Is it more important to be a good person or to perform good acts (virtue ethics vs. action ethics)?

In my opinion, I believe it is more important to perform good acts than to be a good person. In order be considered a good person one must perform good acts to justify this. These acts provide some level of measurability to what is considered good,bad or just okay. It does not matter if you are a genuinely good person or a bad person. What matters is the impact you have made on society. For example, a celebrity decides to donate $1 billion dollars to the world hunger foundation solely for publicity purposes. Though the motive is selfish and narcissistic, the money donated will still be used to help thousands of people. In the end it does not matter that the celebrity is a bad person. That good act the celebrity performed is what is important and is what will be remembered. It is more important to focus on what a person should do as opposed to how a person should be.

.Do ecosystems matter for their own sake, or do they only matter to the extent that they impact humans

Ecosystems matter mostly for the extent that they impact humans.I think this is unfair because humans are only able to thrive because of the ecosystem. However, this is true for most things.Our views are extremely anthropocentric . When considering just about anything, the focus is first on how on how humans will be affected then other things are considered. When we talk about environmental issues such as global warming we focus on how these issues affect humans. For example, global warming is decreasing the amount of cold water fish available. The climate change is completely changing the habitat which is killing a considerable amount of fish. Humans tend to focus on how this is affecting the restaurant industry and the availability of fish for their next meal. We have placed ourselves at the top of the ecosystem in regards to importance.

Is my own life worth more than the lives of others, the same, or less (selfishness vs. altruism)?

I think this question is difficult because the answer is circumstantial and varies by perspective. When first answering the question I felt that my life is worth the same as any other person’s life. I believe that all people should be treated  equally thus no life is more or less important than another. However, if I were asked this question in an extreme situation such as being held at gunpoint I would probably feel my life is worth more than others. In this situation,I would only be concerned with my own welfare.In a situation like this I think it is instinctive to be selfish.   I next thought of this question from the perspective of society as a whole. Society tends to favor wealthier people or people belonging to certain ethnicities. I think in some situations the life of a doctor could be considered more valuable than the life of a cashier.