Volume 3, No. 1, Spring 1992

General Announcements

The Central American Philosophical Association meets in Louisville, KY April 24-25, 1991. There will be two ISEE sessions, the first Friday, April 24, 7.30 p.m. - 9.30 p.m., a critical analysis of Max Oelschlaeger's new book, THE IDEA OF WILDERNESS FROM PREHISTORY TO THE PRESENT (Yale University Press, see ISEE Newsletter, Winter, 1990, p. 10). Commentators will include Holmes Rolston and Eugene Hargrove, with a response by Oelschlaeger. Chair of the session will be Laura Westra. The annual business meeting of ISEE will be held immediately following this session.

The Second Session, of contributed papers, will be Saturday, April 25, 7.00 p.m. - 9.00 p.m. The papers are Ned Hettinger, College of Charleston, SC, "Bambi Lovers vs. Tree Huggers: Are Environmentalists Plant Chauvinists: Must Animal Activists Hate Nature?" (a critique of Holmes Rolston); Vincent Medina, Seton Hall University, South Orange, N. J., "The Nature of Environmental Values," Peter S. Wenz, Sangamon State University, "Shaking the Land Ethic's Foundations," and William Vitek, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY, "Aristotle and Agriculture: Outlines of an Environmental Ethics." There will also be a session on "Animals and Virtue Ethics," chaired by Stephen Toulmin, organized by Jack Weir.


ISEE will hold joint sessions with the Canadian Society for the Study of Practical Ethics at the Learned Societies Meeting at the University of Prince Edward Island, May 27 and 30. The Session on May 27 is on the theme aboriginal claims and land use decisions. Speakers: Morning Session: Joe Naylor (Kwantien), "The Environmentalist's Rejection of Aesthetic Value"; Mora Campbell (Dalhousie) and Eric Higgs (Alberta), "Confusing the Map with the Territory: An Examination of the Legacy of Landscape Representation"; Elizabeth Trott (Ryerson), "Education and Northern Peoples"; Terry Mitchell (OISE), "Community Development and Aboriginal Self-Determination: Examining the Role of Outsiders." Afternoon session: Wendy Donner (Carleton), "Animal Rights and the Case of Native Hunters"; Bruce Morito, Guelph, "Animal Rights: A Conciliatory Concept"; Paul Viminitz (McMaster), "Aboriginal Entitlement and the Dropping of Gaulthier's Noncoercion Condition." The May 30 program also includes a paper by Christopher Lind (Saskatchewan), "When the System Farms the Farmers: What Can We Do about the Saskatchewan Farm Crisis?" Contact: Peter Miller, Department of Philosophy, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Canada R3B 2E9.

ISEE will hold a session at the World Congress on Violence and Human Coexistence, July 13-17 in Montreal. The panel will focus on Ecofeminism and Environmental Violence. Panelists include Mary Mahowald, Michael Fox, Marti Kheel, David Rothenberg and Laura Westra. This is the first francophone session of ISEE, organized by members Philippe CrabbÇ, Director of the Institute for Research on Environment and Economics (IREE), Ottawa University, and JosÇ Prades, University of Quebec at Montreal. Contact: IIe Congräs mondial sur la violence et la coexistence humaine, UniversitÇ de MontrÇal, C. P. 6128, Succursale A, MontrÇal, QuÇbec, Canada H3C 3J7.

The ISEE session at the Pacific American Philosophical Association, March 25-28 at Portland, Oregon, March 25-28 were: Franklin Kalinowki, St. Lawrence University, "On the Significance of Aldo Leopold's Being a Hunter," with commentary by Susan Armstrong, Humboldt State University; Pamela Courteney Hall, University of Toronto, "A Critical Topography of Eco-holism"; David Abram, SUNY, Stony Brook, "A World Alive: The Ecological Role of the Shaman in Traditional Cultures." The moderator was Ernest Partridge, Department of Philosophy, California State University, Fullerton.

The ISEE session at the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, in Chicago, February 6-11 (see newsletter, Winter 91), was attended by over 70 persons. One spinoff was that Laura Westra, Henry Regier, and David Carroll were interviewed for a Canadian television program by David Suzuki representatives.

ISEE is in process of organizing a session at the AAAS in Boston, February 1993, on "The Scientific Basis of Environmental Ethics," with Kristin Shrader-Frechette in charge. Laura Westra any Amy Crumpton are organizing a session on codes of ethics in science, which will include biological codes, forestry codes, agricultural codes, codes in toxicology, and animal welfare codes.

The ISEE session at the American Catholic Philosophical Association, San Diego, March 27, included Ken Schmitz, Trinity College, University of Toronto, Thomas Berry, Bronx, NY, and Bill Devall, Humboldt State University. The moderator was Laura Westra.

In general the annual deadlines for paper submissions for the three ISEE sessions regularly held at the three divisional American Philosophical Association meetings are: Eastern Division, March 1
Central Division, January 1
Pacific Division, January 1

At the recent Second International Conference on Ethics and Environmental Policies at the University of Georgia, April 5-7, the papers were: Corrado Poli, "The Political Consequences of an Environmental Question"; Frank Golley, "Grounding Environmental Ethics in Ecological Science"; Elizabeth Dodson Gray, "Come Inside the Circle of Creation: The Ethic of Attunement"; Holmes Rolston, III, "Can and Ought Humans to Lose in Environmental Ethics?"; Udo Simonis, "Toward a Houston Protocol: How to Allocate CO2 Emission Reductions Between North and South"; Yu-Shi Mao, "The Evolution of Environmental Ethics: A Chinese Perspective"; Ignazio Musu, "Efficiency and Equity in Intergenerational Environmental Cooperation"; Kristin Shrader-Frechette, "A Apologia for Activism: Global Responsibility, Ethical Advocacy, and Environmental Problems"; Gary Varner, "Environmental Law and the Eclipse of Private Property"; Erazim Kohak, "Red War, Green Peace"; Alastair Gunn, "Can Environmental Ethics Save the World?"; J. Baird Callicott, "How Post-Modern Technology Might Translate Ecophilosophy into Practice."


A Chinese academic conference on natural resources and social development was held in Harbin, January 8-11, 1992. This was the first academic conference involving ecological philosophy since 1949. The conference was jointly sponsored by the Geophilosophy Committee in the Chinese Society for the Dialectics of Nature, the Hei Long Jiang Province Society for the Dialectics of Nature, the Ecophilosophy Research Department in Northeast Forestry University, and Harbin Retrieving (= Recycling) Company-General. There were 56 delegates to the meeting, who came from the Northeast Forestry University Research Office, the Environment- Preserve Department, and the Retrieving Company. There were some sixty academic articles presented.

Delegates at the meeting cited numerous facts demonstrating a grim situation confronting environmentalism in China. Ye Ping, Northeast Forestry University, introduced the work of the International Society of Environmental Ethics and reported on the visit of Holmes Rolston to Beijing in October 1991. There was discussion of green products and green markets as this applied to Chinese production, to environmental managers, especially as regards developing non-waste technology, non-polluting products, and recycling materials. Theoretical questions hotly debated were: By what mechanisms do the biosphere and ecosystems actually operate influencing social development? Is the society of human beings also secondarily a biospheric system? Is human society a subsystem of the biosphere, or does it operate in independence of the biosphere? What is the object of study of ecophilosophy? What relation does ecophilosophy have with Marxism and with ecology? Is environmental ethics identical with ecophilosophy? What is the theoretical basis of environmental ethics and what is its logical foundation? What is the role of anthropocentrism? Are there wildlife values that are independent of human beings? Liu Gocheng, professor of ecophilosophy in the Ecophilosophy Research Department of Northeast Forestry University (150040 Harbin, P.R. CHINA) was chair of the conference, with Ye Ping, Social Science Department, Northeast Forestry University, as commentator. See below for recent articles on environmental ethics in China.

An international seminar, "Ethics and Environment: The Dimensions of Dialogue," was held at the University of Oslo, Norway, March 26-28, with speakers from many countries, including Kristin Shrader-Frechette, University of South Florida at Tampa.

A Carrying Capacity Network has been established to promote a broad exchange of information on the limits of growth, population trends, resource conservation, and consumption levels. Founders note that the U. S. population is increasing by three million a year, the world's fastest growing industrial nation. Contact: Dale Didion, 1325 G Street, NW, Suite 1003, Washington, DC 20005- 3104. Phone 800/466-4866. (Thanks to Mary McAfee.)

The Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society, at the Hagley Museum, Wilmington, DE, is sponsoring a series of nine lectures, "The Environment and the Industrialized World," in March, April, and May. Speakers include John Opie, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Carolyn Merchant, University of California, Berkeley, and Mark Sagoff, Institute of Philosophy and Public Policy, University of Maryland. Contact: Hagley Museum and Library, P. O. Box 3630, Wilmington, DE 19807.

