Oruka’s Punishment Abolition as a Challenge to Environmental Ethics

Abstract

The gross violation of environmental ethics implies the outright destruction of the environment, which in turn poses severe threat to humanity. This study aims at highlighting the effects of Oruka’s punishment abolition on environmental ethics. It argues that Oruka’s punishment abolition, if practiced, is a challenge to environmental ethics, since breaching environmental laws would become the order of the day. It will be so because it is to avert the wrath of the law (i.e. punishment) that environmental laws, which constitute environmental ethics, are kept. In view of the pitfalls of Oruka’s theory of punishment, this study faults Oruka for demanding the abolition of punishment. Contrarily, it insists that punishment should never be abolished in any human society to avoid anarchy, crime prevalence and recurrence, and the destruction of human environment.