bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Justice and Natural Resources
Authors: Luper-Foy Steven
Published: June 2007

Justice entitles everyone in the world, including future generations, to an equitable share of the benefits of the world's natural resources. I argue that even though both Rawls and his libertarian critics seem hostile to it, this resource equity principle, suitably clarified, is a major part of an adequate strict compliance theory of global justice whether or not we take a libertarian or a Rawlsian approach. I offer a defence of the resource equity principle from both points of view.
Green Economics
Authors: Pearce David
Published: June 2007

Economists assume that people are fundamentally greedy, though not exclusively so. If environmental improvement is to be achieved, it will require policies that use selfishness rather than opposing it. Such policies are to be found in the basics of green economics in which market signals are modified by environmental taxes and tradeable pollution certificates to ‘decouple’ the economic growth process from its environmental impact. Green economic policies avoid the infringements of human liberties implied in ever stronger ‘command and control’ measures.
Sustainability and Environmental Valuation
Authors: Common M. S. , Blamey R. K. , Norton T. W.
Published: June 2007

For economists, sustainability and environmental valuation are connected in two ways. At the micro level, proper environmental valuation is required if projects are to be approved and rejected consistently with sustainability requirements. This is cost benefit analysis. At the macro level, many take the view that sustainability requires that national income measurement be modified so as to account for environmental damage. Such natural resource accounting is possible only if environmental damage is valued for incorporation into the economic accounts. The paper reviews the techniques that economists have developed for environmental valuation. In regard to cost benefit analysis and sustainability, it is noted that the technique on which most interest focuses, the Contingent Valuation Method, involves the extension of the domain of consumer demand analysis to include the natural environment. Contributions questioning the appropriateness of this are reviewed, and it is argued that they merit more attention from economists than they have received to date. In regard to natural resource accounting, it is argued that while there is little prospect of it achieving what its proponents claim for it, the modelling that it necessarily implies has the potential to both clarify valuation issues and play an important role in informing the policy process.
Economics, Sustainable Growth, and Community
Authors: Parker Kelly
Published: June 2007

Sustainable growth is emerging as a normative concept in recent work in economics and environmental philosophy. This paper examines several kinds of growth, seeking to identify a sustainable form which could be adopted as normative for human society.

The conceptions of growth expressed in standard economic theory, in the writings of John Dewey, and in population biology, each suggest particular accounts of how the lives of individuals and communities ought to be lived. I argue that, while absolute sustainablity is not possible, the latter two conceptions together suggest a regulative ideal of sustainable growth which is acceptable at the social level, and which encourages the development of genuine community.
Redefining the Good Life in a Sustainable Society
Authors: Milbrath Lester W.
Published: June 2007

The good life, as practised in modern society, not only is unsustainable but also is frequently not really good. Quality in living is necessarily subjective, it cannot be defined in physical terms, and can be found in many manifestations. The search for quality is conducted within ourselves and not in a shopping mall. Several suggestions for modes of living that provide quality but do not burden or injure ecosystems are presented. The condition of life systems on our planet demand that we cultivate simple lifestyles that are inwardly rich.
Artefacts and Functions: A Note on the Value of Nature
Authors: Katz Eric
Published: June 2007

This paper examines and compares the ontological and axiological character of artefacts – human creations – with nonhuman natural entities. The essential difference between artefacts and natural entities is that the former are always the result of human intention and design, while the latter are independent of human purpose. Artefacts have functions; natural entities do not.

The connection to human intentional purpose implies a different kind of value for artefacts. Artefacts are evaluated solely by their instrumental (and anthropocentric) use, while natural entities can be appreciated for their independent and autonomous existence.
Distributional Obstacles to International Environmental Policy: The Failures at Rio and Prospects after Rio1
Authors: Martinez-Alier J.
Published: June 2007

The concept of ‘sustainable development’ as used by the Brundtland Commission was meant to separate environmental policy from distributional conflicts. Increases in income sometimes are beneficial for the environment (for instance, they allow the use of domestic cooking fuels which in some ways are less damaging to the environment), but higher incomes have meant higher emissions of greenhouse gases, and higher rates of genetic erosion. In the aftermath of the Rio conference of June 1992, this article analyses some unavoidable links between distributional conflicts and environmental policy.

