Environmental Philosophy: Sustainability, Ethics, Policy If you are looking for recommendations for a one-week module on environmental ethics, please click here. Contemporary environmental ethics, drawing on case studies from philosophy, public policy, and civil society in sustainability, animal welfare, land ethics, wilderness preservation, environmental economics, and resource management. Recurring questions are what fundamentally explains the value of nature and non-human animals, and how to integrate those values into decision-making analyses for society in which competing values may be at stake (such as human nutrition and wellbeing), and in which considerations of justice and sustainability may also loom large. Increasingly, such analyses must dovetail with analyses at a global scale -- for example, at the nexus of food, water, energy, and climate. Thus, values of local vs. global justice are increasingly at the forefront of environmental ethics, as well as concrete questions about the desirability and design of various international institutions. Textbooks Selections from: Roderick Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind (4th ed.) James Salzman and Barton Thompson, Environmental Law and Policy (4th ed.) David Schmidtz and Elizabeth Willott eds., Environmental Ethics (2nd ed.) Readings Section One: The Value of Nature Aldo Leopold, "On Top", "Thinking Like a Mountain", and "Escudilla", in A Sand County Almanac John Muir, "Hetch Hetchy Valley", in Schmidtz and Willott The Sierra Club, "Should We Also Flood the Sistine Chapel So Tourists Can Get Nearer the Ceiling?" Bryan Norton, "The Environmentalists' Dilemma", in Schmidtz and Willott One-Page Handout on Richard Routley's The Last Man Argument Thomas Hill, "Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving Natural Environments", in Schmidtz and Willott Sierra Club v. Morton Christopher Stone, "Should Trees Have Standing? Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects" Freya Mathews, "Letting the World Grow Old: An Ethos of Countermodernity", in Schmidtz and Willott Aldo Leopold, "The Quality of the Landscape", "The Land Ethic", and "Blue River" Peter Singer, "All Animals are Equal", in Schmidtz and Willott Jeff McMahan, "The Meat Eaters", New York Times Val Plumwood, "Being Prey", in Schmidtz and Willott Gary Varner, "Biocentric Individualism", in Schmidtz and Willott Elliott Sober, "Philosophical Problems for Environmentalism", in Schmidtz and Willott Aldo Leopold, "Axe-in-Hand", in A Sand County Almanac Optional: Aldo Leopold Interactive Map, by Dan Styer and the Aldo Leopold Foundation Optional: Lynn White, "The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis", in Schmidtz and Willott Optional: Martin Krieger, "What's Wrong With Plastic Trees?", in Schmidtz and Willott Optional: Elizabeth Anderson, "Animal Rights and the Values of Nonhuman Life", in Sunstein and Nussbaum eds. Animal Rights Optional: David Schmidtz and Elizabeth Willott, "The Last Man and the Search for Objective Value", in Schmidtz and Willott Optional: William Cronon, "The Trouble With Wilderness", New York Times Optional: Christopher Solomon, "Rethinking the Wild", New York Times Optional: Ben Minteer, "The Fall of the Wild? Not Really", Slate Section Two: Sustainability, Catastrophe, and Coercion Garrett Hardin, "The Tragedy of the Commons", Science Elizabeth Willott, "Recent Population Trends", in Schmidtz and Willott Elinor Ostrom, selections from Governing the Commons David Schmidtz, "The Institution of Property", in Schmidtz and Willott Carol Rose, "Liberty, Property, Environmentalism", in Schmidtz and Willott Robert Solow, "Sustainability: An Economist's Perspective" Mark Sagoff, "Do We Consume Too Much?", in Schmidtz and Willott Jon Christensen, "Are We Consuming Too Much?", Conservation Boomer v. Atlantic Cement Co. Stewart Udall, "The Last Traffic Jam: Too Many Cars, Too Little Oil. An Argument for the Proposition that 'Less Is More'", The Atlantic Optional: Kenneth Arrow