Environmental ethics desjardins 5th edition pdf

Help your students think outside the classroom impact of environmental ethics issues Updated several times a day, Cengage Learning’s Global Environmental Ethics Watch is an ideal one-stop site for classroom discussion and research projects.

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JOSEPH R. DESJARDINS College of Saint Benedict/St. John’s University

Environmental Ethics

An Introduction to Environmental Philosophy

F I FTH ED IT ION

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Environmental Ethics: An Introduction to Environmental Philosophy, Fifth Edition

Joseph R. DesJardins

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One summer morning, while driving through the countryside, my four-year-old son asked, “Daddy, what are trees good for?” Sensing a precious moment of parenthood,

I began gently to explain that as living things they don’t need to be good for anything, but that trees do provide homes to many other living things, that they make and

clean the air that we breathe, that they can be majestic and beautiful. “But daddy,” he said, “I’m a scientist and I know more than you because you forgot the most

important thing. Trees are good for climbing.” I hope that I have not missed too many other such obvious truths in writing

this book, which I dedicate to Michael and Matthew.

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Contents

PREFACE x i

I Basic Concepts 1

1 Science, Politics, and Ethics 3

Discussion: Global Climate Change 3

Discussion Topics 6

1.1 Introduction: Why Philosophy? 6

1.2 Science and Ethics 8

1.3 Philosophy, Politics, and Ethical Relativism 15

1.4 Environmental Ethics: An Overview 16

1.5 Summary 18

Notes 19

Discussion Questions 19

Global Environmental Ethics Watch 20

2 Ethical Theories and the Environment 21

Discussion: Why Protect Endangered Species? 21

Discussion Topics 22

2.1 Introduction 23

2.2 Philosophial Ethics: Getting Comfortable with the Topic 24

2.3 The Natural Law Tradition—Teleology and Virtues 27

2.4 Contemporary Perspectives on Teleology 30

2.5 The Utilitarian Tradition 33

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2.6 Contemporary Perspectives on Utilitarianism 36