Often, environmental movements have tried to keep environmental resources and services outside the market, but there are now attempts to establish property rights on, and to give money values to environmental resources and services, such as agricultural genetic resources and the CO 2 absorption facility provided by the oceans and new vegetation. European ‘green’ proposals to impose an ‘eco-tax’, and proposals from India to create a world market for CO2 emission permits are considered. The issue raised by the growing Third World agroecology movement, of payment of ‘farmers’ rights’ for in situ agricultural biodiversity is discussed. The article includes a short discussion of the North American free trade agreement (NAFTA) between Mexico and the USA, in so far as it involves so-called ‘ecological dumping’, i.e. trading at values which do not include environmental costs. In the last sections, the article asks how prices in ecologically-extended markets would be formed, how much such prices will depend on distribution, and how much (or how little) such payments would change distribution of income. Environmental movements of the Poor are faced with the dilemma of keeping environmental resources and services out of the market, or else asking for property rights to be placed on them.
Ethics and Values in Environmental Policy: The Said and the UNCED
Authors: Craig Paul P. , Glasser Harold , Kempton Willett
Published: June 2007

While citizens often use non-instrumental arguments to support environmental protection, most governmental policies are justified by instrumental arguments. This paper explores some of the reasons. We interviewed senior policy advisors to four European governments active in global climate change negotiations and the UNCED (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development) process. In response to our questions, a majority of these advisors articulated deeply held personal environmental values. They told us that they normally keep these values separate from their professional environmental policy activities. We interpret these findings within the context of the literature on environmental ethics and values. We suggest that environmental policy could be improved if widely held environmental values were articulated, validated, and admitted into the process of policy analysis and deliberation.
Sustainable Development: Needs, Values, Rights
Authors: Redclift Michael
Published: June 2007

‘Sustainable development’ is analysed as a product of the Modernist tradition, in which social criticism and understanding are legitimized against a background of evolutionary theory, scientific specialization, and rapid economic growth. Within this tradition, sustainable development emphasizes the need to live within ecological limits, but allows the retention of an essentially optimistic idea of progress. However, the inherent contradictions in the concept of sustainable development may lead to rejection of the Modernist view in favour of a new vision of the world in which the authority of science and technology is questioned and more emphasis is placed on cultural diversity.
A Rhetorical Critique of ‘Nonmarket’ Economic Valuations for Natural Resources
Authors: Peterson Markus J. , Peterson Tarla Rai
Published: June 2007

Various ‘nonmarket’ economic valuation methods have been used to compute ‘total’ value of nonmarketed natural resources and related recreation. We first outline the history of these valuation techniques and use the Exxon Valdez disaster response and the valuation of whooping cranes, an endangered species, as examples of how these tools can constrain policy. We then explain how, by excluding non-economic social spheres, economic valuation techniques produce a terministic screen that deforms policy makers’ vision of the ecological problems faced by society. Using Luhmann's functionalist social theory, we demonstrate that when natural resource managers privilege economic motives, they trivialize other social functions such as education, politics, religion and law. This process presents a significant ethical dilemma for democracies by first naturalizing, then ethicizing, existing pattersns of domination.
Economists’ Preferences and the Preferences of Economists
Authors: Norton Bryan G.
Published: June 2007

Economists, who adopt the principle of consumer sovereignty, treat preferences as unquestioned for the purposes of their analysis. They also represent preferences for future outcomes as having value in the present. It is shown that these two characteristics of neoclassical modelling rest on similar reasoning and are essential to achieve high aggregatability of preferences and values. But the meaning and broader implications of these characteristics vary according to the arguments given to support these methodological choices. The resulting ambiguities raise questions regarding economists’ attitudes towards the study (by other disciplines) of preference formation and reformation. Under a strong, positivist interpretation (which is philosophically problematic), consumer sovereignty represents a rejection of any meaningful study of these subjects; under a weaker, methodological understanding, consumer sovereignty merely draws a boundary between economics and other disciplines. The weaker version is argued to be more defensible, and economists are urged to engage in interdisciplinary work that will clarify how preferences are formed, criticised and reformed.
Valuing Fish in Aotearoa: The Treaty, the Market, and the Intrinsic Value of the Trout*
Authors: O'connor Martin
Published: June 2007

New Zealand fisheries management reforms are being conducted in terms of ‘balancing’ of interests and reconciliation of conflicting claims over ownership and use. Fisheries legislation seeks efficient levels of fishing effort, while establishing ‘environmental bottom lines’ for stock conservation; resource management law requires, alongside efficiency of resource use, consideration for species diversity and ‘the intrinsic values of ecosystems’ (notably the ‘protection of the habitat of trout and salmon'); and the Treaty of Waitangi safeguards customary practices and life-support requirements (including fisheries) for the Maori people. This paper analyses these antinomies in terms of contrasting ethical positions – utilitarian (self-interested, instrumental) rationality, versus an ethic of reciprocal hospitality – and shows how fisheries management policies can be formulated on this basis.
Involuntary Simplicity: Changing Dysfunctional Habits of Consumption
Authors: Claxton Guy
Published: June 2007

