Summary of Respect for Nature and the Mount Polley Mine Disaster

Critical Summary of Chapter 2 Case Study
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Critical Summary of “Respect for Nature and the Mount Polley Mine Disaster”
This case study on Chapter 2 of the book Environmental Ethics for Canadians embodies the basic ideas and themes of the chapter. Besides the theme of respect for the environment, the case study can also be used to make an argument for biocentric egalitarianism. The key point in the case is that if humans gave enough respect for nature, then such disasters as the Mount Polley Mine would never happen.
Understanding the main argument of the study requires one to make references to the key themes in the chapter. First, biocentrism has been defined by Williston (2016) as the view that living things can benefit and be harmed by people, which places moral constraints on how humans are allowed to treat them. The author states that “indeed, it means that living things have intrinsic value” (Williston, 2016, p. 50). The main concern in the case is that the spill contaminated the water bodies in the region. Drinking water becomes contaminated, and humans directly rely on the species, including the sockeye salmon, were affected. From the perspective of biocentrism, the Imperial Metals Corporation should have understood that mining in the area will affect all living things. In this case, the company should have exercised responsible practices that aim to protect all life surrounding the mine.
The idea of egalitarianism is founded on the notion that non-human living things have moral standi...