Book Description

Environmental Ethics: An Anthology brings together both classic and cutting-edge essays which have formed contemporary environmental ethics, ranging from the welfare of animals versus ecosystems to theories of the intrinsic value of nature. ... Read more

Book Description
Consisting of an assortment of landmark essays and the best in contemporary scholarship, this anthology delves deeply into the most pressing environmental issues of our times. Articles included in this anthology are distinguished for their relevance to real-life policy making and for their ability to promote rich and lively discussion about controversial matters. In addition, the editors' careful organization of the topics and illuminating section previews keep students focused on the most essential points of current environmental debates. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

It's not just "environmental" ethics...
This book provides an extraordinary place for any individual looking to understand and hone their ethics and values, it just happens to useenvironmental issues as its context.The editorial comments are conciseand probing, and the illustrative articles and essays are classic andthought provoking.Although the reading is generally a bit dense for pageturning on one's way to bed, that's even viable for individuals looking fora bit of intensity prior to sleep.An excellent, well rounded, explorationinto earth's environment and human roles and perceptions regarding it. ... Read more

Book Description
This anthology, edited by a professor of wild-life science and a professor of philosophy, offers the most current and comprehensive collection on the topic of environmental ethics available today.It surveys diverse approaches to environmental ethics by leading writers from a variety of disciplines, and provides an historical survey of thought on our responsibility to the environment.The perspectives are represented by their most articulate spokespersons and are accompanied by appraisals of their respective strengths and weaknesses.Chapter introductions, headnotes, discussion questions, and annotated bibliographies are provided. Twenty eight of the 64 articles are new. The new edition deletes those articles with which students had difficulty because they were hard to read and substitutes newer or better-written articles.All chapter introductions were revised to reflect changes in the field. New topics include biodiversity, ecological restoration, environmental justice, and genetic engineering.A new section in the appendix on conflict resolution was requested by students. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An Excellent introduction to key environmental debates
A very useful undergraduate level reader in environmental ethics. I use it in the course I teach in the UK. It would also make a good tool for self-teaching or for self-led small group study. For each chapter ofreadings there are discussion topics, an exercise, suggestions for a debateand a selection of further reading. The wide-ranging readings are carefullychosen, edited and arranged into key themes such as morality, aesthetics,ecofeminism and environmetnal ethics in society. The only other book tocover similar material in a similar manner is Louis Pojman's 'EnvironmentalEthics: Readings in Theory and Practice'. In my opinion they are equallyvaluable, making it difficult (should it be neccessary) to choose betweenthem. From a British perspective they both lack historical depth. Botzlerand Armstrong's book has only two readings from the eighteenth century orearlier (St Francis and Kant) but this can be supplied from elsewhere ifneeded. ... Read more

Book Description
The most comprehensive introduction to environmental ethics available, ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS offers students a current look at the issues and topics that dominate the field today, organized into two main parts that take students seamlessly from theory to application. This Fifth Edition of the Pojmans' popular anthology, like its predecessors, includes numerous topic areas not covered in other anthologies-including an all-new section on Climate Change. Featuring articles carefully selected for clarity and accessibility, the text follows a dialogic pro-con format presenting divergent positions on each topic, ensuring that students are both exposed to and understand both sides of every topic so they can develop their own informed positions. The bulk of royalties for this book are donated to groups dedicated to protecting the environment, such as the Wilderness Society and the Sierra Club. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The best among a bad bunch
This anthology is well organized and contains a few gems, but many of the articles and book excerpts are terribly outdated, and some read like bad op-ed pieces in a local newspaper.This is unfortunate, since the subject is an important one.

