issues

WHAT ARE THEY,

AND WHO SHOULD DECIDE?

Of the financial and intellectual resources devoted to sustainability, most is devoted to developing more efficient uses of natural resources. Could this emphasis be devastatingly misguided? Achieving sustainability requires achieving some relationship between human needs and ecosystem health. How can we achieve sustainability without first knowing what counts as a “human need” or “ecosystem health?” What do these terms mean? Could sustainability be, not so much a technical problem, but primarily an ethical problem - the problem of knowing how we ought to relate to nature? Read more...

IS DOES IT NEED TO BE RECONCILED WITH CONSERVATION ETHICS?

DOES IT RUIN OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH NATURE?

PHYSICAL PLACE OR EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE?

To be or not to be an advocate? This is a fundamental ethical questions for an environmental scientist. The answer defines his or her relationship to society and nature. Debate over the issue seems at a permanent impasse. Prior to our work, there had never been a comprehensive, systematic review of the issue. Through a literature review we catalogued, categorized, and critiqued the arguments used for and against the appropriateness of advocacy by environmental scientists. Read more...

Most think the decision should be based solely on the best-available science. This view, though widespread, is pathologically oversimplified. Certainly, the purview of scientists is to estimate a species’ risk of extinction. But who decides what level of extinction risk is too much, or enough to be endangered. This question is not even a science question. Read more...

IS IT VIRTUOUS OR VULGAR?

We are continuously exposed to messages about imminent and profound environmental crises. But there is hope of averting disaster, if we live sustainably - what ever that means. In this way, hope is treated as a fundamental motivator and virtue for environmental ethics.

What if hope deteriorates motivation to live sustainably? How could this be? And, if we abandon hope, how can we avoid despair? What should motivate sustainable living?

IS DOES IT NEED TO BE RECONCILED WITH CONSERVATION ETHICS?

Among environmental scientists and scholars and segments of the general public, controversy surrounds “wilderness,” its role, its designation, and its very conception. We show that much of the controversy about wilderness may be resolved by more clearly distinguishing and properly relating two kinds of wilderness: experiential wilderness and physical wilderness. We consider how the two kinds of wilderness may be related and even how evolving notions of wilderness may dramatically affect how and why we conduct environmental science of many forms Read more...