Why is it so difficult for ‘voluntary simplicity’ to become truly voluntary? It is suggested that an important distinction has to be made between beliefs which are ‘espoused’ and those which are ‘embodied’. Certain crucial systems of embodied beliefs constitute traps, in the sense that they set, invisibly, a person's motivational agenda, and bias perception against their own detection. This analysis makes it clear why certain popular forms of campaigning and education are ineffective; and suggests that some methodologies of self-transformation associated with spiritual traditions such as Buddhism may have much to offer the environmental movement.
Ecosystem Health: Some Preventive Medicine
Authors: Jamieson Dale
Published: June 2007

Some ecologists, philosophers, and policy analysts believe that ecosystem health can be defined in a rigorous way and employed as a management goal in environmental policy. The idea of ecosystem health may have something to recommend it as part of a rhetorical strategy, but I am dubious about its utility as a technical term in environmental policy. I develop several objections to this latest version of scientism in environmental policy, and conclude that our environmental problems fundamentally involve problems in our institutions of governance, our systems of value, and our ways of knowing. These are the problems that most need to be addressed.
Health and Disease as ‘Thick’ Concepts in Ecosystemic Contexts
Authors: Nelson James Lindemann
Published: June 2007

In this paper, I consider what kind of normative work might be done by speaking of ecosystems utilising a ‘medical’ vocabulary – drawing, that is, on such notions as ‘health’, ‘disease’, and ‘illness’. Some writers attracted to this mode of expression have been rather modest about what they think it might purchase. I wish to be bolder. Drawing on the idea of ‘thick’ evaluative concepts as discussed by McDowell, Williams and Taylor, and resorting to a phenomenological argument for a kind of moral realism, I argue that the project of developing a robust understanding of the moral significance of recognising the health or illness of ecosystems is definitely a starter.
The Value of Ecosystem Health1
Authors: Callicott J. Baird
Published: June 2007

The concept of ecosystem health is problematic. Do ecosystems as such exist? Is health an objective condition of organisms or is it socially constructed? Can ‘health’ be unequivocally predicated of ecosystems? Is ecosystem health both objective and valuative? Are ecosystem health and biological integrity identical? How do these concepts interface with the concept of biodiversity?

Ecosystems exist, although they are turning out to be nested sets of linked process-functions with temporal boundaries, not tangible superorganisms with spatial boundaries. Ecosystem health – or normal occurrence of ecological processes and functions – is an objective condition of ecosystems, although the concept of ecosystem health allows some room for personal and social determination or construction. Ecosystem health is prudentially, aesthetically, and intrinsically valuable, although the value of ecosystem health is subjectively conferred. Biodiversity and biological integrity are different from, but not unrelated to, ecosystem health. Together these three normative concepts represent complementary conservation goals.
The Precautionary Principle in Contemporary Environmental Politics
Authors: O'Riordan Timothy , Jordan Andrew
Published: June 2007

In its restless metamorphosis, the environmental movement captures ideas and transforms them into principles, guidelines and points of leverage. Sustainability is one such idea, now being reinterpreted in the aftermath of the 1992 Rio Conference. So too is the precautionary principle. Like sustainability, the precautionary principle is neither a well defined principle nor a stable concept. It has become the repository for a jumble of adventurous beliefs that challenge the status quo of political power, ideology and civil rights. Neither concept has much coherence other than it is captured by the spirit that is challenging the authority of science, the hegemony of cost-benefit analysis, the powerlessness of victims of environmental abuse, and the unimplemented ethics of intrinsic natural rights and inter-generational equity. It is because the mood of the times needs an organising idea that the precautionary principle is getting a fair wind. However, unless its advocates sharpen up their understanding of the term, the precautionary principle may not establish the influence it deserves. Its future looks promising but it is not assured.
Radiation Protection and Moral Theory
Authors: Sumner David , Gilmour Peter
Published: June 2007

It seems likely that there is no threshold for the induction of cancer by ionising radiation. Hence even small radiation doses may result in a finite number of premature deaths if a large number of people are exposed. Various arguments are used to demonstrate that such deaths, if they occur, are acceptable; these arguments are shown to be flawed. Many of the arguments, and the ICRP's principle of justification, appear rooted in a utilitarian system of moral philosophy. Such a system is superficially attractive as it appears objective and rational; however, the objectivity may be an illusion masking the underlying aims of the interested parties.
Biocentrism and Genetic Engineering1
Authors: Dobson Andrew
Published: June 2007