AMAZING!
When I first looked over the book, I wasn't overly impressed at first and thought that it was going to be a hard and boring read.I was completely wrong! It is the favorite among my textbooks now. ... Read more

Book Description
How can you use philosophical to make progress toward solving environmental problems? ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS: AN INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL PHILOSOPHY introduces you to ethical theory in new and easily understood ways. But most of all, this environmental ethics textbook shows you how we can work together to build a better future. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Interesting topics, very thought provoking
I purchased this book for an environmental ethics class, and found it to be very interesting!The many changes in our environment are truly thought-provoking, and to look at them through the eyes of an ethicist was enjoyable.The reading is compelling, and good fodder for many interesting dinner table conversations.

Environmental Ethics: An Introduction to Environmental Philosophy
Book arrived in great shape and in a very timely fashion

Well written outlines of major ideas
This review is based on the 2nd edition. This book presents a good introduction to the major ideas of ethical thinking about the environment. He presents ideas on how rights might be derived as a gradation from purely human interest, rights based on whether animals suffer, and nature with its own right.Throughout the book questions of individual versus community rights are discussed. Each chapter starts with a short essay that highlights some of the complexities; for example whether Mountain Goats should be introduced or eliminated in Olympic National Park. Each chapter is concluded with discussion questions that also help the reader grapple with the issues.

He presents many of the major ideas and criticisms of animal rights, energy use, the land ethic, deep ecology, and ecofeminism.Particularly in the areas of deep ecology he presents the diversity of views. Perhaps he is weak in presenting third world views and the impact that "Deep ecology" might have on poor and agrarian populations. He is lacking discussion of religious based environmental ethics ("Theocentric ethics"). Christian Ecology seeks to develop a stewardship view, and Native American, and Eastern religions center on respect for nature.I think this book works best when read with selections from the authors discussed; for example read some of Leopold's "Sand County Almanac", then read the chapter on "The Land Ethic."

Thinking Deeply about the Environment, and Why it Matters
I read the first edition of this book (1993) and have no doubt that the third edition will surpass its scope and clarity.In a few hundred pages, Joseph Des Jardins unspools the thread of western philosophical tradition and makes it relevant for today's urgent environmental issues.Each chapter begins with a timely case study--salmon and economic develoment, nuclear waste and the rights of future generations to a clean environment--then develops the philosophical arguments required to more deeply understand just what is at stake in these and similar issues.Des Jardins' style is easy-going and eminently accessible.He wastes no words, gets to heart of the matter, and leaves the reader wanting more.Footnotes and additional readings lead to original material if the reader wants to delve more thoroughly into the topics.But you can just stop with Des Jardins if you are not a scholar, and still gain a firm grasp on how the big thinkers of western philosophy brought us to a critical divide in our environmental future.Edition One included late-breaking news from the social environmental and eco-feminist fronts, and I am confident the 2000 edition will be just as current. ... Read more

Book Description
This exciting anthology emphasizes ethical issues in environmental policy while providing balanced coverage of theoretical perspectives and applied environmental topics. ... Read more

Book Description
Featuring sixty-two accessible selections--from classic articles to examples of cutting-edge original research--Environmental Ethics: What Really Matters, What Really Works addresses both of the principal areas of inquiry in the field: the exploration of morality from an environmental perspective and the analysis of the current state of our environment. Aiming to determine what issues really matter, the first section of the book responds to such questions as: What is value? What types of things have value? Is the value of a human being fundamentally different from the kind of value we find elsewhere in nature? What role do consumer goods and services play in a good life? and Is there room for environmental consciousness in a good life? The second section turns to the question of what it would take to solve our environmental problems. It strives to go beyond the "hype" to present informed perspectives on the true nature of those problems and investigates important questions like: What is causing or exacerbating these problems? and What solutions have been tried? The selections present philosophical, biological, and social scientific approaches to the major issues. Environmental Ethics features first-hand descriptions from people who have actually been involved in such projects as wildlife management in Africa, ecofeminist initiatives in India, and radical activism on the high seas. It also provides up-to-date data on population issues and community-based wildlife initiatives. Ideal for undergraduate courses in environmental ethics, environmental issues, and applied ethics, this unique text will also be a helpful resource for graduate students and professors, as it retains most of the footnotes from the original articles. ... Read more

Book Description
Environmental Ethics is a systematic account of values carried by the natural world, coupled with an inquiry into duties toward animals, plants, species, and ecosystems. A comprehensive philosophy of nature is illustrated by and integrated with numerous actual examples of ethical decisions made in encounters with fauna and flora, endangered species, and threatened ecosystems. The ethics developed is informed throughout by ecological science and evolutionary biology, with attention to the logic of moving from what is in nature to what ought to be.

