Topics in Environmental Ethics

Creating and caring for a garden is a long-term project whose success requires commitment and devotion and love and proper performance of a range of activities that involve virtues and sensibilities like attentiveness, carefulness, humility, imaginativeness, and sensitivity to the natures and needs of plants and animals. In this chapter, I elaborate this conception of gardens and explore its relationship to artistic activities, like composing poetry or performing music. My focus are Confucianism and Daosim and their accounts of the relationships (...) between cultured practices, ethics and the arts, and garden-practices. (shrink)

This paper examines the evidence concerning the frequent accusation that technology, capitalism, and Christianity—three bases of modern Western society—are root causes of environmental degradation. A critical assessment indicates that, although these aspects of the present-day world are associated with failures to protect the environment, labeling them as causal factors contradicts known facts. A major theme of the paper is the combined application of scientific and folk wisdom in addressing environmental issues. An attempt is made to synthesize different positions, and the (...) implications for environmental psychology are discussed. (shrink)

In the framework of ethical social choice theory, sustainability is justified by efficiency and equity as ethical axioms. These axioms correspond to the Suppes–Sen grading principle. In technologies that are productive in a certain sense, the set of Suppes–Sen maximal utility paths is shown to equal the set of non-decreasing and efficient paths. Since any such path is sustainable, efficiency and equity can thus be used to deem any unsustainable path as ethically unacceptable. This finding is contrasted with results that (...) seem to indicate that an infinite number of generations cannot be treated equally. (shrink)

In this article it is argued that existing studies of Black environmentalism do not appropriately measure the environmental concerns and activities most relevant to Blacks and hence do not accurately reflect the extent to which African Americans are responsive on environmental issues. Using data that measure Black environmental concern and activity in communities threatened by hazardous industries to various degrees, the authors evaluate 2 competing sets of expectations regarding the manner in which these concerns and activities are affected by differential (...) environmental threats to the community. They find that specific local concerns and activities depend, to some extent, on the nature of the threat from nearby industry, but that more general attitudes toward the regulation of industry and concern about the environment do not Reasons as to why this might be the case are discussed. (shrink)

Land use regulation is one of the most poorly understood areas of law and public policy in the United States. At the same time, the land use regulatory system is expected to solve complex issues. The structure of the land use regulatory system can tell us quite a bit about the role that land use regulation, especially local land use regulation, can play in addressing specific public policy problems. This article illuminates common misunderstandings associated with the land use regulatory system, (...) identifies its proper functions, location, scope, components and processes, and analyzes whether the land use regulatory structure can value and conserve ecosystem services. Additionally, this article posits that the land use regulatory system has great potential for incorporating concepts and considerations of ecosystem services into land use actions and decisions. (shrink)

Can environmental law actually achieve environmental conservation or implement an environmental ethic in practice? The environmental movement has been captured by a legal centralist perspective, which asserts that legal institutions and processes are integral to achieving environmental conservation and environmentally ethical behavior.

Learn to incorporate the principles of environmental justice into your planning processes. This PAS Report outlines the law and regulatory tools.

The metaphor of property as a "bundle of sticks: or "bundle of rights" leads to the "disintegration of property": a concept of property that is too incoherent, ill-defined, and malleable to be meaningful. This article identifies several theoretical problems with the bundle of rights metaphor, and proposes a new metaphor of property as a web of interests.

Landscape or nature quality has become a key concept in relation to nature policy and landscape planning. In the first part of the article it is argued, that these qualities should not be conceived as mere expressions of private or subjective preferences. Even though there may not be any `objective' or `scientific' method dealing with them, they are still values which can be shared, reflected on, and discussed in a reasonable way. The connoisseurs are introduced as experienced persons, who are (...) particularly capable of identifying different kinds of qualities, bridge builders between cognition and evaluation. The second part of the article deals with four central sets of landscape or nature qualities: qualities related to species diversity, qualities related to the `atmospheres' and characters of places, pictorial qualities, and qualities related to narrativity. It is argued that experience of these and similar qualities are an important part of human flourishing, and that they should therefore all have a prominent place in landscape planning. (shrink)

Environmental philosophy has brought two topics to the forefront of philosophical discussion. One is the anthropocentrism/non-anthropocentrism debate in ethics, and the other is the question of obligations towards future generations. The deeper motives for focusing on these issues are, of course, intimately tied to the fact that the present generation may well be on its way to introducing practically irreversible and catastrophic damage to the global ecosystem. For the first time, one has to acknowledge that the global system does not (...) have an infinite capacity to repair itself and provide humans with limitless new opportunities for a fresh start. (shrink)

Concepts of Value in the natural environment are examined and the concept of constitutive value is introduced and discussed.

