The climate emergency is the greatest threat facing humanity. Almost every discipline and future career path - from business to technology, engineering, and politics - will force students to confront ethical concerns as they relate to the environment, natural resources, and sustainable growth.
Written in a consistent, readable voice, Byron Williston's Environmental Ethics for Canadians demystifies the main thinkers and questions central to environmental ethics, without overwhelming students with detail or philosophy-specific jargon, showcasing the complex philosophical and ethical
questions that arise as we interact with the natural world and work to stem climate change in an accessible way.
A hybrid textbook and reader, combining classic essays by leaders in environmental philosophy with contemporary selections by emerging voices in the field - including original
pieces commissioned expressly for this volume - this text provides students with the foundational concepts and new perspectives they need to truly understand our changing relationship to the environment. While instructors often find it difficult to animate environmental ethics and demonstrate its
career relevance to their students, many of whom are non-philosophy majors, this edition's new feature boxes help illustrate the way philosophical thought and ideas have been utilized in the world and in Canada to create change, showing students the practicality of learning these ideas for their
future careers. Incorporating Indigenous perspectives throughout, including a full chapter devoted to Indigenous ways of knowing, as well as expanded content on the Anthropocene, biodiversity loss, and climate change, this volume brings philosophical debate to today's greatest opportunities and
challenges. Global in outlook, but Canadian in focus, this ground-up Canadian text provides students examples and case studies from their own backyard to engage them and propel their thinking outward.
Preface
List of Contributors
Introduction
A. The Nature of Moral Assessment
B. Challenges to Morality I: Ethical Egoism
C. Challenges to Morality II: Ethical Relativism
D. Four Normative Theories
PART I: MORAL STANDING
Chapter 1. Animal
Welfarism
A. Introduction
B. Moral Standing and Speciesism
-- "All Animals Are Equal" -Peter Singer
C. Beyond Utilitarianism
D. Animal Welfarism and Animal Citizenship
--"Animal Citizenship" -Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka
E. Conclusion
Case Study: Regenerative
Agriculture and Eating Beef
Chapter 2. Biocentrism
A. Introduction
B. Rights for Living Things?
--"Should Trees Have Standing" Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects" -Christopher D. Stone
C. Biocentric Egalitarianism
--"The Biocentric Outlook on Nature" -Paul W.
Taylor
D. Human Superiority and Inter-Species Conflict
E. Conclusion
Case Study: Biocentric Lessons from COVID-19
Chapter 3. Ecocentrism and Deep Ecology
A. Introduction
B. The Land Ethic
--"The Land Ethic" -Aldo Leopold
C. Going Deep
--"Identification as a
Source of Deep Ecological Attitudes" -Arne Naess
D. Three Objections and Responses
E. Conclusion
Case Study: Tallgrass Prairie as an 'Endangered Space'
PART II. CHALLENGES AND NEW DIRECTIONS
Chapter 4. Economics and Ecology
A. Introduction
B. Optimal
Thinking
--"People or Penguins: The Case for Optimal Pollution" -William F. Baxter
C. The Allure of Cost-Benefit Analysis
D. Problems with Cost-Benefit Analysis
--"Environmental Pragmatism" -Jennifer Welchman
E. Conclusion
Case Study: Aquaculture and the Economic Growth
Imperative
Chapter 5. Ecofeminism
A. Introduction
B. Sexism and Naturism: Making the Connection
--"The Power and the Promise of Ecological Feminism" -Karen J. Warren
C. Overcoming Dualisms
D. Ecofeminism Now
--"Ecofeminists Without Borders: The Power of Method"
-Trish Glazebrook
E. Conclusion
Case Study: Climate Change, Gender, and Intersectionality
Chapter 6. Indigenous Perspectives
A. Introduction
B. The Circle
--"The Sacred Circle of Life" -Georges Sioui
C. Foregrounding Reconciliation
--"Untenable Origins: The
Mystery of Reconciliation" -Alan Hanna
D. Traditional Ecological Knowledge
E. Conclusion
Case Study: Lo-TEK: Radical Indigenous Design Principles
Chapter 7. Environmental Aesthetics
A. Introduction
B. Beauty and Duty: Mapping the Terrain
--Aesthetic Appreciation of
Nature and Environmentalism" -Allen Carlson
C. The Dispositive Character of Natural Beauty Judgments
--"The Moral Dimensions of Natural Beauty" -Ronald Moore
D. Aesthetic Weight and the Preservationist's Dilemma
--"Aesthetic Preservation" -Glenn Parsons
E. Conclusion
Case
Study: Art in the Anthropocene
Chapter 8. Environmental Virtue Ethics
A. Introduction
B. Human Excellence and the Environment
--"Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving Natural Environments" -Thomas E. Hill Jr.
