Environmental Ethics

Contents: Preface. 1. Introduction to environmental ethics. 2. Environmental values. 3. Development of ecological ethics. 4. Environmental virtue ethics. 5. Environmental bioethics. 6. Issues in environmental ethics. 7. Ethics and global climate change. 8. Biodiversity and environmental ethics. 9. Environmental philosophy and conservation. 10. Ecological crisis. 11. Ethical dimensions of sustaining environment. Bibliography. Index.

“Environmental ethics is the discipline that studies the moral relationship of human beings to, and also the value and moral status of, the environment and its non-human contents. It is the part of environmental philosophy which considers extending the traditional boundaries of ethics from solely including humans to including the non-human world. It exerts influence on a large range of disciplines including law, sociology, theology, economics, ecology and geography. The practical purpose of environmental ethics is to provide moral grounds for social policies aimed at protecting the earth’s environment and remedying environmental degradation.

The present book makes environmental ethics clear and accessible to those new to the field, but also advances the understanding of those who are the most familiar with it. The book captures environmental philosophy at its current state of development and prepares students and scholars to make further contributions to it. The book is comprehensive, up-to-date and richly interdisciplinary, collecting together economic, biological, religious and philosophical perspectives. It will be a worth reading for all those concerned.” (jacket)