Featuring sixty-two accessible selections--from classic articles to examples of cutting-edge original research--Environmental Ethics: What Really Matters, What Really Works addresses both of the principal areas of inquiry in the field: the exploration of morality from an environmental perspective and the analysis of the current state of our environment. Aiming to determine what issues really matter, the first section of the book responds to such questions as: What is value? What types of things have value? Is the value of a human being fundamentally different from the kind of value we find elsewhere in nature? What role do consumer goods and services play in a good life? and Is there room for environmental consciousness in a good life? The second section turns to the question of what it would take to solve our environmental problems. It strives to go beyond the "hype" to present informed perspectives on the true nature of those problems and investigates important questions like: What is causing or exacerbating these problems? and What solutions have been tried? The selections present philosophical, biological, and social scientific approaches to the major issues. Environmental Ethics features first-hand descriptions from people who have actually been involved in such projects as wildlife management in Africa, ecofeminist initiatives in India, and radical activism on the high seas. It also provides up-to-date data on population issues and community-based wildlife initiatives. Ideal for undergraduate courses in environmental ethics, environmental issues, and applied ethics, this unique text will also be a helpful resource for graduate students and professors, as it retains most of the footnotes from the original articles.
Acknowledgments
Why Environmental Ethics?, Elizabeth Willott and David Schmidtz
I. WHAT REALLY MATTERS? ESSAYS ON VALUE IN NATURE
1. The Dawn of Reverence
Questions for Reflection and Discussion: A Fierce Green Fire
A Moment on the Earth, Gregg Easterbrook
Thinking Like a Mountain, Aldo Leopold
The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis, Lynn White, Jr.
2. Animal Liberation and the Land Ethic
Questions for Reflection and Discussion: Practical Ethics
All Animals Are Equal, Peter Singer
The Land Ethic, Aldo Leopold
Values in and Duties to the Natural World, Holmes Rolston III
Animal Liberation and Environmental Ethics: Bad Marriage, Quick Divorce, Mark Sagoff
3. Extending the Realm of Rights
Questions for Reflection and Discussion: Natural Rights
Should Trees Have Standing? Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects, Christopher D. Stone
The Rights of Animals, Joel Feinberg
The Good of Trees, Robin Attfield
Duties Concerning Islands, Mary Midgley
4. Species Equality and Respect for Nature
Questions for Reflection and Discussion: Where Do We Draw the Line?
The Ethics of Respect for Nature, Paul W. Taylor
Are All Species Equal?, David Schmidtz
5. Environmental Holism
Questions for Reflection and Discussion: Keeping Our Hands Clean
How to Worry About Endangered Species, Tom Regan
Biocentric Individualism, Gary Varner
Deep Ecology, Bill Devall and George Sessions
Social Ecology Versus Deep Ecology, Murray Bookchin
Why Do Species Matter?, Lilly-Marlene Russow
Philosophical Problems for Environmentalism, Elliott Sober
6. How Wild Does Nature Have to Be?
Questions for Reflection and Discussion: An Allegory
What's Wrong with Plastic Trees?, Martin H. Krieger
The Call of the Wild, Eric Katz
Ecological Restoration and the Culture of Nature, Andrew Light
7. Rethinking the Good Life
Questions for Reflection and Discussion: Voluntary Simplicity
Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving Natural Environments, Thomas E. Hill, Jr.
Redefining the Good Life in a Sustainable Society, Lester W. Milbrath
Do We Consume Too Much?, Mark Sagoff
Letting the World Grow Old: An Ethos of Countermodernity, Freya Mathews
8. Ecofeminism in Theory and Practice
Questions for Reflection and Discussion: Dichotomies
Feminism and Ecofeminism, Kristen Hessler and Elizabeth Willott
The Power and the Promise of Ecological Feminism, Karen J. Warren
Women, Poverty, and Population: Issues for the Concerned Environmentalist, Gita Sen
Women Farmers of India's Deccan Plateau: Ecofeminists Challenge World Elites, V. Rukmini Rao
II. WHAT REALLY WORKS? ESSAYS ON HUMAN ECOLOGY
9. Human Population
Questions for Reflection and Discussion: The Population Bomb
Future Generations, Joel Feinberg
Population, Development, and the Environment, Clark Wolf
Recent Population Trends, Elizabeth Willott
10. What It Takes To Preserve Wilderness
Questions for Reflection and Discussion: South Africa
Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A Third World Critique, Ramachandra Guha
Headaches and Heartaches: The Elephant Management Dilemma, Ian J. Whyte
At the Hand of Man: Peril and Hope for Africa's Wildlife, Raymond Bonner
When Preservationism Doesn't Preserve, David Schmidtz
11. Sustainable Use and Institutional Structure
Questions for Reflection and Discussion: The Logic of the Commons
The Tragedy of the Commons, Garrett Hardin
Approximate Optimality of Aboriginal Property Rights, Martin J. Bailey
Environmental Lessons, Carol Rose
The Institution of Property, David Schmidtz
12. Poverty as an Environmental Problem
Questions for Reflection and Discussion: Zambia
Living on a Lifeboat, Garrett Hardin
Famine, Affluence, and Morality, Peter Singer
Global Environment and International Inequality, Henry Shue
Feeding People Versus Saving Nature, Holmes Rolston III
Natural Enemies: An Anatomy of Environmental Conflict, David Schmidtz
13. Vanishing Resources
Questions for Reflection and Discussion: Cities
Designing Cities as if They Were Ethical Choices, Jessica Woolliams
Why the Good News Shouldn't Scare You, Gregg Easterbrook
The Doomslayer, Ed Regis
The Good News, in Perspective, Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich
14. Cost-Benefit Analysis and Environmental Policy
Questions for Reflection and Discussion: Optimal Pollution
Cost-Benefit Analysis: An Ethical Critique, Steven Kelman
Cost-Benefit Analysis Defended, Herman B. Leonard and Richard J. Zeckhauser
Moral Pluralism and the Environment, Andrew Brennan
A Place for Cost-Benefit Analysis, David Schmidtz
15. Environmentalism in Practice
Questions for Reflection and Discussion: The Ethics of Confrontation
The Environmentalists' Dilemma: Dollars and Sand Dollars, Bryan G. Norton
Fragile Freedoms, Bryan G. Norton
Therapeutic Nihilism and Environmental Management, Eugene C. Hargrove
Mad Cowboy: The Cattle Rancher Who Won't Eat Meat, Howard F. Lyman with Glen Merzer
Tora! Tora! Tora!, Paul Watson
The Missing Shade of Green, Kate Rawles
Environmental Philosophy Is Environmental Activism: The Most Radical and Effective Kind, J. Baird Callicott
Taking Environmental Ethics Public, Andrew Light