Environmental Ethics

Description

Significantly revised in this third edition, Environmental Ethics: What Really Matters, What Really Works examines morality from an environmental perspective. Featuring accessible selections--from classic articles to examples of cutting-edge original research--it addresses both theory and practice.

Asking what really matters, the first section of the book explores the abstract ideas of human value and value in nature. The second section turns to the question of what really works--what it would take to solve our real-world environmental problems. Moving beyond the "hype," it presents authoritative essays on applying environmental ethics to the issues that matter right now. The selections present philosophical, biological, and socially scientific approaches to the major issues. Environmental Ethics also features first-hand descriptions from people who have actually been involved in wildlife and conservation initiatives.

New to this Edition

• A total of forty articles not found in the previous edition, including work by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Gifford Pinchot, Rachel Carson, and Roderick Frazier Nash
• Coverage of classic philosophical perspectives from Thomas Aquinas, Immanuel Kant, Jeremy Bentham, and John Stuart Mill
• A new opening chapter, "How We Got Here," which explores the history of environmental thought and the emergence of environmental concern
• New chapters, including Ch. 6: Wilderness, Ch. 12: Food, Ch. 13: Being a Citizen of the World, and Ch. 14: Caring for the Climate
• An expanded treatment of climate change, including two new contributions written especially for this volume
• New selections on cost-benefit analysis, environmental virtue ethics, urban ecology, and conservation in less-developed countries

