Forging the Environmental Ethic: Transforming the Army through Environmental Stewardship
Abstract
Most soldiers will agree that the environment is important, but few understand the wide range of issues that make environmental stewardship critical to the military and society at large, particularly in light of Army Transformation initiatives. The ever-increasing need for a collective military environmental consciousness is driven by factors today that directly affect military readiness. It is a combination of these factors and others that helps forge an environmental ethic in soldiers at all levels. For example, knowing the consequences of environmental law violations, understanding the health implications of environmental pollution, and realizing the impact of the environment on military training are just a few of the forces that shape the environmental ethic. Readiness and environmental stewardship are inextricably tied together, and as such, a strong environmental ethic in soldiers will be critical to ensuring that the Army is ready to fight the nation s future wars and win decisively. Soldiers today are fully engaged, many in the global war on terrorism, and spread out internationally across some 120 countries. Transformation is also increasing the demand on soldiers, requiring them to be smarter, faster-thinking individuals who can operate in extraordinarily complex, asymmetric, and dangerous environments and apply knowledge in increasingly varied and unique situations. In light of these challenges, it is not surprising that soldiers today focus on little more than compliance, to speak nothing of environmental stewardship. One might argue that stewardship of any type must stem from an ethic or set of guiding moral principles or values in order to be truly meaningful. Stewardship thus transcends mere compliance, and it is when environmental protection becomes part of one s system of beliefs that real, meaningful stewardship begins.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADA596224
Entities
People
- Daniel Taphorn
Organizations
- United States Army Engineer School