The Oxford Centre for the Environment, Ethics and Society is being formed at Mansfield College, Oxford. The Centre is to be both an integral part of the University and a focus for international research. It will be concerned with environmental issues as they relate to ethics and society, involving the exploration of the interconnections between the environment and the disciplines of economics, politics, law, human geography, philosophy, and religion. The initial staff is planned as a director and three research officers, with provision for visiting fellows.

A workshop, comprising county planning authorities, environmental and animal welfare campaigners, and professors of genetics, ecology, planning, and philosophy, was held at the University of Kent at Canterbury Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology from January 9-11, 1991, on the theme, "Decision Making and the Environment." The organizers included Robin Attfield, Adrian Darby, James Griffin, Wendy Le Las and Ian Swingland, Director of DICE. The method of "comprehensive weighting" propounded in VALUES, CONFLICT, AND THE ENVIRONMENT was applied to road-building proposals across a rare habitat in Dorset, England. Despite initial skepticism, the members of the workshop concluded, by a large majority, that comprehensive weighting was both intellectually satisfactory and capable of implementation, and thus in need of further research.

Bruce K. Omundson, Humanities Department, Lansing Community College, Box 40010, Lansing, MI 48901-7210, is this spring completing a Ph.D. dissertation entitled: MORAL PLURALISM, NONSENTIENT NATURE, AND SUSTAINABLE WAYS OF LIFE at Michigan State University. His advisor is Martin Benjamin.

ISEE will hold a joint meeting with the Society for Conservation Biology, June 28-July 2, 1992, at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA. The Society for Conservation Biologists is the largest world-wide organization of conservation biologists, with over 4000 members. Attendance is expected to exceed 500. The ISEE joint program will include one session on "Facts and Values in Conservation Biology" and a roundtable on "Environmental Ethics and Conservation Biology."
Contact: Jack Weir, ISEE-SCB Program Chair, Department of Philosophy, UPO Box 0662, Morehead State University, Morehead, KY 40351. Phone 606/784-0046. Fax 606/783-2678. Another contact is Bryan G. Norton, Georgia Institute of Technology, Fax 404/853- 0535.

The School of Philosophy of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil, in cooperation with the Center for the Advancement of Applied Ethics, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, will hold the "International Conference on Ethics, University and Environment," May 24-29, in conjunction with UNCED in Rio de Janeiro. The conference will be in Porto Alegre, a coastal city about 800 miles south of Rio de Janeiro, and the capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Participants include Dr. JosÇ Lutzenberger, Secretary of State for Environment in Brazil, JosÇ Goldenberg, Minister of Education, Brazil, Maurice Strong from the United Nations, Dr. Jean-Pierre Dupuis from France, Holmes Rolston and J. Baird Callicott from the United States, Andrew Brennan from the United Kingdom (and Australia), Laura Westra from Canada, Robert Spaermann, Germany. The conference organizer is Dr. Fernando Jose R. Da Rocha. Contact: Professor Fernando Jose R. da Rocha, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Goncalves, 9500 - Campus do Vale, 91500 Porto Alegre, RS, BRAZIL. Fax: 55 (512) 36.17.62. A U. S. contact is Peter Madsen at Carnegie Mellon, 412/268-5703.

The Third International Conference on Ethics and Development will be held at the Universidas Nacional Autonoma de Honduras, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, June 21-27, 1992. Sponsored by the International Development Ethics Association (IDEA), the theme of the meeting is "The Ethics of Ecodevelopment: Culture, the Environment, and Dependency." This conference follows UNCED in Rio de Janeiro, about a week later. Contact David A. Crocker, IDEA, Department of Philosophy, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, CO 80523. Fax 303/491-0528. Telephone 303/484-5764.

Holmes Rolston has been named University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University, in recognition of his work in environmental ethics.

Patricia Werhane, Loyola University in Chicago, and the Society for Business Ethics invite the ISEE to cosponsor with them a special issue of the BUSINESS ETHICS QUARTERLY, March 1993, devoted to "Business and the Environment." ISEE members and others are encouraged to submit papers, from which about five will be selected for publication in this theme issue. Send papers and address inquiries to Laura Westra, Department of Philosophy, University of Windsor, address below.

THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL OF INDIA will publish a special 1993 issue on "Environmental Ethics and Power of Place." Article proposals should be submitted to Professor Rana P. B. Singh, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL OF INDIA, No. B29/12A Lanka, Varanasi, U. P. 221005, India.

THE GENE EXCHANGE is available for free and contains much information on biotechnology, testing, regulations, pressure groups, business activities. Margaret Mellon is the editor. Contact: National Wildlife Federation, National Biotechnology Policy Center, 1400 16th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036.

SOCIETY AND ANIMALS, a new journal published by Psychologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PSYeta), will feature social scientific studies of the human experience of other animals. The inaugural issue will be published Winter 1993. Papers are invited for this and subsequent issues. Contact: Kenneth Shapiro, Editor, SOCIETY AND ANIMALS, P. O. Box 87, New Gloucester, ME 04260. Phone and Fax 207/926-4817.

ON THE OTHER HAND (C DRUGOI STORONI), an English language newsletter of events, activities, reviews, and opinion from the Russian environmental community, has published its first issue, and is soliciting subscriptions. The Newsletter is sponsored by the Socio-Ecological Union, a citizen-based environmental federation based in Moscow, and the EcoSocium Research Group of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The Russian editor is Anton Struchkov of the Academy of Sciences, and the United States editor is Ernest Partridge of the University of California, Riverside. For inquiries and subscriptions, contact Dr. Partridge at the UCR Philosophy Department, Riverside, CA 92521-0201. The annual subscription (five issues) is $ 10 for individuals and $ 20 for organizations.

ENVIRONMENTAL VALUES, a newly launched British-based journal, has published the first issue, volume 1, no. 1, Spring 1992. Alan Holland, Philosophy, Lancaster University, is the editor. The articles in the opening issue are: David Pearce (Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment, University College, London), "Green Economics"; Andrew Brennan (Philosophy, University of Western Australia, Perth), "Moral Pluralism and the Environment"; Mary E. Clark (Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia), "Tasks for Future Ecologists"; Steven Luper-Foy (Philosophy, Trinity University, San Antonio), "Justice and Natural Resources"; Crispin Tickell (Green College, Oxford), "The Quality of Life: What Quality? Whose Life?." There are reviews of ten recent books in the field. Contributed articles for future issues should be sent to Alan Holland, Department of Philosophy, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YG, U.K. Subscriptions to The White Horse Press, 1 Strond, Isle of Harris, Scotland PA83 3UD. In addition to individuals who may wish to subscribe, this new journal belongs in college and university libraries, as well as in many agency libraries, and your librarian may need a reminder to subscribe.

Michael P. Nelson, a Ph. D. candidate at the University of Colorado, Boulder, presented a paper, "The Paradox of Individual Concern," at the International Forum of Biophilosophy Conference, Stability and Change in Nature: Ecological and Cultural Dimensions, in Budapest, Hungary, March 16-18. Individualistic ethics stresses that the proper object of moral concern is the individual. But this traditional route of ethics is not only environmentally negligent, it is also paradoxical. A solution lies in the land ethic of Aldo Leopold.

The Annual Business Meeting and Election of Officers will be held this year at the Central Division APA in Louisville, KY, on Friday, April 24, 9.30 p.m., following the ISEE session that evening (see earlier). The Nominations Committee is making the following recommendations this year: President: Holmes Rolston, III, term to expire spring 1994 Vice-President: Eric Katz, 1994
Secretary, Laura Westra, 1995
Treasurer, Peter Miller, 1993
The Nominations committee also recommends a constitutional change to separate the office of President from the Editorship of the Newsletter.

Members of the Nominations Committee are: Jack Weir, Chair (Department of Philosophy, UPO Box 0662, Morehead State University, Morehead, KY 40351, phone 606/784-0046, fax 606/783- 2678), Kristin Shrader-Frechette (Department of Philosophy, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620-5550, phone 813/974- 2447), George Sessions (Department of Humanities, Sierra College, Rocklin, CA 95667, phone 916/624-3333, Department of Humanities, ext. 2264, office), Robin Attfield (Philosophy Section, University of Wales, P. O. Box 94, Cardiff CF1 3XE, United Kingdom, phone (0222) 874025, fax (0222) 371921. Members represent Eastern, Central, and Pacific Divisions of APA, and an International member. This committee will continue in 1993, when, pending the outcome of the April business meeting, only one officer (Miller) may need to be replaced.