I consider the contribution that a biocentric perspective might make to the ethical debate concerning the practice of genetic engineering. I claim that genetic engineering itself raises novel ethical questions, and particularly so when confronted with biocentric sensibilities. I outline the nature of these questions and describe the biocentric basis for them. I suggest that fundamentalist opposition to projects of genetic engineering is unhelpful, but that biocentric claims should now be a feature of ethical consideration. I conclude, though, that while environmental ethicists can contribute powerfully to debates concerning the future of genetic engineering, the ultimate direction it takes is likely to be beyond their control.
Environmental Quality and the Quality of our Way of Life
Authors: Boersema Jan J.
Published: June 2007

Today, sustainable development is generally accepted as a guiding principle. The present relation societies have with the natural environment is considered as being not-sustainable. However this presupposes some idea about the quality of the environment and of activities affecting the environment and, as a consequence, of the quality of life. In this article I defend the proposition that the limited progress made with respect to the environment – despite all the good intentions – could be due to a potential conflict between ‘quality’ and sustainable development. In other words: our interpretation of the concept of ‘quality’ is not compatible with the aims of sustainability. Some consequences for research and policy of accepting this proposition are discussed.
Towards Global Environmental Values: Lessons from Western and Eastern Experience.1
Authors: Sarre Philip
Published: June 2007

The paper argues that new environmental values are needed as the advanced industrial economy becomes global. Reviewing a range of values from hunter-gatherer, agricultural and industrial societies, the paper suggests that environmental value systems should ideally satisfy three criteria. They should be consistent with scientific understanding of natural systems, they should lead to practical ethical and political proposals and, crucially, they should inspire aesthetic responses of pleasure and awe.

Current global value systems fall short of this ideal: Gaia has the potential to combine science and awe, but lacks humane decision criteria, while sustainable development is pragmatic but environmentally minimalist and lacks aesthetic inspiration. The short term need is to integrate different strands of current positions as Hinduism combined pre-existing views. A sequence of priorities is suggested: eliminating irreversible environmental change; stabilising population change through more equitable trade; and reconsidering the boundaries, practical and aesthetic, between society and nature.
On the Reconciliation of Anthropocentric and Nonanthropocentric Environmental Ethics
Authors: Steverson Brian K.
Published: June 2007

I argue that James Sterba's recent attempt to show that, despite their foundational axiological differences regarding the relative value of humans and members of nonhuman species, anthropocentrists and nonanthropocentrists would accept the exact same principles of environmental justice fails. The failure to reconcile the two positions is a product of an underestimation of the divergence that occurs at the level of general principles and practical policy as a result of the initial value commitments which characterise each position. The upshot of this is that, contrary to those who argue that environmental ethicists ought to move beyond the traditional anthropocentric-nonanthropocentric debate, the foundational debate about interspecific egalitarianism will continue to issue in substantial debates about environmental policy formation.
Reconciliation Reaffirmed: A Reply to Steverson
Authors: Sterba James P.
Published: June 2007

In this reply to Brian Steverson's objections to my reconciliationist argument, I have clarified the requirements that follow from my principles of environmental justice. I have also clarified the notion of intrinsic value that I am endorsing and the grounds on which my claim of greater intrinsic value for humans rests.
Global Population Growth and the Demise of Nature
Authors: Warner Stanley , Feinstein Mark , Coppinger Raymond , Clemence Elisabeth
Published: June 2007

Global human population expansion is rooted in a remarkably successful evolutionary innovation. The neolithic transformation of the natural world gave rise to a symbiosis between humans and their domesticated plant and animal partners that will expand from a current 20 per cent to 60 percent of terrestrial biomass by the middle of the coming century. Such an increase must necessarily be accompanied by a concomitant decrease in wildlife biomass.

We suggest that current trends in population growth are unlikely to abate for three reasons: first, there are intrinsic biological pressures to reproduce regardless of social engineering; second, the character of the domestic alliance makes it a formidable competitor to wildlife; and third, the timeframe before population doubling is, from a biological perspective, virtually instantaneous. This paper draws from a wide body of research in the biological and social sciences. We neither condone nor endorse this picture of inexorable population increase. Rather, we appeal for a change in the nature of the discussion of population among environmentalists, to focus on the question of how best to manage what wildlife will be left on the margins of a domesticated world.
A Political-Ecology Approach to Wildlife Conservation in Kenya
Authors: Akama John S. , Lant Christopher L. , Burnett G. Wesley
Published: June 2007

Kenya has one of the highest remaining concentrations of tropical savanna wildlife in the world. It has been recognised by the state and international community as a ‘unique world heritage’ which should be preserved for posterity. However, the wildlife conservation efforts of the Kenya government confront complex and often persistent social and ecological problems, including land-use conflicts between the local people and wildlife, local people's suspicions and hostilities toward state policies of wildlife conservation, and accelerated destruction of wildlife habitats.

