically evaluate the disaster of polluted runoff in The Chesapeake Bay, we would need to consider two different environmental ethical approaches in theory. The first approach to consider would be anthropoc entrism. John Nolt (2013) referred anthropocentrism to â€Å"human-centeredness†, where he claimed it to mean â€Å"For any action A, if we ought to do A, then doing A is good for humans† (p. 442), meaning to do what is good for humans. He discusses environmental ethics to be considered â€Å"value anthropocentrism† were all values are â€Å"ultimately human values and only human values have intrinsic value† (p. 443). The anthropocentrism approach only gives instrumental value to non-human living things, as to what value they have for humans, because they are not â€Å"morally competent beings† (p. 444). With this approach in mind, this would mean that deforestation is good, because building houses and roadways in their place is good for humans, instead of having natural runoff absorbing areas. Or overharvesting of crabs and oyster are good because it is for the greater good of watermen and restaurateurs livelihood and culture, instead of habitat a nd filtration of the Bay. Another approach to consider is biocentrism. â€Å"Moral biocentrism is the view that the property of being biologically alive is sufficient to confer moral standing on a thing; thus, on this view, the well-being of both sentient and nonsentient beings must be