A full financial statement will be presented at the Louisville business meeting. In summary (US $) for the calendar year 1991: Income: $ 3,231, almost all from dues, a few donations. Expenses: $ 3,185, of which $ 2,610 went to print and mail the newsletter. Net $ 46.00 There is also about $200 Canadian held in a Canadian account, controlled by Peter Miller, treasurer. There is about 350 pounds sterling in a UK account, currently in transition, formerly controlled by Andrew Brennan, and about $ 140 Australian in an Australian account, controlled by Robert Elliot. These accounts are used for the distribution of the newsletter in those countries.

Robert Elliot is the contact person for Australia and New Zealand. Send membership forms and dues in amount $ 15.00 Australian ($ 7.50 for students) to him. Address: Department of Philosophy, University of New England, Armidale, N.S. W. 2351, Australia. Telephone (087) 7333. Fax (067) 73 3122.

Members and others are encouraged to submit appropriate items for the newsletter to Holmes Rolston, Department of Philosophy, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, who is editing this newsletter. Phone 303/491-5328 (office) or 491-6315 (philosophy office) or 484-5883 (home). Fax: 303-491-4900, 24 hours. Please note the new fax number, although the previous one is still operational. News may also be submitted to Laura Westra, Department of Philosophy, University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada N9B 3P4, and Canadian news is best directed to her. Items may also be submitted to other members of the Governing Board. Include the name of an appropriate contact person, where relevant and possible. International items are especially welcomed. The Newsletter is assembled shortly after January 1, April 1, July 1, October 1.


Jobs in Environmental Ethics, Philosophy, Policy, and Conservation

Potsdam College of the State University of New York has listed a faculty position in the School of Liberal Studies in philosophy, "requiring competence in the philosophy of science, environmental ethics, and logic." See CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, October 9, 1991, B17. Contact Chairperson, Search Committee for Philosophy, Potsdam College, Potsdam, NY 13676.

The State University of New York, College at Oneonta, listed a faculty position in philosophy in "applied ethics and/or feminist philosophy" with "preference for an individual who can address issues in bio-medical, environmental, and/or professional ethics."
See CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, December 4, 1991. Contact: Vice-President for Multicultural Affairs, State University of New York, College of Oneonta, Oneonta, NY 13820-4015.

Northland College, Ashland, WI, listed a faculty position as follows: Senior teacher/scholar as the first holder of the Hulings Distinguished Chair in the Humanities. The holder of the chair is expected to give academic and scholarly leadership to the environmental ethics dimension of Northland's mission and curriculum. Northland College is located on the south shore of Lake Superior.

There have been at least seven positions advertised in the 1991-92 academic calendar year with mention of specialization in environmental ethics, with four of these positions now filled. Announcements forthcoming. See Winter, 1991 newsletter for earlier positions. Positions have been at the University of North Texas, Denton; the University of Colorado; the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark; Potsdam College of the State University of New York, Potsdam; State University of New York, College of Oneonta; Northland College, Ashland, WI; Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA.

THE JOB SEEKER lists current vacancies in the environmental professions. It is now in its fifth year. There are two issues per month, typically about 18 pages in rather small print, listing over a hundred jobs. The editor is Becky Potter. Subscriptions are $84 per year for organizations and $60 for individuals. Career offices should be getting it. Address: The Job Seeker, Rt. 2, Box 16, Warrens, WI 54666. Phone 608/378-4920.

ENVIRONMENTAL OPPORTUNITIES, a monthly publication listing jobs open in environmental affairs, has recently celebrated its tenth year of publication. The editor is Sanford Berry, Box 4957, Arcata, CA 95521, Phone 707/839-4640, Fax 707/822-7727. $ 44.00 per year. The publication is sponsored by the Environmental Studies Department, Antioch/New England Graduate School, Keene, New Hampshire 03431. The editorial and subscription address is the Arcata, CA address. This is the most thorough listing, typically fifteen pages a month, but THE JOB SEEKER is quite good. ENVIRONMENTAL OPPORTUNITIES has about 4,000 subscribers, and can be found in many placement and career service offices. If you are at an academic institution, encourage your school to get one or more copies.

ENVIRONMENTAL JOB OPPORTUNITIES, formerly published by Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison, has ceased publication.
The National Association of Interpreters, P. O. Box 1892, Ft. Collins, CO 80522, offers a dial/tape listing service. Phone 301/491-7410 any time for listings of full-time, seasonal, temporary jobs. Phone 303/491-6434 after office hours or all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for listings of internships. Photocopies of listings available for $ 3.00.

WOMEN IN NATURAL RESOURCES is a two page newsletter-flyer published quarterly and available from Women in Natural Resources, Bowers Laboratory, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho 83843. Phone 208/885-6754. The newsletter features job announcements.

See also COMPLETE GUIDE TO ENVIRONMENTAL CAREERS, Island Press, Washington, D. C. and Covelo, CA, 1989, described in ISEE Newsletter, Spring 1990.

The Green Corps, a field school for environmental organizing, has 45 salaried training positions for college, university, and law school graduates available summer/fall 1992. These are training positions to organize field campaigns on pressing environmental issues. Some examples are: leading consumer boycotts of corporations engaged in rainforest destruction, organizing state coalitions to fight for a tougher Clean Water Act, assisting campus environmental groups in establishing green campus programs. Gina Collins is director. Contact: Green Corps, National Office, 3507 Lancaster Avenue, Philadelphia PA 19104. Phone 215/382-2522.


Recent Books, Articles, and Other Materials

Reminder: the main journals in the field are NOT regularly indexed here, such as ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS, THE TRUMPETER, BETWEEN THE SPECIES, etc.

--Bryan G. Norton, TOWARD UNITY AMONG ENVIRONMENTALISTS. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. Norton wants to unite environmentalists in the common cause of environmental protection and appreciation, even though the many environmentalists and environmental groups may have multiple and varied value systems. Despite diverging worldviews, there can be converging policies (the title of a concluding chapter). There are historical chapter studies of Muir, Pinchot, and Leopold, and issue chapters: growth, pollution, biodiversity, and land use, illustrating this thesis. Norton is professor of philosophy at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

--Nicol_s M. Sosa, êTICA ECOLGICA: NECESIDAD, POSIBILIDAD, JUSTIFICATIN Y DEBATE. Madrid: Libertarias/Prodhufi, S.A., 1990. Publisher's address: Calle de LÇrida, 80-82, 28020 Madrid, Spain.
150 pages, paperback. This is the first book in Spanish to treat environmental problems from the standpoint of ethics (see Newsletter, Winter, 1991). More details are now available. Chapter titles: The concept of ecology; social ecology; analysis of the ecological crisis; birth of the ecological conscience, antecedents of environmental ethics; the Club of Rome and work during the 1970's, worldwide meetings and conferences, work during the 1980's; animals and future generations, interests and values, the debate over anthropocentrism, the necessity, possibility, and justification of an environmental ethic. An appendix deals with religious foundations of an environmental ethic. There is also a bibliography. Sosa is professor of moral and political philosophy at the University of Salamanca, Spain.

--David E. Cooper and Joy A. Palmer, THE ENVIRONMENT IN QUESTION: ETHICS AND GLOBAL ISSUES. London: Routledge, 1992. 272 pages. Paper $ 16.95, cloth $49.95. Includes contributions from the U.S., India, Australia, as well as from the U.K. Studies on nuclear wastes, rainforests, obligations to future generations, and the nature of technological risk. More detail later. Cooper is professor of philosophy, Palmer is lecturer in education, at the University of Durham.

--David W. Orr, ECOLOGICAL LITERACY: EDUCATION AND THE TRANSITION TO A POSTMODERN WORLD. Albany: State University Press of New York, 1992. $29.95 hardcover, $14.95 paper. What schools, colleges, and universities can do to help in the transition to an ecologically sustainable world.

--Ralph D. Nyland, "Exploitation and Greed in Eastern Hardwood Forests: Will Foresters Get Another Chance?" JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 90 (no. 1, January 1992):33-37. Nyland is professor, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY.

--William A. Duerr, "Forestry's Upheaval," JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 84 (no. 1, January 1986):20-26. Advances in Western civilization are redefining the profession. "What matters is not biological but social renewability. ... The public forest preserved from logging is timber used up, just as really as though the land had been cleared and paved with asphalt." In the future, "in recreation, emphasis on wilderness will be softened in favor of less elitist resources." Duerr was Distinguished Professor of Forestry, State University of New York, Syracuse, and has more recently been at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg.

--Raymond S. Craig, "Further Development of a Land Ethic Canon," JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 90 (no. 1, January 1992):30-31. Craig is chair of the Society of American Foresters Committee on Ethics.