This essay uses a political-ecological framework in the analysis of the social factors of wildlife conservation in Kenya. It postulates that the overriding socio-economic issue impacting wildlife conservation in Kenya is underdevelopment. The problem of underdevelopment is manifested in forms of increasing levels of poverty, famine and malnutrition. The long term survival of Kenya's wildlife depends on social and ecological solutions to the problems of underdevelopment.
Facts about Natural Values
Authors: Elliot Robert
Published: June 2007

Some environmental philosophers believe that the rejection of anthropocentric ethics requires the development and defence of an objectivist meta-ethical theory according to which values are, in the most literal sense, discovered not conferred. It is argued that nothing of normative or motivational import, however, turns on the meta-ethical issue. It is also argued that a rejection of normative anthropocentrism is completely consistent with meta-ethical subjectivism. Moreover the dynamics and outcomes of rational debate about normative environmental ethics are not determined by any particular choice between meta-ethical subjectivism and objectivism. These different meta-ethical views sustain analogous moves in normative debate, although they offer rather different accounts of what underlies these moves. They also provide for analogous links between moral ‘belief’ and motivation, although again they offer rather different accounts of what underlies these links. In the course of defending these conclusions a subjectivist account of intrinsic value is developed and defended.
Nature Conservation and the Precautionary Principle
Authors: Francis John M.
Published: June 2007

The application of the precautionary principle to an area of environmental protection, such as nature conservation, requires commitment to the idea that full scientific proof of a causal link between a potentially damaging operation and a long term environmental impact is not required. Adoption of the principle in Government statements related to sustainable development should therefore be seen in this context. The paper addresses the particular case of marine fish farming in Scotland where the principle was advocated but not upheld in practice. In the light of this experience there is a need for educators and philosophers, ethicists and concerned scientists to ensure that the principle is more widely interpreted and understood.
Ecology: Scientific, Deep and Feminist
Authors: Peterson Markus J. , Peterson‡ Tarla Rai
Published: June 2007

The application of hierarchy theory to ecological systems presents those who seek a radical change in human perspectives toward nature with a unique window of opportunity. Because hierarchy theory has enabled scientific ecologists to discover that the window through which one chooses to observe a system influences its reality, they may now be more amenable to including the perspectives of deep and feminist ecologists into their self-definition. A synergy between deep, feminist, and scientific ecology could improve environmental policy by encouraging more ecofeminists to encompass the marginalisation of nonhuman life-forms within the ethic of care, more deep ecologists to encompass the issues of overconsumption and militarisation within the anthropocentric-biocentric polarity, and more scientific ecologists to scrutinise the politics behind their investigations.
Ruralism or Environmentalism?
Authors: De-Shalit Avner
Published: June 2007

Recent works on the historical sources of the environmental movement neglect environmental philosophy. They therefore fail to distinguish between two different currents of thought: ruralism – the romantic glorification of rural life; and environmentalism – a philosophy which is based on scientific information, anti-speciesism and respect for all organisms. These works, therefore, mistakenly identify ‘political ecology’ with right-wing ideologies.
Dolly: A New Form of Transgenic Breedwealth
Authors: Franklin Sarah
Published: June 2007

Public debate in Britain surrounding the cloning of Dolly the sheep has primarily focused on the legitimacy of cloning humans, not sheep. This bracketing of the human question relies on a distinction between humans and animals belied by the very constitution of transgenic animals who are made with human DNA, such as Polly. Moreover, the ways in which human beings think about, manipulate and classify animals have distinct cultural consequences, for example in relation to cultural understandings of life, property, kinship and other forms of social interconnection. This article introduces the term ‘breedwealth’ to examine Dolly as a unique form of property in order to make some of these connections more visible.
Conservation and Individual Worth
Authors: Aitken Gill
Published: June 2007

It is commonly supposed that individual animals are of little relevance to conservation which is concerned, instead, with groups of things or ‘wholes’ such as species, habitats, and the like. It is further contended by some that by prioritising individuals, two of those values that are held dear by conservation – namely natural selection and fitness – are compromised. Taking wildlife rehabilitation as a paradigm case of concern for the individual, it is argued that the latter claim is based upon mistaken assumptions. Then, using red deer culling as a case study, the discord between conservation's holistic values and a concern for individual worth is explored. It emerges that the conservation value of red deer culling is more apparent than real and thus that there is more room for conservationists’ acceptance of individual worth than usually supposed.
Attributing “Priority” to Habitats
Authors: Miller Chris
Published: June 2007