Table of Contents

*=New to this Edition
Preface
New to the Third Edition
Acknowledgments
Instructor Resources
Introduction: Some Thoughts on Ethics
1. How We Got Here
* Roderick Frazier Nash, "Old World Roots of Opinion"
* George Perkins Marsh, "Man and Nature"
* Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Nature"
* Gifford Pinchot, "Principles of Conservation"
John Muir, "The Hetch Hetchy Valley"
* Gifford Pinchot, "The Hetch Hetchy Dam Site: Hearing before the House Committee on the Public Lands"
Aldo Leopold, "The Land Ethic"
I. WHAT REALLY MATTERS: ESSAYS ON VALUE IN NATURE
Editorial: The Last Man and the Search for Objective Value
2. Humility and Control
For Discussion: Guilt
* Genesis 1:20-1:31
* John Stuart Mill, "On Nature"
Lynn White Jr., "The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis"
* Aldo Leopold, "Thinking Like a Mountain"
* Rachel Carson, "Silent Spring"
3. Human Beings
A. Human Suffering
Peter Singer, "Famine, Affluence, and Morality"
Garrett Hardin, "Living on a Lifeboat"
Gita Sen, "Women, Poverty, and Population: Issues for the Concerned Environmentalist"
Holmes Rolston III, "Feeding People versus Saving Nature?"
B. Human Excellence
Thomas E. Hill, Jr., "Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving Natural Environments"
* Philip Cafaro, "Thoreau, Leopold, and Carson: Toward an Environmental Virtue Ethics"
* Thomas E. Hill, Jr., "Finding Value in Nature"
4. Animal Suffering
A. Traditional Perspectives
* Thomas Aquinas, "Whether It Is Unlawful to Kill Any Living Thing"
* Immanuel Kant, "Duties towards Animals"
* Jeremy Bentham, "Can They Suffer?"
B. Contemporary Perspectives
For Discussion: Respect for Animals
Peter Singer, "All Animals are Equal"
* Tom Regan, "The Case for Animal Rights"
* Bonnie Steinbock, "Speciesism and the Idea of Equality"
Mark Sagoff, "Animal Liberation and Environmental Ethics: Bad Marriage, Quick Divorce"
5. Life
For Discussion: Equal Respect
* Gregg Easterbrook, "A Moment on the Earth"
Paul Taylor, "The Ethics of Respect for Nature"
Gary Varner, "Biocentric Individualism"
David Schmidtz, "Are All Species Equal?"
6. Wilderness
Holmes Rolston III, "Value in Nature and the Nature of Value"
J. Baird Callicott, "Holistic Environmental Ethics and the Problem of Ecofascism"
* Ned Hettinger & Bill Throop, "Refocusing Ecocentrism: De-emphasizing Stability and Defending Wildness"
7. Nature
For Discussion: How Wild Does Nature Have to Be?
Martin Krieger, "What's Wrong with Plastic Trees?"
* Eric Katz, "The Call of the Wild": The Struggle against Domination and the Technological Fix of Nature"
David Pitcher and Jennifer Welchman, "Can an Environmental Paradise be Regained? The Hetch Hetchy Valley Question"
Elizabeth Willott, "Restoring Nature, without Mosquitoes?"
Val Plumwood, "Being Prey"
Arne Naess, "The Shallow and the Deep, Long-Range Ecology Movement: A Summary"
* Bill Devall and George Sessions, "Deep Ecology"
* Murray Bookchin, "Social Ecology versus Deep Ecology"
II. WHAT REALLY WORKS: ESSAYS ON HUMAN ECOLOGY
Editorial: Reflections On What Works
8. Toward a Humane Environmentalism
A. Ecology and Imperialism
Ramachandra Guha, "Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A Third World Critique"
David Schmidtz, "When Preservationism Doesn't Preserve"
Ian John Whyte, "The Elephant Management Dilemma"
B. Conflicting Values, Conflicting Priorities
* Ramachandra Guha, "Deep Ecology Revisited"
David Schmidtz, "Natural Enemies: An Anatomy of Environmental Conflict"
* Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, "The Forest for the Trees"
Henry Shue, "Global Environment and International Inequality"
9. Feminist Ecological Ethics
Daniel Silvermint, "Three Models of Oppression"
V. Rukmini Rao, "Women Farmers of India's Deccan Plateau: Ecofeminists Challenge World Elites"
Kristen Hessler and Elizabeth Willott, "Feminism and Ecofeminism"
Karen J. Warren, "The Power and Promise of Ecological Feminism"
10. Land
Garrett Hardin, "The Tragedy of the Commons"
David Schmidtz, "The Institution of Property"
Carol M. Rose, "Liberty, Property, and Environmentalism"
* Mark Pennington, "Liberty, Markets, and Environmental Values"
11. At What Cost?
* J.H. Dales, "Simple Problems, Simple Solutions"
* Steven Kelman, "Cost-Benefit Analysis: An Ethical Critique"
Kristin Shrader-Frechette, "Environmental Justice"
David Schmidtz, "A Place for Cost-Benefit Analysis"
12. Food
* Gary L. Francione and Anna E. Charlton, "Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach"
* Mark Bryant Budolfson, "Is It Wrong to Eat Meat from Factory Farms? If So, Why?"
* Cora Diamond, "Eating Meat and Eating People"
Michael Pollan, "The (Agri)Cultural Contradictions of Obesity"
Paul Schwennesen, "On the Ethics of Ranching"
13. Being a Citizen of the World
A. Working Together
* Elliott Sober, "Philosophical Problems for Environmentalism"
* Bryan G. Norton, "Toward Unity among Environmentalists"
* Katie McShane, "Anthropocentrism vs. Nonanthropocentrism: Why Should We Care?"
Lynn Scarlett, "Choices, Consequences, and Cooperative Conservation: A New Environmentalism?"
B. Taking Responsibility
* Baylor L. Johnson, "Ethical Obligations in a Tragedy of the Commons"
* Ty Raterman, "Bearing the Weight of the World: On the Extent of an Individual's Environmental Responsibility"
* Dan C. Shahar, "Treading Lightly on the Climate in a Problem-Ridden World"
14. Caring for the Climate
Dale Jamieson, "Ethics, Public Policy, and Global Warming"
* Philip Kitcher, "The Climate Challenge"
* Darrel Moellendorf, "Justice in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Policies"
* John Broome, "The Most Important Thing about Climate Change"
* Bjorn Lomborg, "Cool It"
15. Urban Ecology and Modern Life
* Adriana Zuniga-Teran, "Urban Ecology"
Lynn Scarlett, "Making Waste Management Pay"
Bill McKibben, "Deep Economy"
Joshua Colt Gambrel and Philip Cafaro, "The Virtue of Simplicity"
Mark Sagoff, "Do We Consume Too Much?"
Freya Mathews, "Letting the World Grow Old"
* Adriana Zuniga-Teran, "Walkable Neighborhoods"
16. Taking Action
Paul Watson, "Tora! Tora! Tora!"
Kate Rawles, "The Missing Shade of Green"
J. Baird Callicott, "Environmental Philosophy Is Environmental Activism": The Most Radical and Effective Kind
Andrew Light, "Taking Environmental Ethics Public"