This page contains the single most examined idea in the whole of ESS: the environmental value system. Learn the three categories properly here and you will use them in every topic that follows, from biodiversity to climate policy.
📘 What you need to know
A worldview is the lens through which a group of people sees and understands the world.
Worldviews are broader and deeper than perspectives; perspectives are more specific, situational and quicker to change.
An environmental value system (EVS) is how an individual or group perceives the environment and the resources it provides.
An EVS is a system: it has inputs (cultural, religious, social, political, economic and environmental factors) and outputs (perceptions, evaluations, decisions and actions).
EVSs fall broadly into three categories: ecocentric, anthropocentric and technocentric.
Ecocentrism puts the intrinsic value of nature first. Anthropocentrism puts human needs first. Technocentrism puts technology and human ingenuity first.
Each has clear strengths and limitations, and real people rarely sit purely in one category.
What a worldview is
A worldview is the lens through which groups of people see and understand the world around them — literally their view of the world. It is made up of cultural beliefs, philosophical ideas, political opinions, religious teachings and much else.
Worldviews shape how people think, what they believe and how they behave. They influence a person’s moral compass, their judgements and their decisions. Someone raised in a religious household may hold different views on major social questions from someone who was not.
Worldview or perspective?
A worldview is a broad, deep set of beliefs, values and ideologies.
A perspective is a more specific, immediate viewpoint on a particular issue — more situational, and quicker to change with new information.
Categories are messy, and that is a valid exam point. People hold complex mixes of belief. Someone may be liberal on social issues and conservative on economic ones. With the internet and social media, people are also exposed to far more worldviews than their local community would ever have offered.
Environmental value systems
An environmental value system (EVS) is the way an individual, or any group of people, perceives the environment and the resources it provides. Yours determines how you perceive and evaluate environmental issues, and what action you decide to take about them.
An EVS is shaped by cultural, religious, social, political, economic and environmental factors. These act as flows of information into individuals within a society. Each person then processes and transforms that information into their own perception of the environment and how to act on it.
Why it counts as a system
An EVS is treated as a system because it has a set of inputs and generates a set of outputs.
Draw this diagram in an exam if you are asked to explain why an EVS is described as a system. Label the inputs, the processing and the outputs.
The three categories
There is a very wide spectrum of environmental value systems, but environmental perspectives and worldviews are broadly divided into three categories.
Anthropocentrism sits in the middle because it can lean either way: managed sustainably, or exploited for short-term gain.
Ecocentrism
Ecocentrism is a philosophical and ethical approach that prioritises the intrinsic value of nature over human needs and interests. It holds that all living organisms and ecosystems have inherent worth and should be protected for their own sake.
It argues for sustainable practices that maintain the balance and integrity of ecosystems rather than exploiting them, and it is closely associated with environmental movements and conservation efforts protecting biodiversity and natural resources.
Anthropocentrism
Anthropocentrism places human beings at the centre, prioritising human needs and interests over other living things and the environment. It holds that humans have the right to use natural resources and ecosystems for their own benefit.
In principle an anthropocentric view would manage global systems sustainably. In practice it often produces unsustainable outcomes — overexploitation of resources, habitat destruction and pollution — because it only values biodiversity where that brings economic or ecological advantage to people. Environmentalists criticise it for ignoring nature’s intrinsic value.
Technocentrism
Technocentrism places technology and human ingenuity at the centre of problem-solving, often overlooking the impact on the environment and other living things. It emphasises using technology to overcome environmental problems while maintaining human wellbeing.
It tends to assume that every environmental problem can be solved through technological innovation and economic growth, which can mean conservation and sustainability get neglected. Critics call it short-sighted for ignoring how interconnected environmental systems are.
🧩
Read the prefix
Eco = the ecosystem comes first. Anthropo = the human comes first (as in anthropology). Techno = the technology comes first. The name tells you what sits at the centre.
Strengths and limitations
EVS
Advantages
Disadvantages
Ecocentrism
Reuses materials, so more sustainable. Minimises environmental impact by encouraging restraint. Better for long-term human wellbeing. No need to wait for technology to develop
Conservation can be expensive with no obvious or quick economic return. Many countries are still developing and argue they should be allowed to continue. Individual attitudes are difficult to change
Technocentrism
Substitutes materials, so avoids costly industrial change. Provides solutions, so people are not inconvenienced. Allows social and economic progress
Allows even greater rates of resource consumption. May create further environmental problems. High cost. Humans become increasingly disconnected from nature
Notice the pattern in that table. Ecocentrism asks people to change their behaviour, which is cheap but unpopular. Technocentrism asks people to change their technology, which is popular but expensive and lets consumption keep rising. That contrast is the backbone of almost any evaluation question on EVSs.