There is a widely held belief that there are moral limits to what we can do to non-human living beings. This has inspired various varieties of non-anthropocentric ethics. Whether rights- or welfare-oriented, the focus has been on the organisms’ interests. The ability of these theories to explain the moral significance of interests and, more generally, to identify the source of obligation in ethics, is questioned. The metaphor of a game is provided, with the rules of a game, as a model (...) for what can give obligational significance. A Kantian-oriented view of ethics is developed from the model, providing a source for inter-human liberty-rights. Concerning such rights, animals are clearly neither agents nor patients. It is argued that inter-human moral relationships also involve welfare issues. In fact the meaning of ethics is dependent on the welfare aspect. Pre-moral compassion provides direction for the principal task of ethics: to bring compassion out of a particular realm of kindness and under the equity requirements of ethics. This effort demands respect for the welfare of all others, including non-humans. It further condemns acts of wanton destruction, even when no sentient being is the victim. Animals, plants and the environment are therefore the prima facie beneficiaries of an inter-human morality. The moral belief that morality is an issue in human–nature relationships is thereby integrated into an anthropocentric ethic. (shrink)

The widespread concern about the declining state of our physical environment is often accompanied by frustration about what to do to prevent or even reverse such deterioration. In the past, policy makers, legislators, and the general public have usually turned to scientists and scientific knowledge for answers. But recently, theorists and others have reemphasized the importance of culture in understanding the environment. In this article, this culturalist critique of scientific knowledge is discussed and is then related to the decision by (...) Ontario Hydro to lay up seven of its nuclear reactors. This situation is used to illustrate the continuing relevance of scientific knowledge for addressing environmental concerns. (shrink)

Transgenic animals—animals with genes added to their deoxyribonucleic acid —will no longer be limited by the gene pool of their parents. Such animals are slated to be created expressly to provide vital and novel benefits for human beings. These animals can have desirable characteristics or traits from virtually any gene pool and may also possess properties not present in nature or available through conventional breeding. They will be created for the production of new medical and pharmaceutical products and to enhance (...) meat, dairy, and fiber production efficiency. (shrink)

To contribute significantly to environmental policy of the next century, conservationists will need to reach a consensus on their fundamental values and goals and to persuade society to adopt them. Resolution of the debate over the continued role of naturalness as a guiding concept has important implications for how conservation is practiced and the future of the discipline. I examine five aspects of naturalness in the context of biological conservation: its utility, its assessment, its relation to values and ethics, alternative (...) imperatives, and implications of adopting it as a guiding concept. Naturalness can be viewed as a continuous gradient with completely natural and completely artificial extremes. Human actions are unnatural to the extent that they rely on technology to transform natural ecosystems. The ecological consequences of technological transformation often overwhelm the capacity of other biota to adapt and are a root cause of biodiversity loss. The naturalness of most ecosystems or ecosystem alterations can be assessed objectively despite imperfect knowledge if evolutionary limits and natural ranges of variability are carefully considered. Most conservationists value naturally evolved biotic elements such as genomes and communities over artificial elements. This judgment, which is not shared by society at large, is based on intrinsic and instrumental values, including respect for nature and recognition that many ecosystem amenities stem from natural processes. Given the wide accessibility of ecologically destructive technology, fundamental shifts in societal values and approaches to ecosystem alteration are needed to achieve conservation. Respect for nature must supplant the prevailing world view of human superiority. Although sometimes difficult to assess, naturalness is a more reasonable guide for conservation than are other ecosystem features such as diversity, productivity, or evolution, and naturalness is the foundation for several current conservation concepts such as ecological integrity and ecological restoration. Conservation biologists can help develop conservation practices and ethics that emphasize the importance of natural ecosystems. Key roles include refining distinctions between natural and anthropogenic conditions, devising ways to use ecosystems without losing biotic diversity, and facilitating shifts in societal values toward more respect for nature. (shrink)

Two phrases — biological integrity and biological diversity—have joined the lexicon of biologists and natural resource managers during the past two decades. The importance of these phrases is demonstrated by their influence on environmental research, regulatory, and policy agendas. The concepts behind the phrases are central to strategies being developed to sustain global resources. Unfortunately, the phrases are widely used by the media, citizens, policy makers, and some biologists without adequate attention to the concepts they embody. Precise use of the (...) terms integrity and diversity can help set and achieve societal goals for sustaining global resources; imprecise or inappropriate use may exacerbate biotic impoverishment—the systematic decline in biological resources. (shrink)

The substantial health, social, and economic costs borne by rural, low‐income, and minority communities because of their differential exposure to environmental hazards is being increasingly acknowledged. For decades, these groups have been the the victims of a variety of activities and policies that have placed them at a substantial risk to their health and quality of life. Recently, many of these policies have come under increasing criticism by an emerging environmental justice movement—a movement that promises to be one of the (...) strongest forces for environmental reform to appear in recent years. It is argued that questions of justice and equity in environmental decision making are deserving of increased attention by the research community. A number of questions that can guide such a research agenda are identified. (shrink)

