1st Edition

Environmental Ethics and Policy-Making

By Mikael Stenmark Copyright 2002
168 Pages
by Routledge

168 Pages
by Routledge

168 Pages
by Routledge

Environmental issues raise crucial questions. What should we value? What is our place in nature? What kind of life should we live? How should we interact with other living things? Environmental management and policy-making is ultimately based on answers to these and similar questions, but do we need a new ethics to be able overcome the environmental crisis we face? This book addresses these... Read more
Contents: Introduction; The Ethical Dimension of Environmental Problems: The limitations of science; Environmental ethics and views of nature; Anthropocentric Environmental Ethics: Basic values in the ethic of sustainable development; Holistic and intergenerational anthropocentrism; Instrumental value, intrinsic value and inherent worth; Dualistic and holistic anthropocentrism; The anthropocentrism of sustainable development; Our responsibility to future generations; Non-Anthropocentric Environmental Ethics: Biocentric ethics; Ecocentric ethics; Environmental Management: Aims and Policies: Human population policies; Wilderness preservation policies; Wilderness management policies; Policies regarding endangered species; Agricultural policies; The Relevance of Environmental Ethics; Bibliography; Glossary; Index.

Biography

Mikael Stenmark

’Stenmark provides the most extensive and penetrating analysis of how environmental ethics informs environmental policy and sustainable development. What people do depends on why they do it. There is often critical divergence between anthropocentric, biocentric, and ecocentric ethical perspectives. Different convictions can involve different duties, here applied to concerns about population, future generations, agriculture, endangered species, and wilderness. Here is bridge-building from principle to practice, par excellence.’ Holmes Rolston, III, University Distinguished Professor, Colorado State University, USA