--John Baden, "Spare that Tree!" FORBES, December 9, 1991. Under the U. S. Forest Service, Washington is managing the national forests in ways that are both economically and environmentally unsound.

--Thomas Palmer, "The Case for Human Beings," ATLANTIC MONTHLY, January 1992. Apprehension about the disappearance of animal or plant species may be misplaced, a naturalist argues, and may arise out of a mistaken and shortsighted view of the evolutionary process. "To suppose that earthly diversity is past its prime, and that a strenuous program of self-effacement is the best contribution our species has left to offer, is neither good biology nor good history." HOMO SAPIENS has begun to see itself as a vast, featureless mob of yahoos mindlessly trampling this planet's most ancient and delicate harmonies. Maybe, we're being too hard on ourselves.

--Charles C. Mann and Mark L. Plummer, "The Butterfly Problem," ATLANTIC MONTHLY, January 1992. Grounded in "the Noah principle"- -the view shared by many conservationists that all species have a right to exist--the Endangered Species Act insists that we attempt to save every threatened species. This inflexibility has now become economically untenable. Because the government does not have the means to preserve endangered species, let alone a coherent plan, its decisions are haphazard. Private landowners often find themselves paying for the preservation of species they never heard of.

--Suzanne Winckler, "Stopgap Measures," ATLANTIC MONTHLY, January 1992. The extinction of any species is a tragedy, but the time has come to introduce the idea of triage into conservation efforts. Instead of spending millions of dollars to save a few "terminally ill" species, we should promote biodiversity more broadly by protecting the health of whole ecosystems. To pretend that we are acting to save everything is intellectually dishonest. It turns the hard choices over to the forces of litigation and bureaucratic inertia.

--George J. Mitchell, WORLD ON FIRE: SAVING AN ENDANGERED EARTH. New York: Scribner's, 1991. $22.50.

--Edward Goldsmith, Nicholas Hilhard, Patrick McCully, and Peter Bunyard, IMPERILED PLANET: RESTORING OUR ENDANGERED ECOSYSTEMS. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990. $39.95.

--Stephen H. Schneider, GLOBAL WARMING: ARE WE ENTERING THE GREENHOUSE CENTURY? San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1989. $18.95.

--George M. Woodwell, eds., THE EARTH IN TRANSITION: PATTERS AND PROCESSES OF BIOTIC IMPOVERISHMENT. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990. $49.50.

--Lynton Keith Caldwell, BETWEEN TWO WORLDS: SCIENCE, THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT AND POLICY CHOICE. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990. $ 44.50.

--G. P. Buckley, ed., BIOLOGICAL HABITAT RECONSTRUCTION. Belhaven, 1989. $52.50.

--Donald Worster, ed., THE ENDS OF THE EARTH: PERSPECTIVES ON MODERN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988. $ 39.50 hardback. $ 12.95 paper.

--Robert S. Corrington, NATURE AND SPIRIT: AN ESSAY IN ECSTATIC NATURALISM. Bronx, NY: Fordham University Press, 1992. 225 pages. $30.00 cloth, $ 19.95 paper. An enlarged conception of nature that calls for a transformed naturalism. The spirit operates within a fragmented nature and has its own unique locations. Ecstatic naturalism does not eulogize spirit nor impose a process theodicy upon nature as a whole but carefully describes the ways in which spirit emerges from finite locations in the world. Corrington is professor of philosophical theology at Drew University.

--ANIMAL AND THEIR LEGAL RIGHTS. 4th edition, 1990. Washington, DC: Animal Welfare Institute, 1990. Fifteen articles and an appendix with the principal laws affording animal welfare.

--David S. Favre and Murray Loring, ANIMAL LAW. Westport, CT: Quorum Books, 1983.

--Marcelle P. Chase, "Animal Rights: An Interdisciplinary, Selective Bibliography," LAW LIBRARY JOURNAL 82(1990):359-389. Chase is international law librarian, Arizona State University College of Law, Tempe.

--Calvin B. DeWitt, ed., THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE CHRISTIAN: WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT? Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1991. 156 pages. Paper.

--Dieter T. Hessel, ed., AFTER NATURE'S REVOLT: ECO-JUSTICE AND THEOLOGY. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992. Includes John B. Cobb, Jr., "Postmodern Christianity in Quest of Eco-Justice"; Larry Rasmussen, "Returning to Our Senses: The Theology of the Cross as a Theology for Eco-Justice"; H. Paul Santmire, "Healing the Protestant Mind: Beyond the Theology of Human Dominion"; Heidi Hadsell, "Eco-Justice and Liberation Theology: The Priority of Human Well-Being"; George H. Kehm, "The New Story: Redemption as Fulfillment of Creation"; William E. Gibson, "Global Warming as a Theological Ethical Concern"; Holmes Rolston, III, "Wildlife and Wildlands: A Christian Perspective"; George E. Tinker, "Creation as Kin: An American Indian View"; Carol Johnston, "Economics, Eco- Justice, and the Doctrine of God"; Philip Hefner, "Nature's History as Our History: A Proposal for Spirituality."

--Robert C. Fuller, ECOLOGY OF CARE: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY ANALYSIS OF THE SELF AND MORAL OBLIGATION. How caring is the key to human and world survival. Philadelphia: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992. Paper $ 12.95.
--Catharina J. M. Halkes, CHRISTIAN FEMINISM AND THE RENEWAL OF THE EARTH. Philadelphia: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992. The false and catastrophically damaging images at the root of the oppression of women and the rape of Earth's resources. The complex linkage between feminist theology and the environmental movement.

--Richard Brandt, "Soviet Environment Slips Down the Agenda," SCIENCE, January 3, 1992. Environmentalism is strong in the new republics, but most people are more worried about sausages than pollution. The former Soviet Republic contains some of the worst environmental disasters known on Earth (as well as some of the most pristine regions remaining. People are muting their conservation concerns and protests against pollution and environmental degradation to give economic reform a chance. An October conference involving U. S. and Soviet scientists was titled, "The Social, Political, and Cultural Dimensions of the Environmental Crisis in the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.

--Robert D. Bullard, PEOPLE OF COLOR ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS: DIRECTORY, 1992. 81 pages. There are over 200 such groups in the United States, described here. Contact: Robert D. Bullard, Department of Sociology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521. Phone 714/787-5444.

--E. C. Pielou, AFTER THE ICE AGE: THE RETURN OF LIFE TO GLACIATED NORTH AMERICA. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991. 366 pages. Vegetation responds slowly to climatic change, and "if climate changes continuously, as it appears to, then vegetation may never succeed in catching up with it. ... Plant (and animal) communities are in disequilibrium, continually adjusting to climate and continually lagging behind and failing to achieve equilibrium before the onset of a new climatic trend.

This opinion is not universal. ... [Others think that] vegetation and climate are at present in equilibrium [though] ancient communities had what appear to us to be mismatched mixtures of species as disharmonious. The implication is that modern mixtures are harmonious. The argument in favor of this view is that climate changes in stepwise fashion and the last step was taken a long time ago; therefore, because the climate has not changed appreciably for a long time, vegetation has by now had time to come into equilibrium with it.

There is a wealth of evidence, however, showing that climatic change is never ending. Even if major climatic steps are comparatively quick, it is almost certain that the climate in the intervals between steps undergoes continual lesser changes. In the light of present knowledge, therefore, ... [the view that] disequilibrium in ecological communities is much commoner than equilibrium is the more acceptable.

It should lead, in time, to a much needed change in popular thought. The notion espoused by so many nonprofessional ecologists--that the living world is `marvelously' and `delicately' attuned to its environment--is not so much a scientifically reasonable theory as a mystically satisfying dogma. Its abandonment might lead to a useful fresh start in environmental politics" (pp. 100-101).

--Conrad Brunk, Lawrence Haworth, and Brenda Lee, "Is Scientific Assessment of Risk Possible? Value Assumptions in the Canadian Alachlor Controversy," DIALOGUE (Canadian Philosophical Review), 30 (no. 3, Summer 1991):235-248. The issue is devoted to applied ethics.

--Wade Graham, "MexEco?: Mexican Attitudes toward the Environment," ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY REVIEW 15, no. 4, Winter 1991.

--Yu Mouchang, "The Fundamental Principles of Ecological Ethics," in SEEKING TRUTH, no. 2 (1992): 35-38. Article in Chinese. This is a bimonthly published by the Hei Long Jiang University. There are three fundamental principles of ecological ethics: (1) One ought to cherish and respect life and nature. This is the highest positive principle. (2) One ought not to damage and degrade life and nature. This is the prohibition principle, forbidding extinction and plundering and exploiting nature. (3) One ought to preserve life and nature. This is a selectivity principle, calling for ecologizing economics and social affairs, choosing those forms of social development that do not degrade but rather cherish and respect life and nature. Yu Mouchang is in the Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing.