Many of us believe that we can and do have individual obligations to refrain from contributing to massive collective harms – say, from producing luxury greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; however, our individual actions are so small as to be practically meaningless. Can we then, justify the intuition that we ought to refrain? In this paper, we argue that this debate may have been mis-framed. Rather than investigating whether or not we have obligations to refrain from contributing to collective action, perhaps (...) we should ask whether we have reason to do so. However, this framing brings challenges of its own, and so we close by asking what problems are generated if we focus on these questions of ‘contributory ethics’. (shrink)

The concept of Environment is an ethical concept which was discussed by Greek philosophers at ancient time. Plato (347-427 BC) in his book Laws asks everyone who changes the environment to fix it as well. For example, if anyone pollutes the water well, they would also need to try to treat the pollution problem and compensate people for their loss due to the pollution problem. The Environment Ethics is a contemporary branch of philosophy. It has its own concepts that make (...) it different from other branches of human sciences. Furthermore, it focuses on the human-being in any place of the world and looks at the current world as a cooperative world controlled by Environment Responsibility and Unit-determination. Environment Ethics is also used to measure the culture of nations and to what degree they are civilized. To be civilized is not just to earn a high degree in any of the branches of sciences but it means to act in a civil manner and at a high level. To this end, culture plays an important role for these decisions to be implemented. For example, a society with civil citizens means you find a clean environment. This clean environment is an indicator of the cultural level of the particular society. -/- In this paper, I will discuss the aforementioned areas of Environmental Ethics and relationships between environment and society. (shrink)

In this book some options concerning the greenhouse effect are assessed from a welfarist point of view: business as usual, stabilization of greenhouse gas emissions and reduction by 25% and by 60%. Up to today only economic analyses of such options are available, which monetize welfare losses. Because this is found to be wanting from a moral point of view, the present study welfarizes (among others) monetary losses on the basis of a hedonistic utilitarianism and other, justice incorporating, welfare ethics. (...) For these welfarist evaluations information about the social consequences of the four options are collected from the literature and eventually corrected; then the consequences for individual well-being are assessed based on psychological research about well-being dependent on the social situation of the individual; finally the aggregation formulas of the respective welfare ethics are applied to these data. Assessments by other types of ethics, e.g. Kantian ethic, are included. The strongest abatement option is found to be optimum with great unanimity. - In addition a cost-welfare analysis of greenhouse gas abatement is undertaken revealing efficient cost-welfare ratios for these measures and the most efficient ratio for the strongest option. - A final, more theoretical part discusses the moral obligations following from such evaluations. The notion of 'moral obligation' is explained in a way that, apart from moral goodness of the required act, reinforcement by formal or informal sanctions is another necessary condition for moral obligations. This leads to a conception of a historical morality according to which the demands of morality rise in the long run. Applying this conception to the greenhouse effect implies that presently we have the moral duty to raise the standards of greenhouse gas abatement as much as is politically feasible. (shrink)

This is a chapter written for an audience that is not intimately familiar with the philosophy of animal consumption. It provides an overview of the harms that animals, the environment, and humans endure as a result of industrial animal agriculture, and it concludes with a defense of ostroveganism and a tentative defense of cultured meat.

It is common for conservationists to refer to non-native species that have undesirable impacts on humans as “invasive”. We argue that the classification of any species as “invasive” constitutes wrongful discrimination. Moreover, we argue that its being wrong to categorize a species as invasive is perfectly compatible with it being morally permissible to kill animals—assuming that conservationists “kill equally”. It simply is not compatible with the double standard that conservationists tend to employ in their decisions about who lives and who (...) dies. (shrink)

The volume includes topics from political philosophy and normative ethics on the one hand to philosophy of science and the philosophical underpinnings of water management policy on the other. It contains reflections on ecological nationalism, the legacy of Grey Owl, the meaning of ‘outside’ to Canadians, the paradigm shift from mechanism to ecology in our understanding of nature, the meaning of the concept of the Anthropocene, the importance of humans self-identifying as ‘earthlings’, the challenges of biodiversity protection and the status (...) of cross-bred species, how to ground the moral considerability of ecosystems, the collapse of the Newfoundland and Labrador cod fishery, and much more. It covers metaphysics, ontology, ethics, political philosophy, critical history, and environmental policy. The range of topics and frames is as diverse and challenging as the land itself. (shrink)