2.7 Deontology: An Ethics of Duty and Rights 37

2.8 Contemporary Perspectives on Deontological Ethics 38

2.9 Environmental Ethics and Religious Principles 40

The Good of God’s Creation 41

Finding the Divine in Nature 41

The Ultimate Respect for and Value of Life 42

Social Justice Ministries 42

Stewardship 43

2.10 Summary and Conclusions 43

Notes 44

Discussion Questions 44

Global Environmental Ethics Watch 45

II Environmental Ethics as Applied Ethics 47

3 Ethics and Economics: Managing Public Lands 49

Discussion: BP’s Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill 49

Discussion Topics 50

3.1 Introduction 51

3.2 Conservation or Preservation? 51

3.3 Managing the National Forests 54

3.4 Pollution and Economics 59

3.5 Ethical Issues in Economic Analysis 62

3.6 Cost-Benefit Analysis 64

3.7 Ethical Analysis and Environmental Economics 66

3.8 Summary and Conclusions 71

Notes 71

Discussion Questions 73

Global Environmental Ethics Watch 73

4 Sustainability and Responsibilities to the Future 74

Discussion: Sustainability: Fad or Future? 74

Discussion Topics 76

4.1 Introduction 77

4.2 Do We Have Responsibilities to Future Generations? 78

4.3 What do We Owe Future Generations? 81

4.4 Consumption and Sustainable Development 88

4.5 Summary and Conclusions 92

vi CONTENTS

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Notes 92

Discussion Questions 94

Global Environmental Ethics Watch 94

5 Responsibilities to the Natural World: From Anthropocentric to Nonanthropocentric Ethics 95

Discussion: Industrial Farming: Mass Producing Animals as Food 95

Discussion Topics 97

5.1 Introduction 97

5.2 Moral Standing in the Western Tradition 98

5.3 Early Environmental Ethics 101

5.4 Moral Standing 105

5.5 Do Trees Have Standing? 108

5.6 Peter Singer and the Animal Liberation Movement 110

5.7 Tom Regan and Animal Rights 112

5.8 Ethical Implications of Animal Welfare 114

5.9 Critical Challenges 115

5.10 Summary and Conclusions 119

Notes 119

Discussion Questions 121

Global Environmental Ethics Watch 122

III Theories of Environmental Ethics 123

6 Biocentric Ethics and the Inherent Value of Life 125

Discussion: Synthetic Biology and the Value of Life 125

Discussion Topics 127

6.1 Introduction 127

6.2 Instrumental Value and Intrinsic Value 129

6.3 Biocentric Ethics and the Reverence for Life 132

6.4 Ethics and Character 135

6.5 Taylor’s Biocentric Ethics 136

6.6 Practical Implications 140

6.7 Challenges and Developments 143

6.8 Summary and Conclusions 145

Notes 146

Discussion Questions 147

Global Environmental Ethics Watch 148

CONTENTS vii

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7 Wilderness, Ecology, and Ethics 149

Discussion: Wilderness Management: Fighting Fires in Yellowstone 149

Discussion Topics 151

7.1 Introduction 151

7.2 The Wilderness Ideal 153

7.3 The Wilderness “Myth”: The Contemporary Debate 157

7.4 From Ecology to Philosophy 163

7.5 From Ecology to Ethics 169

7.6 Varieties of Holism 171

7.7 Summary and Conclusions 173

Notes 173

Discussion Questions 175

Global Environmental Ethics Watch 176

8 The Land Ethic 177

Discussion: Hunting, Ethics, and the Environment 177

Discussion Topics 178

8.1 Introduction 179

8.2 The Land Ethic 180

8.3 Leopold’s Holism 183

8.4 Criticisms of the Land Ethic: Facts and Values 185

8.5 Criticisms of the Land Ethic: Holistic Ethics 189

8.6 Callicott’s Revisions 195

8.7 Summary and Conclusions 199

Notes 200

Discussion Questions 201

Global Environmental Ethics Watch 202

9 Radical Environmental Philosophy: Deep Ecology and Ecofeminism 203

Discussion: Environmental Activism or Ecoterrorism? 203

Discussion Topics 205

9.1 Introduction 205

9.2 Deep Ecology 207

9.3 The Deep Ecology Platform 208

9.4 Metaphysical Ecology 209

9.5 From Metaphysics to Ethics 212

9.6 Self-Realization And Biocentric Equality 216

viii CONTENTS

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9.7 Criticisms of Deep Ecology 218

9.8 Ecofeminism: Making Connections 221

9.9 Ecofeminism: Recent Developments 224

9.10 Summary and Conclusions 227

Notes 228

Discussion Questions 231

Global Environmental Ethics Watch 231

10 Environmental Justice and Social Ecology 232

Discussion: Environmental Refugees 232

Discussion Topics 233

10.1 Introduction 233

10.2 Property Rights and Libertarian Justice 234

10.3 Justice as Fairness 238

10.4 Environmental Justice and Environmental Racism 240

10.5 Murray Bookchin’s Social Ecology 243

10.6 Critical Reflections 246

10.7 Summary and Conclusions 248

Notes 249

Discussion Questions 251

Global Environmental Ethics Watch 252

11 Pluralism, Pragmatism, and Sustainability 253

Discussion: Carbon Mitigation and Stabilization Wedges 253

Discussion Topics 254

11.1 Introduction: Agreement and Disagreement in Environmental Ethics 255

11.2 Moral Pluralism and Moral Monism 256

11.3 Environmental Pragmatism 259

11.4 Conclusion: Sustainability Revisited 263

Notes 265

Global Environmental Ethics Watch 265

GLOSSARY 267

INDEX 271

CONTENTS ix

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Preface

One winter evening some years ago, I reread Aldo Leopold’s A Sand CountyAlmanac. This occurred a few months after I had moved to rural Minnesota from suburban Philadelphia. I came upon Leopold’s entry for February:

There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace. To avoid the first danger, one should plant a garden, preferably where there is no grocer to confuse the issue. To avoid the second, he should lay a split of good oak on the andirons, preferably where there is no furnace.

This passage struck me in a way that it never could have had I still been living in a metropolitan area. The fact that it was 27 degrees below zero outside, and I was sitting in front of a roaring oak fire might have had something to do with this. I recognized that there are more than just two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm; one other concerns divorcing your life from your work. That evening, I realized that teaching courses on environmental and ecological issues would mean more to me now, personally and professionally, than it could have in the city. This book grows out of a commitment to integrate more fully my life with my work.

