The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Ethics (Oxford Handbooks)

Environmental ethics is an academic subfield of philosophy concerned with normative and evaluative propositions about the world of nature and, perhaps more generally, the moral fabric of relations between human beings and the world we occupy. This Handbook contains forty-five newly commissioned essays written by leading experts and emerging voices. The essays range over a broad variety of issues, concepts, and perspectives that are both central to and characteristic of the field, thus providing an authoritative but accessible account of the history, analysis, and prospect of ideas that are essential to contemporary environmental ethics. The Handbook includes sections on the broad social contexts in which we find ourselves (e.g., chapters on history, science, economics, governance, and the Anthropocene), on what ought to count morally and why (e.g., chapters on humanity, animals, living individuals, ecological collectives, and wild nature), on the nature and meaning of environmental values (e.g., truth and goodness, practical reasons, hermeneutics, phenomenology, and aesthetics), on theoretical understandings of how we should act (e.g., on consequentialism, duty and obligation, character, caring relationships, and the sacred), on key concepts (e.g., responsibility, justice, gender, rights, ecological space, risk and precaution, citizenship, future generations, and sustainability), on specific areas of environmental concern (e.g., pollution, population, energy, food, water, mass extinction, technology and ecosystem management), on climate change considered as the defining environmental problem of our time (e.g., chapters on mitigation, adaptation, diplomacy, and geoengineering), and on social change (e.g., pragmatism, conflict, sacrifice, and action). Cover......Page 1 The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Ethics ......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 The Contributors......Page 12 1. Introducing Contemporary Environmental Ethics......Page 20 Part I Context Broad Social Conditions in Which We Find Ourselves......Page 30 2. A History of Environmental Ethics......Page 32 3. Environmental Science: Empirical Claims in Environmental Ethics......Page 46 4. Markets, Ethics, and Environment......Page 59 5. Law, Governance, and the Ecological Ethos......Page 70 6. The Anthropocene!: Beyond the Natural?......Page 81 Part II Subjects of Value What Ought to Count Morally and How......Page 94 7. Anthropocentrism: Humanity as Peril and Promise......Page 96 8. Conscious Animals and the Value of Experience......Page 110 9. Living Individuals: Biocentrism in Environmental Ethics......Page 120 10. How Ecological Collectives are Morally Considerable......Page 132 11. Valuing Wild Nature......Page 144 Part III Nature of Value The Meaning of Value and Normative Claims......Page 156 12. Truth and Goodness: Metaethics in Environmental Ethics......Page 158 13. Practical Reasons and Environmental Commitment......Page 170 14. Environmental Hermeneutics and the Meaning of Nature......Page 181 15. Phenomenology and Environmental Ethics......Page 193 16. Aesthetic Value, Nature, and Environment......Page 205 Part IV How Things Matter Theoretical Perspectives on the Way We Ought to Act......Page 216 17. Consequentialism in Environmental Ethics......Page 218 18. Rights, Rules, and Respect for Nature......Page 230 19. Environmental Virtue Ethics: Value, Normativity, and Right Action......Page 242 20. Ethics of Caring in Environmental Ethics: Indigenous and Feminist Philosophies......Page 253 21. The Sacred, Reverence for Life, and Environmental Ethics in America......Page 267 Part V Key Concepts Tools for Framing and Addressing Problems......Page 282 22. Individual and Contributory Responsibility for Environmental Harm......Page 284 23. Justice on One Planet......Page 295 24. Sexual Politics in Environmental Ethics: Impacts, Causes, Alternatives......Page 307 25. Human Rights and the Environment......Page 320 26. Ecological Space: The Concept and Its Ethical Significance......Page 330 27. Risk and Precaution in Decision Making about Nature......Page 340 28. Citizenship and (Un)Sustainability: A Green Republican Perspective......Page 352 29. Future Generations in Environmental Ethics......Page 363 30. Sustainability as the Multigenerational Public Interest......Page 374 Part VI Central Issues Specific Areas Of Environmental Concern......Page 386 31. The Ethics of Environmental Pollution......Page 388 32. Population and Environment : The Impossible, the Impermissible, and the Imperative......Page 399 33. Ethical Energy Choices......Page 410 34. Narratives of Food, Agriculture, and the Environment......Page 