--Ye Ping, "On the Structure of Ecological Ethics," SEEKING TRUTH, no. 2 (1992): 39-42. Article in Chinese. The foundation, starting point, and ultimate end of ecological ethics is the coordination of the ongoing relations between humans and nature. To develop an ecological ethics, there must be development of the study of ecological moral philosophy as well as of the study of ecological science. This involves both fundamental principles and application, theory and practice; it couples attitudes and behaviors, personal norms and personal actions. Both this and the preceding article criticize an exclusively anthropocentric ethics and begin to explore a nonanthropocentric environmental ethics. Ye Ping is professor of philosophy, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China.

--RESEARCH IN PHILOSOPHY AND TECHNOLOGY, vol. 12, Spring 1992, is an entire volume on Technology and the Environment. Articles: Part One: Technology and Environmental Ethics: J. A. Doeleman, "Environment and Technology: Speculating on the Long Run"; David Strong, "The Technological Subversion of Environmental Ethics"; JosÇ M. de C¢zar, "Technology, The Natural Environment, and the Quality of Life"; Andrew Light, "The Role of Technology in Environmental Questions: Martin Buber and Deep Ecology as Answers to Technological Consciousness.

Part Two: Ethics versus Activism? An Exchange: Paul Durbin, "Environmental Ethics and Environmental Activism"; George Allan, "Environmental Philosophizing and Environmental Activism"; Paul Durbin, "Reply to George Allan." Part Three: Technological Hazards, Economics and Environmental Management: Alastair S. Gunn, "Engineering Ethics and Hazardous Waste Management: Why Should We Care About Future Generations?'; Kristin Shrader Frechette, "Calibrating Assessors of Technological and Environmental Risk'; Hans Lenk and Matthias Maring, "Ecology and Ethics: Notes about Technology and Economic Consequences"; Earl R. MacCormac, "Environmental Management: Values, Knowledge, and Categories."
Part IV: Technology and Harvesting the Earth: Egbert Schuurman, "Crisis in Agriculture: Philosophical Perspectives on the Relation Between Agriculture and Nature'; Nancy Farm MÑnnikkî, "If a Tree Falls in the Forest: A Refutation of Technological Determinism." Part Five: Technology and Nature: Struggle or Synthesis? Eric Katz, "The Big Lie: Human Restoration of Nature"; Eric Higgs, "Musings at the Confluence of the Rivers TechnÇ and Oikos." (For a reply by Richard Sylvan to the Katz paper, see Sylvan, "Mucking with Nature, noted in the Newsletter, Winter 91.)
Also included: Eric Katz, "Environmental Ethics: A Select Annotated Bibliography II, 1988-1990. Part I appeared in RESEARCH IN PHILOSOPHY AND TECHNOLOGY 9(1989): 251-285, "Environmental Ethics: A Select Annotated Bibliography, 1983-1987. THESE TWO BIBLIOGRAPHIES FORM THE BEST INTRODUCTION TO THE RECENT LITERATURE IN THE FIELD. Contact: JAI Press, Inc., 55 Old Post Road--No. 2, P. O. Box 1678, Greenwich, CT 06836-1678. Phone 203/661-7602. RESEARCH IN PHILOSOPHY AND TECHNOLOGY is edited by Frederick FerrÇ, Department of Philosophy, University of Georgia.
Volume 13, 1993 will be on Technology and Feminism; volume 14, 1994, on Technology and Everyday Life.
--Susan Power Bratton, SIX BILLION AND MORE: HUMAN POPULATION REGULATION AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS. Philadelphia: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992. 225 pages. paper. Chapter titles: The Crowded Cosmos; Why Populations Rise and Fall; Abraham's Seed: The Bible and Reproduction; Black Death and the New Jerusalem; The Stolen Blessing: Population and the Environment; Shoving Children out of Lifeboats; The "Declining" Developed Nations; The Exploding Third World; Population Regulation and Justice; Coercion and Abortion in Population Management. Bratton is professor of biology at Messiah College, Grantham, PA.

--Corrado Poli and Peter Timmerman, eds., L'ETICA IN POLITICHE AMBIENTALI (Ethics in Environmental Policy). Rome: Gregoriana Liberia Editrice. 1991. This volume results from the First International Conference on Ethics and Environmental Policies, held in Borca di Cadore, Italy, in 1990. The second such conference was just held at the University of Georgia in April, see above. The main sponsoring foundation is Fondazione Lanza, via Dante 55, 35139 Padova, Italy. Phone 049/8756788. Contents (translations from the Italian), Gabrielle Scimemi, "Ethics in Environmental Policy: An International Perspective"; Franz Bîckle, "Environmental Ethics: Philosophical and Theological Foundations"; Antonia Autiero, "A Hope for Our Planet"; Frederick Ferre, "The Environment and the Problem of Evil"; Warwick Fox, "Anthropocentric and Nonanthropocentric Foundations of Environmental Decision-Making"; Sebastiano Maffettone, "Ethics in Environmental Policy"; Kristin Shrader-Frechette, "Ethics in Environmental Policy: Public Action and Populist Reforms"; Corrado Poli, "Environmental Impact Assessment and Value Judgments: Foundations for New Techniques"; Barbara Rhode, "Environmental Damage and the Application of Criminal Law"; Kenneth E. Boulding, "Environmental Ethics and Earth's Economic Systems"; Charles Howe, Ethics, Environment, and Economic Practice"; Peter Brown, "Fiduciary Responsibility and the Greenhouse Effect"; Ratna Murdia, "Environmental Impact and Deforestation in India"; Carlos B. Gutierrez, "Ethics, Politics, and Economics applied to a Safari in Amazonia"; Thomas Heyd, "Sustainable Development: Panacea or Impossibility? Some Implications for Implementing Ethics." An English translation of this work is in progress.

Al Gore, EARTH IN THE BALANCE: ECOLOGY AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992. $ 22.95. 407 pages. Senator Gore has been in the U. S. Congress for fifteen years and made an intensive study of environmental issues. Now that the cold war is over, he argues, the central strategic threat is that presented by humans to the global environment. He proposes a "Global Marshall Plan" for the environment. He wishes to redefine gross national product to account for the ecological costs of growth. The root of our current problem is spiritual, as well as political. If civilization is to persist, it must make the rescue of the environment its organizing principle.

--Al Gore, "Earth in the Balance: An Interview with Senator Al Gore," CHRISTIAN CENTURY, April 8, 1992. An interview growing out of Gore's EARTH IN THE BALANCE.

--Robin Attfield, THE ETHICS OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN has now been published in a revised second edition by the University of Georgia Press, in both hardback and paper. The 1983 first edition has been updated with a new introduction and a detailed review of recent literature.

--Robin Attfield and Barry Wilkins, eds., INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE AND THE THIRD WORLD: ESSAYS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF DEVELOPMENT is due to appear summer 1992 from Routledge (London and New York) in hardback and paper. This collection includes Robin Attfield, "Development and Environmentalism" which was the address presented to the World Congress of Philosophy, Nairobi, 1991; Geoff Hunt, "Is There a Conflict between Environmental Protection and the Development of the Third World?"; Nigel Dower, "Is There a Right to Sustainable Development?"; Barry Wilkins, "Debt and Underdevelopment: The Case for Cancelling Third World Debts." Other contributors are Kai Nelsen and Onora O'Neill.

--Lester W. Milbrath, ENVISIONING A SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY: LEARNING OUR WAY OUT (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989. $ 18.95 paper; $ 57.50 hardcover. 400 pages. Sample chapters: ecosystem viability, sustaining our food supply, work that is fulfilling in a sustainable society, enjoying life without material indulgence, science and technology in a sustainable society, a governance structure designed to help a society learn how to become sustainable, one biosphere but a fragmented world. Milbrath teaches political science and sociology at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

--Donald A. Crosby, "From God to Nature: A Personal Odyssey," RELIGIOUS HUMANISM 25 (no. 3, Summer, 1991):107-116. "Human beings, therefore, do not transcend nature in their essential being, as had traditionally been thought and as I myself had long believed, but are product and expression of its immanent powers. For a time I had been attracted to religious humanism as an alternative to theism, but now I began to realize that human beings, as one spin-off of the irrepressibly creative workings of nature, should not be regarded as religiously ultimate in themselves but rather as evidencing, along with other forms of emergent life, the ultimacy of an all-encompassing nature." Crosby is professor of philosophy at Colorado State University, Fort Collins.