In this article, I expand the existing discourse on climate justice by drawing out the implications of taking animal rights seriously in the context of human-induced climate change. More specifically, I argue that nonhuman animals are owed adaptive assistance to help them cope with the ill-effects of climate change, and I advance and defend four principles of climate justice that derive from a general duty of adaptation. Lastly, I suggest that even if one can successfully argue that the protection of (...) human interests in adaptation ought to be prioritised, nonhuman animal rights will continue to place significant constraints on climate change action. (shrink)

For almost 50 years, the Council of Europe through a series of documents has been helping to build up a set of rules, principles, and strategies related to culture, environment, ethics, and sustainable development. At the moment, one of the most important aims of the Council of Europe’s agenda deals with the elaboration of the General Principles for the Protection of the Environment and Sustainable Development, as raised in document CO-DBP (2003)2 related to the environmental subject. The intention of the (...) Council of Europe is to encourage national authorities to implement these General Principles into their national environmental policies. These principles should have an important effect, especially in those countries which are new members of the European Union. The primary target of this paper is the study of these principles and the setting of their entailed implications in order to establish a relation between values and policy making. Quite often, the conclusions adopted by the agreements generated within the framework of the European Union are controversial. Therefore, a study aiming to lay the foundations of these principles will make the exchange of ideas easier, providing a wider and more detailed scope in the European environmental policy. (shrink)

In this article, I consider the claim that we ought to be grateful to nature and argue that this claim is unjustified. I proceed by arguing against the two most plausible lines of reasoning for the claim that we ought to be grateful to nature: 1) that nature is a fitting or appropriate object of our gratitude, and 2) that we ought to be grateful to nature insofar as gratitude to nature enhances, preserves or indicates in us the virtue of (...) gratitude, a character trait we morally ought to have. My arguments against the first line of reasoning show it to be unsound, and my arguments against the second reveal that we actually have reasons to avoid being grateful to nature. If we have reasons to treat nature well, I show, those may be rooted in the appropriateness of attitudes like praise, appreciation or compassion, but not gratitude. I conclude by highlighting several implications my arguments entail about gratitude to entities other than nature and about environmental virtues other than gratitude. (shrink)

Ecofascism as a tradition in Environmental Ethics seems to burgeoning with potential. The roots of Ecofascism can be traced back to the German Romantic School, to the Wagnerian narration of the Nibelungen saga, to the works of Fichte and Herder and, finally, to the so-called völkisch movement. Those who take pride in describing themselves as ecofascists grosso modo tend to prioritize the moral value of the ecosphere, while, at the same time, they almost entirely devalue species and individuals. Additionally, these (...) ecofascists are eager to reject democracy, the idea of progress in its entirety, as well as industrialization and urbanization. They also seem to be hostile towards individual autonomy and free will. In this short essay I will present and discuss Kaarlo Pentti Linkola’s approach to environmental ethics, one that could be well described as the epitome of Ecofascism. I will argue that his arguments are neither sound nor documented, and I will conclude that Linkola’s overall approach is, in my view, contrary to the purpose as well as to the very essence of morality. (shrink)

This article embarked on a critical evaluation of religious leadership and ecological consciousness in Africa, using the case of the Nigerian Christian religious community. The article argued that the concept of ecological justice lacks strong theological conceptualisation in the Nigerian ecclesiastical community. Therefore, Ime Okopido’s argument in favour of stewardship for the involvement of religious leadership in the pursuit of ecological and socioeconomic justice served as the starting point for this engagement. However, such engagement of the religious leadership and of (...) the faithful should include developing ecological theological concepts, such as value for community, which are relevant to the context and resonate with indigenous cultures. Embarking on ecological activism, a change of lifestyles and finding other concrete ways of protecting the environment and biodiversity could ameliorate the crisis of ecological and socio-economic injustice in Africa by promoting, in particular, the praxis of value for community. (shrink)

In this paper, we examine how organizations’ impression management evolves in response to rising stakeholder pressures regarding organizations’ corporate responsibility initiatives. We conducted a comparative case study analysis over a period of 13 years for two organizations—Exxon and BP—that took extreme initial stances on climate change. We found that as stakeholder pressures rose, their IM tactics unfolded in four phases: advocating the initial stance, sensegiving to clarify the initial stance, image repairing, and adjusting the stance. Taken together, our analysis of (...) IM over these four phases provides three key insights about the evolution of IM in the face of rising pressures. First, when faced with stakeholder pressures, it seems that organizations do not immediately resort to conforming but tend to give in gradually when pressures increase and start to come from relatively powerful stakeholders. Second, evolution of IM seems to be characterized by path dependence, i.e., even as organizations’ positions evolve, they continue to show their conviction in their initial positions and try to convey that their subsequent positions flow logically from the previous ones. Finally, IM involves navigation between symbolism and substance, and companies tend to strive toward harmonizing their symbolic and substantive actions as stakeholder pressure increases. (shrink)