423 35. Water Ethics: Toward Ecological Cooperation......Page 435 36. Anthropogenic Mass Extinction: The Science, the Ethics, and the Civics......Page 446 37. Philosophy of Technology and the Environment......Page 457 38. The Ethics of Ecosystem Management......Page 468 Part VII Climate Change The Defining Environmental Problem of Our Time......Page 482 39. Mitigation: First Imperative of Environmental Ethics......Page 484 40. Ethics and Climate Adaptation......Page 493 41. Climate Diplomacy......Page 506 42. Geoengineering: Ethical Questions for Deliberate Climate Manipulators......Page 520 Part VIII Social Change Doing What We Ought to Do......Page 534 43. Environmental Conflict......Page 536 44. Environmental Ethics, Sustainability Science, and the Recovery of Pragmatism......Page 547 45. Sacrifice and the Possibilities for Environmental Action......Page 560 46. From Environmental Ethics to Environmental Action......Page 571 Index......Page 582 "We live during a crucial period of human history on Earth. Anthropogenic environmental changes are occurring on global scales at unprecedented rates. Despite a long history of environmental intervention, never before has the collective impact of human behaviors threatened all of the major bio-systems on the planet. Decisions we make today will have significant consequences for the basic conditions of all life into the indefinite future. What should we do? How should we behave? In what ways ought we organize and respond? The future of the world as we know it depends on our actions today. A cutting-edge introduction to environmental ethics in a time of dramatic global environmental change, this collection contains forty-five newly commissioned articles, with contributions from well-established experts and emerging voices in the field. Chapters are arranged in topical sections: social contexts (history, science, economics, law, and the Anthropocene), who or what is of value (humanity, conscious animals, living individuals, and wild nature), the nature of value (truth and goodness, practical reasons, hermeneutics, phenomenology, and aesthetics), how things ought to matter (consequences, duty and obligation, character traits, caring for others, and the sacred), essential concepts (responsibility, justice, gender, rights, ecological space, risk and precaution, citizenship, future generations, and sustainability), key issues (pollution, population, energy, food, water, mass extinction, technology, and ecosystem management), climate change (mitigaton, adaptation, diplomacy, and geoengineering), and social change (conflict, pragmatism, sacrifice, and action). Each chapter explains the role played by central theories, ideas, issues, and concepts in contemporary environmental ethics, and their relevance for the challenges of the future" -- From the publisher We live during a crucial period of human history on Earth. Anthropogenic environmental changes are occurring on global scales at unprecedented rates. Despite a long history of environmental intervention, never before has the collective impact of human behaviors threatened all of the major bio-systems on the planet. Decisions we make today will have significant consequences for the basic conditions of all life into the indefinite future. What should we do? How should we behave? In what ways ought we organize and respond? The future of the world as we know it depends on our actions today. A cutting-edge introduction to environmental ethics in a time of dramatic global environmental change, this collection contains forty-five newly commissioned articles, with contributions from well-established experts and emerging voices in the field. Chapters are arranged in topical sections: social contexts (history, science, economics, law, and the Anthropocene), who or what is of value (humanity, conscious animals, living individuals, and wild nature), the nature of value (truth and goodness, practical reasons, hermeneutics, phenomenology, and aesthetics), how things ought to matter (consequences, duty and obligation, character traits, caring for others, and the sacred), essential concepts (responsibility, justice, gender, rights, ecological space, risk and precaution, citizenship, future generations, and sustainability), key issues (pollution, population, energy, food, water, mass extinction, technology, and ecosystem management), climate change (mitigation, adaptation, diplomacy, and geoengineering), and social change (conflict, pragmatism, sacrifice, and action). Each chapter explains the role played by central theories, ideas, issues, and concepts in contemporary environmental ethics, and their relevance for the challenges of the future. This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online