The ethical theory is applied in detail to social, public, and business policy. Written in an engaging style, using diagrams and figures as well as numerous case studies, Environmental Ethics prods the reader into concrete application and invites reader participation in the ethical discussions. The ethics concludes by exploring the historical experiences of personal residence in a surrounding environment. Here is an adventure into what it means to live as responsible human beings in the community of life on Earth. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Ethics for the New Millennium
Environmental Ethics, by Holmes Rolston III, represents one of the most thorough and provocative works in the field of environmental philosophy to date. In addressing the essential question of the intrinsic value of the natural world Rolston is laying the groundwork for a new understanding of humanity's place in the world. Beginning with the simple premise of responsibility, Rolston argues that it is the duty of all humans by virtue of our existence as reasoning beings to protect and conserve the biodiversity and environmental health of the plant. This vital responsibility is intended to inform, not only for our relationship to the world vis a vis own consumptive needs, but in a way that enriches the existential potential of, not only all other forms of life, but the nonsentient ecosystem as well, i.e., mountains, sky, rivers, oceans, earth and rock.

The importance of this kind of radical subjectivity is that it represents the necessary acknowledgement of the interconnectivity of all being. You may be asking yourself, but what does this mean to me as an individual, and why should I care about deforestation taking place in a remote part of the world?The answer Rolston, puts forth is both complex and elegant, in which he argues that the individual values of nature cannot be isolated, due to the inherent connectivity, in a simple pragmatic approach to life. Because since the earth is one great system of interrelationships, with all of the individual constituents relying upon the others in order to function. Thus, if one part is disturbed or destroyed, for example the elimination of predators such as wolves and bears in a forest, there are serious repercussions that will eventually effect the entire ecosystem from, from the overpopulation of deer, increased spread of disease, loss of habitat due to overgrazing, which results in increased starvation of wildlife and the eventual loss of biotic diversity.These are things that are not apparent at a glance, nonetheless they do represent some of the most serious problems facing the health of the Earth, and it is precisely these nondescript consequences that makes understanding these relationships so important.

In Environmental Ethics, Rolston puts forth a new ethical paradigm that responds to this void in our consciousness. By illustrating the vital importance and necessary interplay between of all aspects of nature, and the aesthetic, economic, religious, recreational, scientific, historical, cultural and dialectical values that nature represents for humans this book offers many important insights useful to addressing today's environmental crisis. ... Read more

Book Description
A collection of more than 40 case studies covering diverse topics such as genetic engineering, aesthetics, pollution, animal rights, population, and resource management, Case Studies in Environmental Ethics is intended as a supplemental book for college courses primarily in environmental ethics. Each case presents factual information on a particular topic, followed by a discussion of the ethical implications of each topic and several insightful discussion questions. ... Read more

Book Description
Thomas S. Derr argues that most recent books on environmental ethics are implicitly, and sometimes explicitly, unfriendly to Christianity. Christian faith and the Western religious tradition are accused of an exploitative attitude toward the natural world ... Read more

Book Description
The most comprehensive introduction to environmental ethics available today, ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS provides you with the tools you need to succeed! Brief introductions to each reading provide you with comments on the social context of the readings, biographical information on the authors, and some suggestions with regard to the key issues to be encountered in the particular reading. Studying is made easy with study questions and suggested further readings found throughout the text. ... Read more