et. al., "Are We Consuming Too Much?", Journal of Economic Perspectives Optional: The Millenium Ecosystem Assessment, World Resources Institute Optional: Dan Shahar, "Free-Market Environmentalism Pace Environmentalism", in Schmidtz and Willott Optional: Elinor Ostrom, "A General Framework for Analyzing Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems", Science Section Three: Justice, Globalization, Ecofeminism, and the Environment Aldo Leopold, "Wilderness", in A Sand County Almanac Ramachandra Guha, "Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A Third World Critique", in Schmidtz and Willott Kristin Shrader-Frechette, "Environmental Justice: Creating Equality, Reclaiming Democracy", in Schmidtz and Willott Karen Warren, "The Power and Promise of Ecological Feminism", in Schmidtz and Willott Michael Sandel, "It's Immoral to Buy the Right to Pollute", New York Times Robert Stavins, Steven Shavell, Sanford Gaines, Eric Maskin, Replies to Michael Sandel on buying the right to pollute, New York Times Larry Summers and Lant Pritchett, memo on toxic waste and least developed countries Debra Satz, "Summers, Sandel, and Egalitarian Theories of the Moral Limits of Markets", pp. 79-84, 94-98, and 109-110 of Why Some Things Should Not be For Sale David Keith, selections from A Case for Climate Engineering Peter Singer, "Famine, Affluence, and Morality", in Schmidtz and Willott John Broome, "The Ethics of Climate Change", Scientific American Peter Singer, "One Atmosphere", in One World Cass Sunstein, selections from Laws of Fear: Beyond the Precautionary Principle Optional: Historical Temperature Change Video from berkeleyearth.org Optional: Interactive Data on Carbon Emissions and the Carbon Cycle from globalcarbonatlas.org Optional: William Nordhaus, "Summary for the Concerned Citizen" in A Question of Balance Optional: Thomas Schelling, "Notes on Personal Ranking [of Proposed Responses to Climate Change]", in Lomborg ed. Smart Solutions to Climate Change Optional: Thomas Schelling, "The Cost of Combating Global Warming: Facing the Tradeoffs", Foreign Affairs Optional: Stephen Gardiner, "A Perfect Moral Storm: Climate Change, Intergenerational Ethics, and the Problem of Corruption", in Schmidtz and Willott Section Four: From Environmental Philosophy to Policy and Activism James Salzman and Barton Thompson, selections from Environmental Law and Policy (4th ed.) Kenneth Arrow et. al., "Is There a Role for Benefit-Cost Analysis in Environmental, Health, and Safety Regulation?", Science Robert Solow, Reply to Steven Kelman on cost-benefit analysis, American Enterprise Institute Journal Handout on Assumptions of Economic Models and Various CBA Methodologies David Schmidtz, "A Place for Cost-Benefit Analysis", in Schmidtz and Willott Martha Nussbaum, "The Costs of Tragedy: Some Moral Limits of Cost-Benefit Analysis", in Schmidtz and Willott Nicholas Muller and Robert Mendelsohn, selections from Using Marginal Damages in Environmental Policy, AEI Press. Lynn Scarlett, "Choices, Consequences, and Cooperative Conservation: A New Environmentalism?", in Schmidtz and Willott David Schmidtz, "Natural Enemies: An Anatomy of Environmental Conflict", in Schmidtz and Willott Scott Barrett, "The Montreal Protocol" and "Tipping Treaties", in Environment and Statecraft Aldo Leopold, "Adventures of a Conservation Commissioner", in The River of the Mother of God John Mackey et al, "The CEO as Animal Activist: John Mackey and Whole Foods", in Singer ed. In Defense of Animals Peter Singer, "Pushing the Peanut Forward", in Ethics into Action: Henry Spira and the Animal Rights Movement Environmental Working Group, Food Scores app and website Paul Watson, "Tora! Tora! Tora!", in Schmidtz and Willott Edward Abbey, selections from The Monkey Wrench Gang Bruce Babbitt, selections from Cities in the Wilderness
Optional: Derek Parfit, "Energy Policy and the Further Future: The Identity Problem" Optional: Kate Rawles, "The Missing Shade of Green", in Schmidtz and Willott |