Fight over the Redwoods
John Locke’s reading establishes the dependency of the human life to the environment. Locke through his environmental theories establishes that humans should utilize environmental resources because God intended them to be used. In the fight over the Redwoods, arguments are raised on the importance of the environment and the utility of resources. The exploitation and excessive usage of resources has attracted numerous debates from all over the world. Some arguments posit that the environment is self-sustainable and the resources should be utilized for development purposes. In the Redwoods case, establishments on how best resources should be utilized are established. Locke’s theories will be analyzed in the case relative to the use, regulation and benefits of environmental resources.
John Locke establishes in his ideology of the ‘labor theory’; that experience is what contributes to development of the human race (Trachtenberg 3). Through experience, one gets to understand what benefits can be drawn from existent resources. In the Redwoods case, Locke would argue that the environment is subject to reasonable exploitation in order to understand the benefits that it holds. He postulates that people are not born with
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From a surface perspective, it may appear that Locke supports degradation of the environment and that his theories are not environment friendly. However, Locke refutes the perception as he establishes that the utility of resources must be weighed; if positive, it is sufficient and if negative, should not proceed. The Redwoods is of aesthetic value to the people in California historically and also to the ecosystem. Therefore, Locke would strongly oppose the logging of the trees as it would not only degrade the environment but tamper with the ecosystem that supports the life of an organism that faces