A close scrutiny of a European Community directive on habitats and of the statutory instrument by which it is implemented in Britain reveals small but nevertheless significant concessions towards an ecocentric approach. Planning law now allows interference in the habitats of protected species only when human interests are demonstrably overriding. Recent decisions of the European Court of Justice have given a very restrictive interpretation of the circumstances in which such interference may be permitted. The implications for further ecocentric influence in environmental law are discussed.
Discourse Ethics and Nature
Authors: Krebs Angelika
Published: June 2007

The question this paper examines is whether or not discourse ethics is an environmentally attractive moral theory. The answer reached is: no. For firstly, nature has nothing to gain from the discourse ethical shift from mono-logical moral reflection to discourse, as nature cannot partake in discourse. And secondly, nature (even sentient animal nature) has no socio-personal integrity, which, according to discourse ethics, it is the function of morality to protect. Discourse ethics is a thoroughly anthropocentric moral theory.
Bach's Butterfly Effect: Culture, Environment and History
Authors: Simmons I.G.
Published: June 2007

The basic thesis that environmental values must spring from the economic relations of human societies is examined and it is suggested that although such connections are never absent, they do not account for the totality of values. Rather, they interact with other values in a kind of helical strand which is open-ended and self-organising. In such a context, ‘sustainability’, for example, be comes a rather time-limited idea. Our present ways of describing such evolution and interactions are also briefly examined.
Nonuse Values and the Environment: Economic and Ethical Motivations
Authors: Crowards Tom
Published: June 2007

Nonuse values are a potentially very important, but controversial, aspect of the economic valuation of the environment. Since no use is envisaged by the individual, a degree of altruism appears to be the driving force behind nonuse values. Whilst much of the controversy has focused upon measurement issues associated with the contingent valuation method, this paper concentrates on the underlying motivations, whether ethical or economic, that form the basis for such values. Some fundamental aspects of defining and quantifying economic nonuse values are considered, and possible motives for attributing value to the environment are analysed, making a clear distinction between ‘selfish’ altruism and ‘selfless’ altruism. The difference has crucial implications for economic valuation and for assessing individuals’ willingness to pay for environmental quality. The concept of Safe Minimum Standards is introduced as a means of supplementing purely economic methodology to incorporate ethical concerns into decision making.
Anthropocentrism: A Misunderstood Problem
Authors: Hayward Tim
Published: June 2007

Anthropocentrism can intelligibly be criticised as an ontological error, but attempts to conceive of it as an ethical error are liable to conceptual and practical confusion. After noting the paradox that the clearest instances of overcoming anthropocentrism involve precisely the sort of objectivating knowledge which many ecological critics see as itself archetypically anthropocentric, the article presents the following arguments: there are some ways in which anthropocentrism is not objectionable; the defects associated with anthropocentrism in ethics are better understood as instances of speciesism and human chauvinism; it is unhelpful to call these defects anthropocentrism because there is an ineliminable element of anthropocentrism in any ethic at all; moreover, because the defects do not typically involve a concern with human interests as such, the rhetoric of anti-anthropocentrism is counterproductive in practice.
Worldliness and Respect for Nature: An Ecological Application of Hannah Arendt's Conception of Culture
Authors: Whiteside Kerry H.
Published: June 2007

Arendt's conception of culture could supersede claims that nature's intrinsic value or human interests best ground environmental ethics. Fusing ancient Greek notions of non-instrumental value and Roman concerns for cultivating and preserving worldly surroundings, culture supplies an ethic for the treatment of nonhuman things. Unlike a system of philosophical propositions, an Arendtian ecology could only arise in public deliberation, since culture's qualitative judgements are intrinsically linked to processes of political persuasion.
Nature Humanised: Nature Respected
Authors: Hepburn Ronald
Published: June 2007

How far is it true that the aesthetic appreciation of nature obscures, rather than illuminates, its objects? Do we not humanise nature, read our own subjectivity into it, sentimentally distort it, in our aesthetic – as distinct from scientific – approaches? I argue that not all humanising falsifies, and that we can respect nature as well as annex its forms and expressive qualities in our aesthetic appreciation. Respecting/humanising are explored as two of the chief key concepts for an understanding of the complexity of aesthetic attitudes to nature.
Poverty, Puritanism and Environmental Conflict
Authors: Brennan Andrew
Published: June 2007

The paper proposes two ideas:

(1) The wilderness preservation movement has failed to identify key elements involved in situations of environmental conflict.

(2) The same movement seems unaware of its location within a tradition which is both elitist and Puritan.