The primary aim of this book is simple: to provide a clear, systematic, and comprehensive introduction to the philosophical issues underlying environmen- tal and ecological controversies. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, it is fair to say that human beings face environmental challenges unprecedented in the history of this planet. Largely through human activity, the very climate of the Earth is changing, and life on Earth faces the greatest mass extinctions since the end of the dinosaur age sixty-five million years ago. The natural resources that sustain life on this planet—air, water, and soil—are being polluted or depleted at alarming rates. Human population growth is increasing exponentially. When the first edition of this book was begun in 1990, the world population was 5.5 billion people.

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By 2012 it will have grown to 7 billion, a 27 percent increase in just over twenty years. The prospects for continued degradation and depletion of natural resources multiply with this population growth. Toxic wastes that will plague future genera- tions continue to accumulate worldwide. The world’s wilderness areas—its forests, wetlands, mountains, and grasslands—are being developed, paved, drained, burned, and overgrazed out of existence.

The tendency in our culture is to treat such issues as simply scientific, techno- logical, or political problems. But they are much more than that. These environ- mental and ecological controversies raise fundamental questions about what we as human beings value, about the kind of beings we are, the kinds of lives we should live, our place in nature, and the kind of world in which we might flourish. In short, environmental problems raise fundamental questions of ethics and philosophy. This book seeks to provide a systematic introduction to these philosophical issues.

OVERVIEW

A significant amount of philosophically interesting and important research on environmental and ecological issues has been conducted during the past few dec- ades. The structure of this book reflects the way the fields of environmental ethics and environmental philosophy have developed during that period.

Two initial chapters introduce the relevance of philosophy for environmental concerns and some traditional ethical theories and principles. Chapters 3 and 4 sur- vey topics that essentially fit an “applied ethics” model. Traditional philosophical theories and methodologies are applied to environmental issues with the aim of clarification and evaluation. The applied ethics model, it seems to me, accounts for much of the early work in environmental ethics.

Philosophers soon recognized that traditional theories and principles were inadequate to deal with new environmental challenges. In response, philosophers began to extend traditional concepts and principles, so that they might become environmentally relevant. Chapter 5 examines attempts to extend moral standing to such things as individual animals, future generations, trees, and other natural objects. Within much of this thinking, traditional theories and principles remain essentially intact, but their scope and range are extended to cover topics not previously explored by philosophers.

Many philosophers working in this field have come to believe that ethical extensionism is an inadequate philosophical response to environmental issues and controversies. To many of these thinkers, traditional ethical theories and principles are part of a worldview that has been responsible for much environmental and ecological destruction. What is needed, in their eyes, is a more radical philosophi- cal approach that includes rethinking metaphysical, epistemological, and political, as well as ethical, concepts. At this point, the field once identified as environmental ethics is better conceived of as environmental philosophy. The final seven chapters examine more comprehensive environmental and ecological philosophies. These views include biocentrism (the view that all living things deserve moral standing),

xii PREFACE

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ecocentrism (the view that shifts away from traditional environmental concerns to a more holistic and ecological focus), deep ecology, social ecology, and ecofeminism.

THE FIFTH EDITION

One strong temptation in writing a new edition is to create a much longer book. Keeping pace with new developments, including all the latest cases and environ- mental controversies, and embracing new ideas would all lead one to include more and more material. But one important lesson we learn from ecology is to recognize that not every change is an improvement and not all growth is devel- opment. My primary goal for this book remains what it was in the first edition, now nearly twenty years ago: to provide a clear and concise introduction to the philosophical issues underlying environmental controversies. This book has proved popular for use in courses taught outside of philosophy, which I take as some measure of success in achieving this goal.

This new edition attempts to respond to suggestions and advice from faculty and students who have been using this book. I owe a great debt to all the generous people who have contributed recommendations for this edition. The primary goal of this new edition is to keep apace of recent developments in the field, without sacrificing the original goal of writing a concise introductory text. I continue to seek a balance between philosophical depth and practical relevance. Admittedly, students do not always appreciate the details of philosophical debates and would rather we “get to the point.” But if there is any lesson to be drawn from the present political climate of rancorous partisan disagreement, it is that the world needs more, not less, careful and considered judgment.

