Environmental ethics: an overview, assessing the place of bioscientists in society, supplemented with selected Australian perspectives (original) (raw)
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2011
The Convention on Biological Diversity emerged out of a universal consensus that biodiversity is of immense value to humankind. Although the report adopted the definition of the Convention on Biological Diversity, it reviews the concept of biodiversity as applied to genes, microbes, ecosystems and the planet as a whole. There are a number of accepted scientific measurements to allow recording of biodiversity, although all show that it is being reduced at rates that are unprecedented, due to anthropogenic activity. A variety of ethical approaches to human relationships to biodiversity are described in the report, but despite the range of ideas that they include, most would argue that human beings should modify their behaviour to slow the rate of biodiversity loss. Even an anthropocentric argument would also show the high value of biodiversity for current and future human generations, as exceeding the short-term gains that are the cause of most biodiversity loss. There is an extensive description of many value systems and biodiversity. Traditional practices such as the use of sacred groves were based on holistic approaches to all of life. What lessons do such systems offer us today? There is a major case study of the Tonlé Sap ecosystem in Cambodia, to explore how regulations are developed, and evolve in practice with the local and external users of a biodiversity sanctuary. Some ethical lessons are drawn from this study which may be useful for policy options for not only that habitat, but also for others. A review of international law and biodiversity is presented with attention on some of the ethical aspects. There is discussion of ecotourism policy, and labeling laws, that may be used to protect biodiversity. There are a number of policy issues for future preservation of biodiversity that suggest governments (local and national) may like to reconsider what is sustainability, what economic policy and time frames they adopt, and the role of environmental movements in implementation of policy. Although there are some good laws on paper at the international level, and at national level in some nations, these are not always implemented effectively as both the local communities and consumers globally need to act to protect biodiversity. Examination of the common goals to protect and value biodiversity over history and in the future may make the difference that is needed
Why is Ecological Ethics Necessary
Field biologists, conservation biologists, and wildlife managers frequently have to contend with difficult ethical questions during the course of their work but have little formal guidance in making such decisions. Existing philosophical approaches fail to take into consideration all the competing values involved in such decisions: environmental, knowledge, and animal life. To address this gap, Minteer & Collins (2008) and others have called for the establishment of a new field, ecological ethics. Here we use the example of prescribed fire as a case-study to illustrate the failure of Singer's animal liberation, Regan's animal rights, Leopold's land ethic, and some newer attempts to answer these questions, in a way that incorporates the interest, needs, and values of different groups involved in environmental research and management.
"Confronted with the current environmental crisis, the academic community faces a conceptual and practical problem of dissociation: Ecologists approach nature with the aim of understanding it, whereas environmental ethicists approach nature asking how we should relate to it, or inhabit it. Ecology looks for the "is" of nature, and environmental ethics seeks an "ought" with respect to nature. How can these still largely disconnected and yet parallel courses be bridged? How can the is of ecologists and the ought of eco-philosophers be interrelat-ed? More basically, how can the links between the cognitive–scientific and the practical–ethical spheres be recovered? In this article, I illustrate the reciprocal relationships between sciences and environmental ethics by examining the Darwinian theory of evolution and discussing its implications for ecologists and ethicists. "
Integrating Ecological Sciences and Environmental Ethics into Biocultural Conservation
Environmental Ethics, 2008
This special issue of Environmental Ethics is based on the workshop "Integrating Ecological Sciences and Environmental Ethics: New Approaches to Understanding and Conserving Frontier Ecosystems," held in the temperate sub-Antarctic region of southern Chile, in March 2007. 1 The workshop was jointly organized by the Department of Philosophy and Religion Studies of the University of North Texas (UNT) and the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity (IEB-Chile), in collaboration with the Center for Environmental Philosophy, and followed a three-week field graduate course, "Conservation and Society: Biocultural Diversity and Environmental Ethics," involving graduate students from the U.S. and Latin America. These events built on a decade of collaboration between UNT environmental philosophers and Chilean ecologists, and were followed by two symposia held subsequently at two annual meetings of the Ecological Society of America (2007 and 2008). 2
Towards Improving the Ethics of Ecological Research
Science and engineering ethics, 2014
We argue that the ecological research community should develop a plan for improving the ethical consistency and moral robustness of the field. We propose a particular ethics strategy-specifically, an ongoing process of collective ethical reflection that the community of ecological researchers, with the cooperation of applied ethicists and philosophers of biology, can use to address the needs we identify. We suggest a particular set of conceptual (in the form of six core values-freedom, fairness, well being, replacement, reduction, and refinement) and analytic (in the forms of decision theoretic software, 1000Minds) tools that, we argue, collectively have the resources to provide an empirically grounded and conceptually complete foundation for an ethics strategy for ecological research. We illustrate our argument with information gathered from a survey of ecologists conducted at the 2013 meeting of the Canadian Society of Ecology and Evolution.
Environmental philosophy 2.0: ethics and conservation biology for the 21st century
Studies in history and philosophy of biological and biomedical sciences, 2014
In this essay, I critically engage Sahotra Sarkar's Environmental Philosophy. The several topics include the conceptual foundations of conservation biology and traditional philosophy of science, naturalism and its implications, and ethical theory and specifically the status of human welfare.
Ethics an environmental Sciences
Luc HENS Charles SUSANE SUMMARY Ibis paper reviews the status of environmental etbics aud its applications in environmental decision making. It is targeted towards an audience of non-professional etbicists witb a bio-etbical interest.
Continuing loss of biodiversity, mainly due to economic development, is a major contemporary concern. This is because it could threaten economic sustainability and diminish the satisfaction humankind obtains by experiencing the living world; and it can be a source of guilt among individuals who feel that humankind has a moral responsibility to help conserve the living world. Therefore, biological conservation is an important subject and is the focus of this chapter. This chapter is developed initially by identifying a range of subjects that can be investigated in studying biological conservation and management. Diverse motives are specified which have an influence on decisions about biological conservation and management. Subsequently, attention is given to the role and limitations of markets in determining biological conservation and management and after that, to the role and shortcomings of non-market institutions (governments and NGOs) in doing so. The usefulness of economic valuation techniques in relation to this subject is assessed and particular attention is given to the need to take account of opportunity costs, the importance of regular biases in conservation preferences, and the difficulty of resolving social conflict about the management of biological resources. Before concluding, the following illustrative topics are discussed: Conflicts, valuation issues and the costs of policies for conserving koalas; The role of wildlife rehabilitation centres in nature conservation; Ecotourism enterprises and the conservation of species; and Conflicts between conservationists about conserving species illustrated by the presence of wild horses (brumbies) in the high country of Australia.