The evolution of the urban environmental sustainability and the ethics interferences

Abstract

The intention of this article is to present the influence of ethics in the evolution of environmental sustainability from the century XIX when there is rapid development of cities and a disorderly growth of the population generating social and environmental problems. The natural environment has suffered for a long time, with the predatory activity of human beings, that stimulated by their greed, pulled in an irresponsible manner and without planning, natural resources for profit committed to sustainable livelihoods. The traditional view emphasizes an anthropocentric environmental urban development focused on the interests and welfare of human beings since man’s existence, while the biocentric, shifts the axis of ethics for living beings and natural ecosystems, where we have the introduction to environmental ethics in 70’s and the concept of eco-development.