What is environmental virtue? Is developing good habits enough? What does climate justice require? Is ecological restoration just another form of the human domination of nature?Exploring these questions and more, this book provides an up-to-date and balanced introduction to environmental ethics. It first examines ethical theory, then ties theory to practice, showing how values guide environmental policies, but also how policies and institutions shape environmental values. Updated and expanded to engage with the latest scholarship, scientific findings, and societal challenges, this 2nd edition features:New sections on food ethics, multispecies justice, intergenerational ethics, and the AnthropoceneContemporary case studies focusing on the rights of nature, the use of biotechnology in ecological restoration, and just climate transitionsExpanded coverage of diverse philosophical traditions, including Confucian, Daoist, and Indigenous ethical perspectives Updated discussion questions, further reading sections, and online resourcesExploring the possibilities and limitations inherent in both classical ethical models and modern theoretical approaches to the environment, this is a key resource for teaching students to think ethically about the world we live in.
Marion Hourdequin is Professor of Philosophy at Colorado College, USA, and President of the International Society for Environmental Ethics.
List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsPart I: Environmental Values 1. Bringing Values to Light2. Western Ethical Theories and the Environment3. Anthropocentrism and its Critics: Broadening Moral Concern4. The Social Dimensions of Environmental ProblemsPart II: Environmental Ethics in Practice 5. Ethics, Institutions, and the Environment6. Global Climate Change7. Ecological Restoration8. Engaging Environmental Concern, Promoting ChangeNotesReferences Index
Hourdequin writes with clarity, depth, and passion, so the book is suitable for nonspecialists.