Changes to this edition include new or significantly revised and updated dis- cussion cases at the start of most chapters. New material includes cases on global climate change, BP’s Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill, Synthetic Biology, Animals and Food, Sustainability, Hunting, Environmental Refugees, and Carbon Mitigation. I hope this new material will keep the book fresh for students and faculty alike. But the same basic format remains. Previous editions developed what has proven to be a coherent structure for presenting and teaching the content of environmental ethics and, for the most part, I have kept that structure as is.

But I have also done some minor restructuring of this edition to achieve greater clarity and coherence. I have combined the previous Chapter 9 (Deep Ecology) and Chapter 11 (Ecofeminsim) into a single chapter. I agree with reviewers who believe that neither field has developed much in the past decade, and that the material was no longer as cutting-edge as it had been. But both deep ecology and ecofeminism present intriguing and philosophically interesting perspectives that deserve attention, and each has had a significant impact on contemporary environmentalism. I have combined them into a single chapter because each is an example of a type of envi- ronmentalism—what I call radical environmentalism—which rejects reform in favour of more dramatic, radical social change.

PREFACE xiii

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Careful readers will notice several other minor changes. The section on eth- ical relativism has been moved from the chapter on ethical theory (Chapter 2) into Chapter 1, so that it can be included in a new section on “Philosophy, Politics, and Ethical Relativism.” Chapter 1 also discusses the present partisan political climate in that same context, and backs away from a previous concern with an over-reliance on science in setting environmental policy. If only that were now the case that I thought it was two decades ago.

Finally, what previously was an epilogue has become a more extended discussion of pluralism, pragmatism, and sustainability. When I first added the epi- logue, issues of pluralism and pragmatism were just emerging as a serious topic among environmental philosophers. I have tried to extend this discussion to include some final reflections on sustainability. It seems to me that while theorists continue to debate the relative merits of various environmental philosophies, the issue that motivates us all—environmental destruction—marches on. The philosophical debates concerning pluralism and pragmatism, in my opinion, share with the issue of sustainable development an urgent need that something be done in the mean- time. Those who address these three topics seek a reasoned way to proceed even when a unified consensus on more theoretical issues remains elusive.

TO STUDENTS AND TEACHERS

Writing a book like this carries two intellectual dangers. One is the danger of supposing that students are as motivated by and interested in abstract philosophical issues as their teachers. The other is that in pointing to the immense practical relevance of environmental ethics, I ignore or understate the importance of care- ful and rigorous conceptual analysis. I have tried to address these dangers in a number of ways.

Each chapter begins with a description of a contemporary environmental controversy that can be used as an entry into the philosophical discussion that follows. These discussion cases describe issues that are at the forefront of the con- temporary environmental scene, and they implicitly raise fundamental ethical and philosophical questions. My hope is that after some directed reflection and discussion, students will see the need to address philosophical questions in devel- oping their own environmental and ecological positions. Each chapter also ends with a series of discussion questions that can be used either as the basis for a chapter review or as the basis for further study.

To avoid the second danger, I have tried to follow the philosophical debates far enough to provide an accurate example of how philosophers reason and how reasoning can make progress. There can be no substitute for a careful study and reading of the many primary sources that I have used in this book. But the nature of this book requires that these debates not be so comprehensive that readers get lost in, or bored by, the detail.

I have not always been successful in my own teaching at balancing a relevant introduction to the issues with an in-depth analysis. Without a clear context to

xiv PREFACE

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motivate the need to know, students often get lost in philosophical analysis. On the other hand, without depth, students can become convinced too easily that they now know all the answers. Class time spent providing context, of course, takes away from time spent developing analysis; time spent following through on the debates prevents the forest from being seen for all the trees.

I wrote this book to address that tension. I suspect that for many teachers, the book provides a context and introduction, allowing them to use class time for fuller development of selected issues. They might do this in a number of ways: by reading classic or contemporary primary sources; by studying more empirical resources such as the Worldwatch publications; by keeping current on environ- mental controversies on the Web; by using some of the many excellent videos on environmental topics that are now available; and by addressing the claims of more activist groups ranging from the Sierra Club to Earth First!. However individual instructors choose to develop their courses, I hope that this book can provide a context to ensure that students remain as connected to the important philosophical issues as they so often are to the practical environmental ones.