Table of Contents
Fundamental Reasons for Protecting Nature and the Environment
Protecting nature and the environment is not just an ethical preference or a hobby for nature lovers; it is a precondition for the continued existence and well‑being of human societies and of life on Earth as we know it. In this chapter, the focus is on why environmental and nature protection are necessary, not on how individual measures are implemented or on specific laws and agreements.
We can roughly group the reasons into four major areas:
- Ecological reasons (functioning of ecosystems and the biosphere)
- Economic and material reasons (ecosystem services and resource base)
- Health and social reasons (quality of life, stability of societies)
- Ethical, cultural, and legal reasons (intrinsic value, responsibility, justice)
Each of these perspectives provides independent arguments; together they form a coherent justification for environmental protection.
1. Ecological Reasons: Maintaining the Life-Support Systems
1.1 Stability and Functioning of Ecosystems
Ecosystems are networks of organisms and their physical environment. They provide the basic conditions that make life possible:
- Regulation of climate and water cycles
- Maintenance of soil fertility
- Decomposition of waste and toxins
- Conservation and generation of biodiversity
If ecosystems are severely damaged, these functions can collapse or shift to new, less favorable states (e.g., desertification, eutrophication of lakes). Environmental protection is therefore necessary to:
- Prevent tipping points at which ecosystems abruptly lose key functions
- Maintain a sufficient level of complexity and biodiversity to buffer disturbances (ecological resilience)
- Preserve the regenerative capacity of natural systems (e.g., forests after storms, coral reefs after bleaching events)
1.2 Global Life-Support Systems of the Biosphere
On the planetary level, the biosphere interacts with atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere to keep conditions suitable for life. Environmental protection has to ensure:
- A roughly stable global climate within the tolerance ranges of existing species, including humans
- A composition of the atmosphere that allows respiration and photosynthesis
- Functioning global cycles of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, and water
Unchecked pollution, massive land-use change, and overexploitation of resources disturb these global cycles and can lead to:
- Long-term climate shifts
- Ocean acidification
- Large-scale loss of fertile soils and freshwater
Protecting the environment is thus equivalent to protecting the physical conditions under which complex life can exist.
2. Economic and Material Reasons: Ecosystem Services and Resources
2.1 Ecosystem Services as the Basis of Economies
Human economies depend on nature in many direct and indirect ways. The benefits people derive from ecosystems are called ecosystem services, often divided into:
- Provisioning services: food, freshwater, wood, fibers, medicinal resources
- Regulating services: climate regulation, flood control, pollination, pest control
- Supporting services: soil formation, nutrient cycling, primary production
- Cultural services: recreation, tourism, aesthetic and spiritual enrichment
Without these services:
- Agriculture collapses or becomes extremely expensive (e.g., hand pollination if pollinators disappear)
- Fishing, forestry, and many raw-material industries lose their resource base
- Insurance and infrastructure costs rise sharply due to more frequent and severe natural disasters (floods, storms, landslides)
Environmental protection is therefore a form of preventive economic policy: it maintains the natural capital that economies draw on.
2.2 Avoiding Costly Damage and Irreversible Loss
Environmental destruction often creates external costs that are not immediately paid by the polluters but by society at large and by future generations. Examples include:
- Costs of cleaning polluted drinking water
- Health costs due to air pollution
- Damage from climate-related extreme weather events
- Loss of fertile agricultural land through erosion or salinization
Preventing damage (e.g. by protecting soils, air, and water) is typically cheaper and more effective than repairing it afterward. In addition, many environmental damages are effectively irreversible on human time scales:
- Extinct species cannot be brought back.
- Lost old-growth forests and degraded coral reefs need centuries, if at all, to recover.
- Deep groundwater reserves can take thousands of years to regenerate.
Environmental protection therefore acts as a safeguard against long-term economic decline and irreversible loss of natural wealth.
2.3 Security of Resources and Long-Term Prosperity
Many natural resources are finite or renewable only under certain conditions. Overuse leads to:
- Collapse of fish stocks
- Depletion of topsoil and groundwater
- Scarcity of certain raw materials
Sustainable use and protection of ecosystems:
- Secure raw materials for future generations (intergenerational equity)
- Reduce conflicts over scarce resources (water, fertile land)
- Support long-term, stable prosperity instead of short-term exploitation
From this perspective, environmental protection is an investment in future economic security.