--Joseph E. Laferriäre, "Humanism and the Environment," RELIGIOUS HUMANISM 25 (no. 3, Summer, 1991):117-124. Humanists recognize that we are not alone on this planet; we must share the earth with our neighbors. Unlike Christianity, humanism accepts that this world is the only one we will ever know. Nature is everything. This being so, we must take care of the environment, for the present and for the future. Laferriäre is professor and director of the herbarium at Washington State University, Pullman.

--Riley E. Dunlap and Angela G. Mertig, eds., AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTALISM: THE U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT, 1970-1990. Philadelphia: Taylor and Francis, 1992. $12.95 paper. Eight articles: Examples: Bill Devall, "Deep Ecology and Radical Environmentalism"; Lynton K. Caldwell, "Globalizing Environmentalism: Threshold of a New Phase in International Relations." Michael McCloskey (Sierra Club) reflecting over changing perspectives, also an article on environmentalism in minority communities. Both editors are in sociology at Washington State University, Pullman.
--Daniel J. Kevles, "Some Like It Hot" (with reference to global warming), NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, March 26, 1992. Extensive review of the following seven current environmental titles with an ethical or philosophical emphasis:

--Jessica Tuchman Mathews, ed., PRESERVING THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT: THE CHALLENGE OF SHARED LEADERSHIP. New York: Norton, $ 22.95. 362 pages.

--Anita Gordan and David Suzuki, IT'S A MATTER OF SURVIVAL. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 278 pages. $ 19.95.

--F. Herbert Bormann and Stephen R. Kellert, eds., ECOLOGY, ECONOMICS, ETHICS: THE BROKEN CIRCLE. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991. 233 pages. $ 26.50.

--Helena Northberg-Hodge, ANCIENT FUTURES: LEARNING FROM LADAKH. San Francisco: Sierra Club. 204 pages. $ 25.00.

--Rik Scarce, ECO-WARRIORS: UNDERSTANDING THE RADICAL ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT. Noble Press. 291 pages. $ 12.95 paper.

--Christopher Manes, GREEN RAGE: RADICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM AND THE UNMAKING OF CIVILIZATION. Little, Brown. 291 pages. $ 18.95 hardbound, $9.95 paper.

--Richard Elliot Benedick, OZONE DIPLOMACY: NEW DIRECTIONS IN SAFEGUARDING THE PLANET. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.


--John Patterson, EXPLORING MAORI VALUES (Palmerston North, New Zealand: The Dunmore Press, 1992). Paper, 191 pages. In the Maori environmental philosophy, humans (or at least the Maori) are related to all items in the world--to the trees, birds, and fish, also to the mountains, rivers, and the land herself--to Papatuanuki, mother of all. These kinship links entail that we must respect and enhance the world in which we live. Patterson spells out some traditional and contemporary statements of this environmental philosophy and works out some radical implications for contemporary western societies. Patterson is senior lecturer in philosophy at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand. He invites correspondence from others doing related work in other parts of the world.

--Christine L. Oravec and James G. Cantrill, THE CONFERENCE ON THE DISCOURSE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCACY. Papers from a conference, published by the University of Utah Humanities Center, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112. Released February 1992. Four dozen papers: Examples: Bruce Piasecki, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, "Environmental Management and the Public's Expectation for Fact: Reflections on the Rhetoric of Environmental Advocacy"; Elise Bedsworth Scott, San Francisco State University, "The Rhetoric of Eco-tage"; Susan Senecah, University of Minnesota, "The Sacredness of Natural Places: How a Big Canyon Became a Grand Icon."

John F. Kavanaugh, FOLLOWING CHRIST IN A CONSUMER SOCIETY--STILL. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1992. $ 13.95. Updated from an earlier edition. A diagnosis of consumerism in contrast to personalism.

Paul Vallely, BAD SAMARITANS: FIRST WORLD ETHICS AND THIRD WORLD DEBT.
Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1992. Examines aid programs, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund reforms, and uses the Christian tradition for a new economics.

FIRMAMENT: THE JOURNAL OF CHRISTIAN ECOLOGY is published by the North American Conference on Christianity and Ecology. The Winter 1992 issue features Christian Ecological Economics. Also articles on Christian Ecology in Russia. North American Conference on Christianity and Ecology, P. O. Box 14305, San Francisco, CA 94114.


Continuing the discussion of ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS IN INTRODUCTORY ETHICS TEXTBOOKS (from Newsletter 2,4, Winter 1991, pp. 17-18):
--Daniel Bonevac, TODAY'S MORAL ISSUES: CLASSIC AND CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Co., 1992. Part II, on Utility, contains a section on "The Environment."
Readings: Carl Sagan, "Pulling the Plug on Mother Earth"; Barry Commoner, "Economic Growth and Environmental Quality: How to Have Both"; William K. Reilly, "The Green Thumb of Capitalism: The Environmental Benefits of Sustainable Growth"; Gretchen Morgenson with Gale Eisenstodt, "Profits are for Rape and Pillage."
--G. Lee Bowie, Kathleen Higgens, Meredith W. Michaels, eds., THIRTEEN QUESTIONS IN ETHICS. Chicago: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992. Section 11 is, "What Should We Sacrifice for Animals and the Environment?" Readings: Alan Ginsberg, "Ballade of Poisons"; Tom Regan, "The Nature and Possibility of an Environmental Ethic"; Aldo Leopold, "The Land Ethic"; Peter Singer, "Not for Humans Only: The Place of Non-Humans in Environmental Issues"; Mark Sagoff, "Animal Liberation and Environmental Ethics: Bad Marriage, Quick Divorce"; Annette Baier, "For the Sake of Future Generations"; Marti Kheel, "The Liberation of Nature: A Circular Affair"; John Stuart Mill, "The Glories of Nature?"

--Stephen Luper-Foy and Curtis Brown, THE MORAL LIFE. Chicago: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992. Section VI is "Interspecies Issues." Organized around: Rationality Criterion of Standing: Immanuel Kant, "Duties toward Animals"; Pleasure Criterion of Standing: Peter Singer, "Animal Liberation"; Interest Criterion of Standing: Ruth Cigman, "Death, Misfortune, and Species Inequality"; Life Criterion of Standing: Kenneth Goodpaster, "On Being Morally Considerable"; and Species Favoritism: Mary Midgley, "The Significance of Species."

--Louis P. Pohman, LIFE AND DEATH: GRAPPLING WITH THE MORAL DILEMMAS OF OUR TIME. Boston: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Inc, 1992. 175 pages. Includes sections on "Morality and the Tragedy of the Commons" and on "Animal Rights." A reader, LIFE AND DEATH: A READER IN MORAL PROBLEMS, with sixty readings, will be released in August to accompany this text.


Videotapes and media

ETERNAL ENEMIES. National Geographic, 50 minutes. First aired on PBS January 22, 1992. Life and death among lions, hyenas. Features the savage competition intraspecifically between lions and hyenas as well as interspecifically between lion prides and within hyena clans. Constant hunt for food, constant infighting, broken only by maternal care for young. Lion cubs born; hyena cubs kill each other. Hyenas take prey from lions; lions kill hyenas. Lions kill wildebeest and zebras. "It is always sad to watch the death of a lion or a hyena that we have come to know but the cycles of life and death have continued throughout the years."
"It was not always easy for us to witness these struggles for life, but at the end of it all perhaps we came to know more about ourselves and the strange powers that rage within our own savage souls. Creatures of instinct, helpless to change their destinies, forever these eternal enemies will fight on." No humans appear in the videotape. Marvelous photography. Excellent for launching discussion of violence and competition among big predators, "nature red in tooth and claw." Filmed in northern Botswana, at Savuti, by Dereck and Beverly Joubert. Probably will not be generally available until about February 1993.
AMAZON: LAND OF FLOODED FOREST. National Geographic, 50 minutes. First aired on PBS March 5, 1992. Excellent documentary weaving the natural history in and about the life of a peasant family. Michael Goulding is the featured naturalist. Excellent wildlife scenes: monkeys, sloths, birds, turtles, considerable attention to the fishes. Interdependencies in the forest; local peoples rarely take enough to disrupt the forest, but development forces are assaulting the forest. Amazon is last great wetland frontier, greatest evolutionary theater in the world, the most rich and complex place on Earth. Fast disappearing, a fabric of life that took millions of years to evolve may be gone in a few decades. Probably will not be generally available until about March 1993.

WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS: OUR CHILDREN, OUR ENVIRONMENT. 52 minutes. Produced by Central/Observer and Television Trust for the Environment (U.K), 1990. Five problems. In Poland, pollution is causing birth defects. In India, millions of children die from unclean water. In Africa, war forces children into refuge camps, which global warming will greatly exacerbate. Latin American children are left destitute when parents lose their jobs due to debt collapse and bad environmental projects. Available from Bullfrog Films, Oley, PA.

