Environmental Philosophy and Ethics

15. Sustainable Development

2. Petra Kelly

  • Origins of Green Party, Germany.
  • Die Grünen. West German Greens. Early 1980s.
  • 1983. Gained entry into Parliament.
  • 1998. Formed coalition with Social Democrats.

3. Peter Berg

  • Bioregionalism.
  • Geographic areas having common characteristics of soil, watersheds, climate, and native plants and animals.
  • Ideas about how to live in a place.

4. Kirkpatrick Sale

  • Dwellers in the Land: The Bioregional Vision, 1991.
  • Bioregional cities.
  • Growing food in urban gardens and farm belts
  • Returning waste to the land as compost.

5. Bioregional Versus Industrial Paradigms

6. Gro Harlem Brundtland

  • Sustainable development.
  • Norwegian Prime Minister.
  • United Nations, Our Common Future, 1987.
  • "Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs."

7. Sustainable Netherlands

  • Solar Panels in Netherlands.
  • Environmental space.
  • Sustainable consumption.
  • Limited meat consumption; water use; air transport.

8. Urban Regeneration

  • Local markets; local bus transit.
  • Low-cost, infill housing.
  • Water, bathroom, kitchen upgrades based on conservation of water and energy.

9. Ecoforestry

  • Goals: Beauty, health, and permanence.
  • Productivity as a by-product: clean air, wood, water.
  • Ends over means.
  • Quality over quantity.
  • Working with nature.

10. Agroforestry

  • A sustainable land use system.
  • Crops and trees grown together.
  • Nitrogen-fixation improves soil.
  • Replanting upland watersheds.

11. Community Forestry

  • Communities plant woodlots and fuelwood plantations.
  • School children raise seedlings.
  • Forestry as part of rural development.
  • Conservation and recycling of paper.

12. Soil Management

  • Intensive use of good land; arid tolorant crops on drylands; soil fertility.
  • Crop and grazing rotations; mixed, multiple-croping.
  • Mixing crops and livestock.
  • Green mulch; legumes; animal manures.

13. Aerodynamic Windbreaks

  • Tall trees adjacent to roads.
  • Shrubs next to fields.
  • Small trees in between.
  • Designed to lift wind away from fields.

14. Malawai Waterpump

  • Clean water for village.
  • Gravity piped water rather than bore wells.
  • Village based self-help.
  • Local villagers provide labor.
  • Government provides technicians.

15. Wildlife Conservation

  • Great Blue Heron.
  • New conservation.
  • World Conservation Strategy. (WCS) 1980.
  • Integrated approach to global conservation.
  • Species and populations.

16. Conservation Biology

  • Gray Wolf. Yellowstone National Park.
  • In-situ conservation of ecosystems?plants, animals, and micro-organisms.
  • Scientific research and monitoring of the environment.
  • UNESCO: Man and the Biosphere Programme.

17. Wilderness

  • Protection of habitats as parks and wilderness areas.
  • Large charismatic animals versus unseen natural biota.
  • Partnership with wildlife.

18. ESPM 161 Readings

  • Radical Ecology. C. Merchant (2005) Overview of environmental philosophies and movements.
  • Ecology. ed. C. Merchant (2008). Selections by environmental philosophers and activists.

19. ESPM 161 Course Reader

  • Recent, controversial articles on environmental issues.
  • From the Presocratics to Bill Joy
  • From GMO foods to Julia Butterfly

20. The Global Ecological Crisis leads to Global Revolution: 1970-2050

21. Partnership Ethics: People and Nature

  • The Greatest Good for the Human and Nonhuman Communities is in their Mutual Living Interdependence.

22. Partnership Ethics

  • Equity between the human and nonhuman communities.
  • Moral consideration for both humans and other species.
  • Respect for cultural diversity and biodiversity.
  • Inclusion of women, minorities, and nonhuman nature in the code of ethical accountability.
  • An ecologically sound management that is consistent with the continued health of both the human and nonhuman communities.