Book Description
The first on the topic of environmental virtue ethics, this book seeks to provide the definitive anthology that will both establish the importance of environmental virtue in environmental discourse and advance the current research on environmental virtue in interesting and original ways. The selections in this collection, consisting of ten original and four reprinted essays by leading scholars in the field, discuss the role that virtue and character have traditionally played in environmental discourse, and reflect upon the role that it should play in the future. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Timely and Stimulating Anthology
There are few issues in the national debate as important for the future as the health of the environment. In addition to access to all the best science, we need to know how philosophers are grappling with the subject. Smartly edited by Ronald Sandler and Philip Carafo, this important anthology assembles essays by 12 of the most energetic minds in the field. Readers and viewers of Al Gore's INCONVENIENT TRUTH can explore in this collection some of the deeper intellectual ramifications of evironmental ethics. The book is accessible to a general readership, but it could also serve as a stimulating text for courses and seminars dealing with the relation between man and his environment, the importance of character in inspiring the duties required to preserve it, and the organized apathy that threatens the balance of Nature itself. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Book Description
Environmental Ethics Today is essential reading for anyone interested in the future of the environment, our species, and species diversity. This wide-ranging introduction to major issues and questions in environmental ethics employs an accessible, journalistic style--featuring current facts, real controversies, individual stories, and a vivid narrative--that engages readers and gives meaning to abstract philosophical concepts. Topics discussed include pollution permits for corporations, medical experimentation on animals, genetic engineering, economic globalization, biodiversity, and much more. Theories and methods such as utilitarianism, contractarianism, and hermeneutics are introduced as needed to help readers understand and attempt to resolve environmental conflicts. The book considers the views of many thinkers including Father Thomas Berry, Wendell Berry, J. Baird Callicott, Jane Goodall, Garrett Hardin, David Korten, Aldo Leopold, Arne Naess, Val Plumwood, Daniel Quinn, Tom Regan, Holmes Rolston III, Vandana Shiva, Julian Simon, Peter Singer, and Karen Warren. An exceptional primary text for courses in environmental ethics and environmental values, Environmental Ethics Today is also excellent reading for general courses in moral problems, business ethics, environmental studies, and women's studies. ... Read more

Book Description
This latest addition to the acclaimed Oxford Readings in Philosophy series offers a selection of some of the best articles on ethics and the environment written in the last twenty years.Focusing on the philosophical issues underlying this key topic, the contributions cover duties to future
people, resource conservation, species and wilderness preservation, the relevance of ecology to ethics, ecofeminism, and the tension between political liberalism and environmentalism.Including writings by Baird Callicot, Colleen D. Clements, Mary Midgley, John Passmore, Holmes Rolston III, Mark
Sagoff, Elliott Sober, Mary B. Williams, Andrew Brennan, Freya Matthews, Val Plumwood, and Richard Routley, this accessible and timely book makes a perfect introduction to the main debates in this area. ... Read more

Book Description

This book integrates decision-making and environmental science. For ecologists it will bridge the gap to economics. For practitioners in environmental economics and management it will be a major reference book. It probably contains the largest collection available of expressions and basic equations that are used in environmental sciences. Applying these expressions as "rules-of-thumb" will give participants in a decision-making process a common platform for discussion and arbitration.

Book Description
Organized into two main parts, the first on theory and the second on applications, the third edition of this popular anthology provides the most comprehensive set of readings available for environmental ethics and includes topic areas not covered in other anthologies. The text follows a dialogic pro-con format to present different and conflicting views on each topic. Articles have been carefully selected for clarity and accessibility. ... Read more

Book Description
With its thematic focus on “ecolacy,” the understanding of the natural environment and our relationship to it, Pojman’s text strikes a balance between theoretical and applied issues in environmental ethics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Very helpful but who the hell was the editor?
This book is not a comedy but you will laugh. There are so many typos it isn't even funny. Getting past that, this book is full of good info to help you write a Phase I Site Assessment. ... Read more