DIALOGUE ON INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 20 minutes. Produced by Aspire Films and Triune Productions, Toronto, Canada. 1989. Can development be effective without social justice? Who is accountable to whom in international development. Available from Bullfrog Films, Oley, PA.

THE PRICE OF PROGRESS. 54 minutes. Produced by Central Independent Television, U.K. 1989. Three huge resettlement projects in Indonesia, India, and Brazil, all sponsored by the World Bank, megaprojects uprooting indigenous peoples. Available from Bullfrog Films, Oley, PA.

ENERGY AND MORALITY. 33 minutes. 1981. Produced by Bitteroot Films, Hammond Arcade, Missoula, MT 59801. Phone 406/728-2261. Appropriate energy technologies must explore the complex relations between energy use and the ethical basis of human culture. Also available from Bullfrog Films, Oley, PA.


Issues

The UNCED Conference in Rio is proving to involve much North-South dialogue on responsibility for environmental protection. Two conventions are still hoped for: one on global warming, the other on biodiversity. On global warming, the developing nations argue that the industrial North is primarily responsible for pollution and has an obligation to assist all nations in mitigating its effects. They demand, further, that efforts to clean up the global environment be linked to sustainable development in their societies. Richer countries, including the U.S., are resisting, seeing these demands as a move by the lesser developed South to press the wealthier North for more aid. Nevertheless in the prepcomm sessions in New York the developing nations gained agreement that "the developed countries acknowledge the responsibility that they bear in the international pursuit of sustainable development in view of the pressures their societies place on the global environment and of the technologies and financial resources they command."

The U.S. has 6 percent of the world's population, yet Americans are responsible for 25 percent of all carbon-dioxide emissions, as much as all the developing countries (there are more than 100 of them) combined. Success on this convention depends heavily on what role the U.S. will take. But on the current Washington scene, leadership from the U.S. seems unlikely. The normal unpopularity of foreign aid is compounded by concerns over the deficit, the domestic recession, competing claims of the former Soviet nations, and political apprehensions in an election year. The current administration also maintains that there is inadequate scientific evidence of global warming. The U.S. maintains that setting specific targets for CO2 reduction is premature and that any solutions must be "affordable." See David D. Newsom, "Paving the Road to the UN Environmental Conference," CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, April 8, 1992.

The biodiversity convention presents an interesting question on ownership of Earth's biota. Historically, native plant species, seeds, germplasm have been considered to be in the public domain, not owned by any nation. Developing nations are now claiming ownership by the country of origin, and that these cannot be used by those in other nations without negotiated compensation. At the same time developing nations claim that their biological resources are being conserved for the benefit of other nations, and that the developed nations ought to pay developing nations not only for new conservation measures put into effect there but also for the lost opportunity costs of development in such conserved areas. (William K. Stevens, "Talks Seek to Prevent Huge Loss of Species," NEW YORK TIMES, March 3, 1992, B8; Marlise Simons, "North-South Chasm Is Threatening Search for Environmental Solutions," NEW YORK TIMES, March 17, 1992, A5).

Nonrenewable resources (ores, minerals, petroleum) are owned by the nation state in which they happen to be found, indeed by private individuals and corporations within such states. Biotic resources are renewable and less evidently subject to ownership, especially at the species level. Nations and individuals own the forests on their land; farmers own the crops in their fields. But, traditionally at least, neither nations nor individuals own species. We pay nations of the Middle East for oil found there; we might pay for wheat grown there, but we do not pay for the use of the bread wheat species (TRITICUM AESTIVUM) which historically originated there, nor do we pay Mexico for the use of corn (maize, ZEA MAYS), nor Bolivia for tomatoes (LYCOPERSICON ESCULENTUM) and potatoes (SOLANUM TUBEROSUM). The state of California does not pay the states of Illinois and Missouri for the use of pecans (CARYA ILLINOENSIS), originally found in those states. The political boundaries have been drawn and the nation states involved have often come into being centuries after the species started being used elsewhere. Should developed nations pay developing nations for the use of biotic species found within those states? This issue needs philosophical analysis.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has produced several documents on the ethics of genetic resource transfer among nations. See DRAFT INTERNATIONAL CODE OF CONDUCT FOR PLANT GERMPLASM COLLECTING AND TRANSFER, Commission on Plant Genetic Resources, meeting in Rome, April 15-19, 1991. The United Nations has declared "the right of peoples and nations to permanent sovereignty over their natural wealth and resources," and that this right "must be exercised in the interest of their national development and of the well-being of the people of the State concerned." UN General Assembly Resolution 1803/XVII, December 14, 1962, UNITED NATIONS YEARBOOK, 1962. See also George Elian, THE PRINCIPLE OF SOVEREIGNTY OVER NATURAL RESOURCES (Germantown, MD and Alphen aan den Rijn, The Netherlands: Sijthoff and Noordhoff, 1979). The resolution does not distinguish between nonrenewable mineralogical and renewable biological resources.

Earth Charter. The final Prepcomm (Preparatory Committee) meeting in March and early April produced an 8-page draft of the Earth Charter, but there was little agreement about anything, not even about whether it should be called an Earth Charter. Some developing nations preferred that the document focus less on "Earth" and more on "Sustainable Development." The draft contains some agreed-on sentences outside of brackets, but most of it is still debated sentences inside brackets, or inside brackets inside brackets. Some samples:

Principle 1. [Human beings are at the centre of environmental and development concerns. They are entitled to a healthy life of well-being in a sound environment to be able to achieve a better quality of life and their full realization as a person.]
An alternative:

[The well-being and dignity of humankind on a healthy planet are at the center of environmental and developmental concerns. Human beings are entitled to live in a sound environment, [in dignity and in harmony with nature for which they bear the responsibility for protection and enhancement] and bear the responsibility to protect, restore and improve it for the benefit of present and future generations.]

Principle 2. [States have, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law, the sovereign right to exploit their own resources pursuant to their own environmental [and developmental] policies, and the responsibility to ensure that the activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other States or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.]

Principle 7. (in part) [The major cause of the continuing deterioration of the global environment is the unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, [particularly in developed countries]. All countries, particularly the developed ones, [shall] [should] make commitments, [according to their situation shall endeavour] to address their unsustainable patterns of production and consumption.


Some amendments to the Endangered Species Act, as proposed by a coalition group including the California Chamber of Commerce, Chevron USA, Dow Chemical Co., the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the American Farm Bureau, Pacific Gas and Electric, and the California Cattlemen's Association, are:
--requiring that the economic impact of a proposed listing be given the same weight as the environmental impact;

--requiring that any individual who proposes a species for listing post a bond. If the species subsequently is determined ineligible for listing, the individual would be liable for damages incurred by the proposed listing;

--giving priority to the production of food and energy over the protection of endangered species.

The God Squad, the Special Committee that can exempt a listed species and permit a jeopardizing action, is deciding whether to allow an exemption from the Endangered Species Act for seventy- seven Bureau of Land Management timber sales in southern Oregon, cuts claimed to jeopardize the spotted owl. The decision was to be released in April but has been deferred until May. The Committee held hearings in Portland in January.


Colorado Division of Wildlife has been reviewing the issue of kokanee snagging. The kokanee is an introduced salmon in the western rivers of Colorado. Snagging is a method of catching mature salmon from spawning runs in the last days of their life cycle. While snagging, anglers pull a large hook rapidly through the water. Fish are snagged at various points on the body rather than hooked in the mouth. The issues center on the fairness and sporting qualities of this method of take. Mary McAfee, Colorado Division of Wildlife, 711 Independent Avenue, Grand Junction, CO 81505, welcomes critical comments.


Recent and Upcoming Events


--April 9-11. "Equitable and Sustainable Habitats," conference and annual meeting of the Environmental Research Association, at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Contact EDRA 23, Campus Box 314, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309. Phone 303/492-6399.

--April 16-19. The Idea of the Forest: German and American Perspectives on the Culture and Politics of Trees, at the University of Oregon, Eugene. Sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Services (DAAD) and the College of Arts and Sciences, University of Oregon. Contact: Karla Schultz, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Oregon, Eugene 97403-1233. Phone 503/346-4051.

--April 24-25. Central APA at Louisville, KY. Annual business meeting of ISEE. Program and details under announcements.
--April 24-26. Southern Rockies Ecosystem Conference, at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Working toward the Vision of Native Wildland Recovery. Sponsored by CU Wilderness Study Group. Speakers: Peter Landres, Reed F. Noss, Michael SoulÇ, Chris Maser, Dave Foreman, and others. Contact: CU Wilderness Study Group, Campus Box 207, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309.