Case study: plastic in the oceans
Plastic pollution in the oceans is a major environmental problem. The same problem produces two very different responses depending on the EVS applied.
Ecocentric approach
Technocentric approach
Where it acts
Stops plastic entering the ocean in the first place
Cleans up plastic already in the ocean, and prevents further pollution technologically
What it does
Reduces production and use of single-use plastics, tightens regulation and enforcement against illegal dumping, promotes sustainable alternatives
Advanced filtration systems and autonomous robots to remove waste; biodegradable plastics that break down faster in seawater
What else it prioritises
Restoring and protecting damaged marine ecosystems such as coral reefs and turtle nesting habitats
Keeping current rates of plastic use possible
Underlying logic
Systemic change: fundamental change in human behaviour and resource use
Technological fix: solve the symptom without changing behaviour
Worked examples
WE 1
EVS as a system
Explain why an environmental value system is described as a system. (3 marks)
Step 1: it has inputs
An EVS receives flows of information from cultural, religious, social, political, economic and environmental factors.
Step 2: it processes them
The individual or group transforms that information into their own perception of the environment and how to act on it.
Step 3: it has outputs
The outputs are perceptions, evaluations, decisions and actions regarding environmental issues.
Inputs are processed into outputs, which is what makes it a systemnaming at least three inputs and two outputs secures full marks
WE 2
Comparing two value systems
Compare and contrast ecocentric and technocentric environmental value systems. (4 marks)
Similarity
Both are environmental value systems, and both aim to address environmental problems such as pollution.
Difference 1: what sits at the centre
Ecocentrism prioritises the intrinsic value of nature, holding that ecosystems have worth for their own sake. Technocentrism places technology and human ingenuity at the centre.
Difference 2: what each asks of people
Ecocentrism calls for restraint and reduced consumption. Technocentrism assumes innovation and economic growth can solve problems without changing consumption.
Difference 3: the criticism of each
Ecocentrism is criticised as expensive with slow returns and hard to achieve; technocentrism is criticised as short-sighted and as permitting even higher resource use.
Same problem, opposite answers: change behaviour, or build a fixcompare and contrast needs at least one similarity as well as the differences
WE 3
Applying an EVS
Outline how someone with an ecocentric EVS and someone with a technocentric EVS would each respond to ocean plastic pollution. (4 marks)
Ecocentric response
Focus on stopping plastic entering the ocean at all: reduce production and use of single-use plastics, tighten regulation against illegal dumping, and promote sustainable alternatives.
Ecocentric priority
Also restore and protect damaged marine ecosystems such as coral reefs and turtle nesting sites.
Technocentric response
Develop technology to deal with the plastic: filtration systems or autonomous robots to remove waste, and biodegradable plastics that break down faster at sea.
The underlying difference
The ecocentric approach demands systemic change in behaviour and resource use; the technocentric approach solves the symptom and allows current plastic use to continue.
One turns off the tap; the other builds a better mopfinish by naming the underlying difference — that is the evaluation mark
💡 Exam tips
Be able to distinguish worldview from perspective: broader and deeper versus specific and situational.
Learn the EVS definition and be ready to draw it as a system with inputs and outputs.
Name all three categories correctly: ecocentric, anthropocentric, technocentric.
Use the term intrinsic value when describing ecocentrism. It is the key phrase.
Say that real people hold mixed value systems and rarely fit one category neatly.
Keep the ocean plastic case study ready — it works for almost any EVS application question.
⚠ Common mistakes
Treating anthropocentrism as automatically bad. In principle it supports sustainable management; it is the practice that often falls short.
Confusing technocentric with ecocentric solutions. If it relies on new technology rather than using less, it is technocentric.
Using worldview and perspective interchangeably. The distinction is examined directly.
Forgetting an EVS has outputs. Perceptions, evaluations, decisions and actions all count.
Placing everyone in one category. EVSs sit on a spectrum.
Giving strengths without limitations. Evaluation questions need both sides.
Up next: The Rise of the Environmental Movement. You now know what shapes a society’s values. The last page traces how those values actually shifted over the past seventy years, and what pushed them.
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