Holmes Rolston's recent work on the apparent conflict between feeding people and saving nature appears to exemplify the two points. With respect to point (1), Rolston's treatment fails to address the institutional and structural features which set the agenda for individual human lives. The human ecology of environmental destruction cannot ignore the role of corporate actors such as banks, national governments, transnational corporations, trade unions and so on. These agents interact with each other in various ways and also have an internal structure – perhaps akin to Arthur Koestler's conception of the holarchy - which enables people working within them to avoid taking responsibility for policies that have damaging environmental consequences. As far as thesis (2) is concerned, Rolston's work shares common features with Arne Naess's deep ecology and Aldo Leopold's land ethic. All of these writers draw, perhaps unconsciously, on a tradition of sporting elitism associated with the Great White Hunter. One variety of this tradition combines elitism with a form of Puritanism
Weak Panpsychism and Environmental Ethics
Authors: Andrews John
Published: June 2007

Weak panpsychism, the view that mindlike qualities are widespread in nature, has recently been argued for by the prominent ecofeminist Val Plumwood and has been used by her to ground an ethic of respect for nature. This ethic advocates a principle of respect for difference, the rejection of moral hierarchy and the inclusion of plants, mountains, rivers and ecosystems within the moral community.

I argue that weak panpsychism cannot, convincingly, justify the rejection of moral hierarchy, as it is compatible with it. Also the intentional criterion of mind, employed by weak panpsychism, which includes teleology, has the counter-intuitive implication of giving machines moral status. I cast doubt on the claims that (i) intentionality is a necessary condition for moral status and that (ii) it is sufficient for the ascription of agency. It is suggested that any account of intentionality that allows it to be predicated of mountains, rivers etc. would be widely, and correctly regarded as a reductio of that account. Finally an aesthetic reinterpretation of weak panpsychism is offered.
Intentional Recognition and Reductive Rationality: A Response to John Andrews
Authors: Plumwood Val
Published: June 2007

Recognition of intentionality and the possibility of agency in non-human others is a prerequisite for a process of mutual adjustment and dialogue that could replace current reductive and dualistic human-centred theories. John Andrews’ article in this issue of Environmental Values is criticised for misattributing to me the view that intentionality could be a sole criterion for moral worth – a view which I reject as unacceptably hierarchical and human-centred. To clarify my position, the values and limitations of different kinds of ranking are discussed; and the concept of intentionality is explored, with particular reference to apparently purposeful machines and to Dennett's theory of consciousness.
Liberalism and the Environment
Authors: Vincent Andrew
Published: June 2007

The article scrutinises the complex relation between late twentieth century liberal and environmental thought. It concludes that if the key values of contemporary liberal and environmental thought are compared then the prognosis looks gloomy. There are implicit and deep tensions over most value questions. In order to provide a coherent focus for this analysis, the paper addresses the issue of liberal justice, namely, can liberal theories of justice be sensitively applied to environmental questions? The answer to this question is that for much environmental thought, it is the very values and practices implicit within liberal justice theory which now constitute the key environmental danger.
When Something is to be Done: Proof of Environmental Harm and the Philosophical Tradition
Authors: Hull Carrie L.
Published: June 2007

This paper is centred around a debate taking place among environmental scientists. One camp argues that proof of a causal connection between a chemical and a biological anomaly must be demonstrated in the laboratory. The other contends that actual damage is underestimated in the lab, and that it is therefore necessary to conduct supplemental ecoepidemiological research in order to determine the full impact of toxic chemicals. Members of the former contingent – claiming to be defending scientific rigour – sometimes accuse their peers of practising an inferior science. This paper argues that this contention is supported by a philosophical tradition tending to favour abstract and formal analysis over the close examination of material detail. To the extent that this preference has been adopted by the media, industry, policy analysts, and regulatory bodies, more is at stake than an intellectual squabble. The paper provides a brief overview of the history of the formalist tendency in philosophy, followed by an illustration of the ways in which advocates of a strict laboratory methodology implicitly rely on this foundation. The work and ideas of contemporary ecoepidemiologists are then compared to this imposing edifice of traditional science.
Democracy and Environmental Decision-Making
Authors: Rippe Klaus Peter , Schaber Peter
Published: June 2007

It has been argued that environmental decision-making can be improved be introducing citizen panels. The authors argue that citizen panels and other models of citizen participation should only be used as a consulting forum in exceptional cases at the local level, not as a real decision-making procedure. But many problems in the field of environmental policy need nonlocal, at least regional or national, regulation due to the fact that they are of national importance. The authors argue that there are good reasons not to institutionalise national citizen panels. They advocate the view that more reasonable and more competent solutions can be found by introducing forms of direct democracy.
Does the Spirit Move You? Environmental Spirituality
Authors: Booth Annie L.
Published: June 2007

This article looks at the idea of spirituality as it is discussed within ecophilosophical circles, particularly ecofeminism, bioregionalism, and deep ecology, as a means to improve human-nature interactions. The article also examines the use each ecophilosophy makes of a popular alternative to mainstream religion, that of Native American spiritualities, and problems inherent in adapting that alternative.
The Songlines of Risk
Authors: Jasanoff Sheila
Published: June 2007