--May 4-6, Threats to the National Wilderness Preservation System: The Managerial Challenge, at Portland, Oregon, Hilton Hotel. Sponsored by the Society of American Foresters Wilderness Working Group with the U. S. Department of Interior National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the USDA Forest Service. Over thirty sessions. Sample papers: Vance Martin, World Wilderness Foundation, "Northern Hemisphere, Circumpolar Challenge for Wilderness"; George Wallace, Colorado State University, "The Central and South American Challenge for Wilderness"; Louis H. Dick, Jr., Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, "Wilderness Threats Perceived by Native Americans"; Dave Peterson, University of Washington, "Global Climate Change and Wilderness."
Contact: Society of American Foresters, Wilderness Technical Session, 5400 Grosvenor Lane, Bethesda, MD 20814.
--May 5-6. Earth Ethics: Shades of Green in Contemporary Environmentalism, at Hiram College, Hiram, OH. The Sixth Annual Deemer Symposium on Ethics and the Professions. Speakers include: Stephanie Mills, "Restoring Community, Honoring Home: The Means of Reinhabitation"; Howard Hawkins, "Social Ecology and Environmental Justice"; Ynestra King, "Feminism and Ecology: Engendering a Healthy Planet." The closing address is by Arne Naess, University of Oslo, "To Care, To Act Beautifully: An Environmental Application of Kant's Distinction Between Moral and Beautiful Acts." Contact Michael Emerson, Department of Philosophy, Hiram College, Hiram, OH 44234. Phone: 216/569-5145.Hiram is near Cleveland, Ohio.

--May 17-20. Fourth North American Symposium on Social Science in Resource Management, University of Wisconsin, Madison. One of the general themes is environmental ethics; another is ethnic minorities and the environment. Contact: Donald R. Field, School of Natural Resources, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, 1450 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706. For registration contact: CALS Conference Office, University of Wisconsin, 620 Babcock Drive, Madison, WI 53706.

--May 24-29. Second International Symposium on Environmental Studies of Tropical Rainforests--FOREST `92 and the First International Seminar on the Environmental Problems of Large Urban Centers--ECO-URBS `92, in Rio de Janeiro, preparatory to UNCED. Contact: Organizing Committee, FOREST `92 -- ECO-URBS `92, Caixa Postal 3591, Rio de Janeiro-RJ, CEP, 2001, Brazil.

--May 27-30. Canadian Society for the Study of Practical Ethics (CSSPE) and ISEE session at the Learned Society meetings at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown, PEI. See details earlier.

--May 25-29. Conference on Ethics and Environment, in Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil, preparatory to UNCED in Rio. See details earlier.

--June 1-12. United Nations Conference on Environment and Development to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

--June 2-4. International Association of Great Lakes Research (IAGLR), University of Waterloo, Ontario. Two sessions on June 2 feature environmental ethics and values. Speakers are Peter Miller, University of Winnipeg; Henry Regier, Director, Institute for Environmental Studies, Toronto; James Kay, University of Waterloo; George Francis, University of Waterloo; Barry Boyer, Law at SUNY, Buffalo; and Laura Westra (University of Windsor).

--June 9-11, The Second International Conference on Public Service Ethics takes place in Siena, Italy. The theme is, "The Ethical State and the Efficient State: Are They in Conflict." Contact Edwin M. Epstein, Walter A. Haas School of Business, 310 Barrows Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720. Phone 415/642-4849. Fax 415/642-2826. Conference fees are $ 300.00 U.S. and hotel prices from $ 70 for singles.

--June 21-27. International Development Ethics Association (IDEA), Third International Conference on Ethics and Development, Universidad Nactional Autonoma de Honduras, June 21-17, 1992. See details earlier.

--June 28-July 2. Joint ISEE meeting with the Society for Conservation Biology, at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA. See details earlier.

--July 11-13. Second World Congress on Violence and Human Coexistence, Montreal. ISEE session. See details earlier.

--July 11-19. Breaking Through and Deep Ecology Workshop, in Sangre de Cristo Mountains, southern Colorado. Cost, $725. Leaders include Dolores LaChapelle and Rick Medrick. Contact Rick Medrick, Outdoor Leadership Training Seminars, Box 20281, Denver, CO 80220. Phone 800/331-7238.

--July 26-31. Ethics: Practice and Teaching. A workshop sponsored by the Hastings Center and others. Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO. One of a half dozen sessions is environmental ethics, led by Strachan Donnelley. Contact: The Ethics Workshop, The Poynter Center, 410 N. Park Avenue, Bloomington, IL 47405. Phone 812/855-0261.

--July 25-August 1. "Global Ecology and Human Destiny," will be the theme of the Star Island Conference, the annual conference of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science (IRAS), held on Star Island, a Unitarian retreat center off the coast of Portsmouth, NH. Speakers include Holmes Rolston, Frederick FerrÇ, and Paul E. Lutz. Contact the conference chair, Karl Peters, Department of Philosophy and Religion, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL 32789.

--August 17-21. Mountain Learning Center-Deep Ecology Workshop, Silverton, Colorado. Presenters include George Sessions, Delores LaChapelle, David Abram, Rick Medrick, and Max Oelschlaeger. Cost $ 350. Contact: Way of the Mountain Learning Center, P. O. Box 542, Silverton, CO 81433. Phone 303/387-5729.

--September 23-26. "The Biophilia Hypothesis: Empirical and Theoretical Investigations," limited participation conference, Woods Hole, MA. Papers by Stephen Kellert, E. O. Wilson, Jared Diamond, Madhav Gadgil, Aaron Katcher, Barry Lopez, Lynn Margulis, Gary Nabhan, Gordon Orians, David Orr, Holmes Rolston, Michel SoulÇ. James Tooby, on human genetic dispositions to love and care for the natural world.

--October 2-4, "Human Ecology: Crossing Boundaries," Sixth Meeting of the Society for Human Ecology, Snowbird, Utah. The meeting emphasizes the role of human ecology in spanning boundaries between traditional disciplines, theory and practice, individuals and society and the social, biological, and physical environments. A wide variety of papers and presentations is planned, with papers on environmental ethics encouraged. Submit papers and contact: Scott D. Wright, FCS Department, University of Utah, 228 AEB, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112. Phone 801/581-8750. Fax 801/581-3007.

--October 9-11, Creation, Ecology, and Ethics, conference at the Nordic Hills Resort, near Chicago, IL. This is sponsored by an interseminary team, the Bible and Theology Project. Holmes Rolston, III is a keynote speaker. Contact: George H. Kehm, Professor of Theology, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, 616 North Highland Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15206-2596.

--November 8-12. Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), 13th Annual Meeting, Cincinnati, Ohio. With a session on "Environmental Ethics, Science, and Society." Contact Eric Hol, c/o TIWET, P. O. Box 709, Pendleton, SC 29670. Phone 803/646-2317.

--November 8-12. Environmental Ethics: Implications for Natural Resource Management, in the Lake Placid/Saranac High Peaks area of upstate New York. Holmes Rolston is a speaker. Sponsored by Environmental Systems Associates, and others. Contact Frank P. Dorchak, Jr., Environmental Systems Associates, Box 69, RR 2, Rt. 11B, Dickinson, NY 12930.

--November 30-December 3. Circumpolar Universities Cooperation, 3rd Conference in Rovaneimi, Finland. With sections on "Environmental Problems and Strategies in the Circumpolar North," on "International Cooperation in Circumpolar Development," and others. Deadline for abstracts: May 1. Rovaniemi, the administrative capital of Lapland, lies right on the Arctic Circle. Tours are being organized to the Wilderness in the Finnish Lapland. Contact: Professor Esko Riepula, University of Lapland, P. O. Box 122, 96101 Rovaniemi, Finland. Phone: 358-60- 324 207. Fax 358-60-3241.

1993

--July 20-23, 1993. Royal Institute of Philosophy Conference, Philosophy and the Natural Environment, Cardiff, Wales. Contact Robin Attfield and Andrew Belsey, Philosophy Section, University of Wales College of Cardiff, P. O. Box 94, Cardiff CF1 3XE, U.K.

--August 22-28, 1993, 19th World Congress of Philosophy, Moscow. ISEE has been invited to organize a session on environmental ethics and sustainability. Roundtable discussions can have no more than two persons from the same nation. Deadline for submitted general papers is August 30, 1992. Send papers to Laura Westra, address below. For congress details, contact Congress Secretariat, Volkhonka 14, Moscow 119842. Fax (7095) 200-32-50.

--September, 1993. 5th World Wilderness Congress, in Norway. Arne Naess hopes for papers on philosophical issues in wilderness conservation, given at this congress, to be published as a special issue of INQUIRY.