3. Health and Social Reasons
3.1 Protecting Human Health
Human health is closely tied to environmental quality. Environmental degradation results in:
- Air pollution: respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, allergies
- Water pollution: infections, poisoning, long-term effects from heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants
- Soil pollution: contaminated food, accumulation of toxins in the food chain
- Noise and light pollution: stress, sleep disturbances, impacts on mental health
Environmental protection aims to:
- Ensure clean air and drinking water
- Minimize exposure to harmful chemicals and radiation
- Reduce noise and other environmental stressors
Thus, it serves as a public health measure on a very broad scale.
3.2 Social Stability and Justice
Environmental destruction can intensify social inequality and cause conflicts:
- Poorer populations are often more exposed to pollution (industrial areas, waste sites) and climate risks (floodplains, drought-prone regions).
- Degraded environments can drive migration and trigger conflicts over resources such as water and fertile land.
Environmental protection therefore also has a social dimension:
- It helps avoid environmental injustice (where some groups bear most of the environmental burden while others reap most of the benefits).
- It supports stable societies by reducing conflict potential associated with environmental crises.
3.3 Quality of Life and Psychological Well-Being
Natural environments contribute significantly to human well-being beyond basic health:
- Recreation and relaxation in green spaces reduce stress and improve mental health.
- Experiencing nature supports cognitive development in children and emotional balance in adults.
- Landscapes and local ecosystems shape cultural identity and sense of place.
Environmental protection thus maintains not only physical conditions but also psychological and cultural dimensions of a good life.
4. Ethical, Cultural, and Legal Reasons
4.1 Intrinsic Value of Nature and Species
An important argument goes beyond human benefit: many people and ethical traditions recognize that:
- Other species and ecosystems have an intrinsic value independent of human use.
- Extinct species and destroyed ecosystems are a moral loss, not just an economic one.
From this viewpoint, environmental protection is a matter of:
- Respect for living beings and natural processes
- Recognition that humans are part of, not separate from, nature
- Moral responsibility toward non-human life
This perspective supports demands such as:
- Protecting species from extinction even if they are not “useful” to humans
- Preserving wilderness areas as places where nature can develop largely without human interference
4.2 Responsibility Toward Future Generations
Environmental decisions made today shape the living conditions of people who are not yet born. Key ideas include:
- Intergenerational justice: future generations should have comparable opportunities and environmental quality as today’s generation.
- Avoiding “ecological debt”: leaving behind degraded ecosystems, climate change, and resource scarcity that limit future freedom and well-being.
This leads to the principle that:
- Short-term advantages must not be gained at the price of long-term, irreversible environmental damage.
- Environmental protection is an expression of fairness across time.
4.3 Cultural Heritage and Identity
Many cultures and traditions are closely tied to particular landscapes, species, and natural processes:
- Sacred groves, rivers, and mountains
- Traditional agricultural landscapes and forms of use
- Indigenous knowledge systems about local ecosystems
Environmental protection helps:
- Preserve this cultural diversity and identity
- Maintain the knowledge and practices that have evolved over centuries in interaction with nature
The loss of ecosystems can therefore also mean the loss of languages, rituals, and entire cultural ways of life.
4.4 Legal Obligations and Normative Frameworks
Many societies have codified environmental protection into laws and constitutions. While the details are discussed in other chapters, the underlying reasons include:
- Recognition that environmental protection is a public interest, not just a private choice
- Formalization of society’s ethical and practical decision to preserve certain minimum standards of environmental quality
The existence of environmental rights (e.g., right to clean water) and duties (e.g., obligation to avoid harmful emissions) reflects the broad societal consensus that protection of nature and the environment is necessary.
5. Interdependence of the Reasons
The different reasons for environmental and nature protection are tightly interconnected:
- Ethical and legal considerations often arise because we recognize the ecological and health consequences of environmental damage.
- Economic arguments (ecosystem services) merge with health protection (clean air and water) and with social justice (fair distribution of environmental goods and burdens).
- Preserving biodiversity is simultaneously an ecological, economic, cultural, and ethical goal.
Therefore, environmental protection should not be reduced to a single perspective (for example, only climate protection or only species conservation). Instead, it:
- Secures the ecological foundations of life
- Protects human health and well-being
- Ensures long-term economic and social stability
- Expresses ethical responsibility toward other beings and future generations
Understanding these diverse motivations is a prerequisite for evaluating and justifying concrete measures, laws, and international agreements, which are addressed in subsequent chapters.