Two decades of social and political analysis have helped to enrich the concept of risk that underlies the bulk of modern environmental regulation. Risk is no longer seen merely as the probability of harm arising from more or less determinable physical, biological or social causes. Instead, it seems more appropriate to view risk as the embodiment of deeply held cultural values and beliefs – the songlines of the paper's title – concerning such issues as agency, causation, and uncertainty. These values are incorporated into the formal methodologies, such as quantitative risk assessment, by which industrial societies assess risk. The meaning of risk accordingly varies from one cultural context to another, posing difficult problems for global environmental governance. The paper reflects on the role of science in promoting convergent perceptions of risk across disparate political cultures.
Community and Life-Chances: Risk Movements in the United States and Germany
Authors: Halfmann Jost
Published: June 2007

The connotations attached to the concept of ‘risk’ have changed over the last several decades. In particular, the image of risk, at least in the world's most economically advanced countries, has turned from predominantly positive to highly critical. A sociological look at this historic change reveals the emergence of a plurality of risk definitions that can be attributed to different risk cultures. We can distinguish risk cultures by their proximity to the dominant social practice of risk taking; namely risk cultures belong either to the centre or the periphery of society. Social movements that resist risky technologies are examples of a peripheral risk culture. Due to a certain concept of social community their perception of risk differs fundamentally from that of the centre. In addition, cultural variation across countries leads to different representations of risk-avoidance in social movements. This contribution illustrates these differences by comparing the American and German anti-nuclear movements.
National Shades of Green: Comparing the Swedish and Danish Styles in Ecological Modernisation1
Authors: Jamison Andrew , Baark Erik
Published: June 2007

Throughout Europe, science and technology policy within the environmental field is currently in a process of transformation, which has been characterised by many observers as ecological modernisation. Emphasis is being given to preventive principles and so-called cleaner technologies in the quest for a more sustainable development. Each European country has, however, adapted the new doctrines and practices in distinctive ways. The main aim of the paper is to show how contemporary policies have been shaped by history, more specifically, by institutional and cognitive traditions, and by national policy styles. By comparing ‘ecological modernisation’ in Sweden and Denmark, we attempt to indicate how such national cultural differences affect the ways in which science and technology policies in the environmental field are formulated and implemented.
Risk and Trust: The Performative Dimension1
Authors: Szerszynski Bronislaw
Published: June 2007

This paper will explore some of the implications of attending to the performative aspects of language for the sociological understanding of issues of risk and trust among lay communities. Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens have alerted us to the way that in late or reflexive modernity trust in authority cannot be taken for granted, but increasingly has to be actively earned and actively invested. For his part, Brian Wynne has pointed out that lay judgements are relational and hermeneutic, including as they do judgements about the behaviour of relevant expert institutions, and about the risk to one's self-identity incurred by being caught up in relationships of dependency. Wynne has also argued that public avowals of trust can often mask deep private distrust, and thus be expressions more of fatalistic acceptance than of genuine trust. However, all of these analyses work from a basic model of ‘trust’ as being the result of a cognitive process – as a judgement as to the trustworthiness of others. Yet trust is frequently ‘active’ in an even stronger sense than this. To take a posture of trust towards another can often be best understood not just as a cognitive judgement but as an attempt to bind the ‘trusted’ into a relationship and attitude of responsibility – and thus perhaps to alter their behaviour – through the taking up of a position in a social ritual. Speech act theory can help us be sensitive to this sort of use of the language of ‘trust’, by reminding us that language can perform a number of different functions – not just that of describing the world, or of acting out ascribed roles and identities, but also that of trying to change the world. The analysis of public discourse about risk, trust and mistrust must thus be sensitive to the range of things that people might be attempting to do when they are saying things if it is to avoid drawing misleading conclusions about public attitudes to risk.
Globalisation, Environmental Degradation and Ulrich Beck's Risk Society
Authors: Marshall Brent K.
Published: June 2007

This paper is organised in three interconnected parts. First, contemporary political economic approaches to understanding the structure of the global economic system are outlined and synthesised. Specifically, it is suggested that the current structural configuration of the globe is a transitional phase between the spatially-bounded configuration hypothesised by world-system theory and the configuration hypothesised by globalisation theorists. Second, the contemporary problem of environmental degradation is situated in a global structural context. Third, an outline and critique of Ulrich Beck's theory of the ‘Risk Society’ is presented to illustrate the increasing inadequacy of nation-state-centric theories in explaining the dynamic linkage between global capitalism and local environmental degradation.