C. Epistemic Environmental Virtues
--"Epistemic Virtue
and Ecological Crisis" -Byron Williston
D. Two Objections and Responses
E. Conclusion
Case Study: Three Canadian Environmentalist Exemplars
Chapter 9. Social Ecology and Environmental Activism
A. Introduction
B. What Is Social Ecology?
C. The Importance of
Activism
--"Environmental Political Activism" -Nir Barak and Avner de-Shalit
D. The Problem of Domination
--"Local Ecocentric Democracy and Fossil Fuel Divestment" -Greg Mikkelson
E. Conclusion
Case Study: Greta Thunberg and the Youth Climate Movement
PART III:
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
Chapter 10. Climate Change I: Science, Technology, and the Anthropocene
A. Introduction
B. The Basic Science
--"Global Warming of 1.5 Celsius: Summary for Policymakers" -IPCC
C. The Anthropocene
D. Ecomodernism and the
Technosphere
--"Governing the Technosphere: The Case of Geoengineering" -Byron Williston
E. Conclusion
Case Study: Climate Change and Nuclear Energy
Chapter 11. Climate Change II: Denial, Responsibility, and The Future
A. Introduction
B. Confronting Climate Change
Denial
C. Responsibility for Climate Change
--"Climate Subjects" -Todd Dufresne
D. Duties to Future Generations
--"Climate Change and the Intergenerational Arms Race" -Stephen M. Gardiner
E. Conclusion
Case Study: Climate Change, the Canadian Arctic, and the 'Age of
Stupid'
Chapter 12. Population and Consumption
A. Introduction
B. Malthus's Challenge
--"An Essay on the Principle of Population" -Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus
C. The Economist's Retort
--"Can the Supply of Natural Resources Really Be Infinite? Yes!" -Julian
Simon
D. Peak Oil and the Tar Sands
E. Conclusion
Case Study: Making Space for Grizzlies
Chapter 13. The Biodiversity Crisis
A. Introduction
B. Species or Individuals?
C. The Nature and Value of Biodiversity
--"The Biodiversity Crisis" -Frank Jankunis
D.
Climate Change and Biodiversity
--"Global Climate Change and Species Preservation" -Ronald L. Sandler
E. Conclusion
Case Study: Biodiversity and the Decline of Pollinators
Chapter 14. Sustainability
A. Introduction
B. Sustainability and Human Needs
--"The Concept of
Sustainability" -C. Tyler DesRoches
C. Sustainability and Substitutability
D. Sustainability and the City
--"Sustainability and Sense of Place" -Ingrid Leman Stefanovic
E. Conclusion
Case Study: Planetary Boundaries and Canada's Carbon
Budget
Glossary
Bibliography
Credits
Index
Test Bank for each chapter (new to this edition)
Image Bank
Byron Williston is a professor of philosophy at Wilfrid Laurier University.
Climate Ethics - Edited by Stephen Gardiner, Simon Caney, Dale Jamieson and Henry Shue
The Politics of the Earth - John S. Dryzek
The Environmental Politics Reader: Debating the Earth - Edited by John S. Dryzek and David Schlosberg
Environmental Ethics - David Schmidtz and Dan C. Shahar
