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Volume 4, No. 1, Spring 1993 |
General Announcements
The Society for Conservation Biology, Annual Meeting, will be held at Arizona
State University, Tempe, June 9-14, 1993. ISEE has a session. This is a
first-class occasion for philosophers (and others) to interact with conservation
biologists. Contact Jack Weir (on leave at Rice University), Graduate House,
6500 S. Main Street, # 146, Houston, TX 77030. Phone 713/630-9333.
The Royal Institute of Philosophy 1993 Conference is "Philosophy and
the Natural Environment," to be held at the University of Wales College
of Cardiff. The keynote conference address is Holmes Rolston, III, "Value
in Nature and the Nature of Value."
Other speakers: Alan Holland, "Natural Capital," Mary Midgley,
"The End of Anthropocentrism," Robert Elliot, "Ecology and
Environmental Ethics," Tim Hayward, "A Critique of Ecological
Metaphysics," Ruth Chadwick, "Geneticism and Environmentalism,"
Peter Wheale and Ruth McNally, "Environmental Bioethics," Frederick
FerrÇ, "Personalistic Organicism: Paradox or Paradigm?",
Barry Wilkins, "Exploitation, Natural Resources and the Third World,"
Robin Attfield, "Rehabilitating Nature and Making Nature Habitable,"
Andrew Belsey, "Environmentalism: Totalitarian or Libertarian?",
Peter List: "Ethical Aspects of Environmental Civil Disobedience,"
Keekok Lee, "Awe and Humility: Intrinsic Value in Nature," Roger
Crisp, "Well-Being and Environmental Value," Stephen Clark, "Theology
of the Environment," Dale Jamieson, "Global Environmental Justice,"
and Nigel Dower, "What is Environment?" Contact Robin Attfield
and Andrew Belsey, Philosophy Section, University of Wales College of Cardiff,
P. O. Box 94, Cardiff CF1 3XE, UK.
Ernest Partridge will become professor of philosophy, in an endowed chair,
teaching environmental ethics at Northland College, Ashland, WI, beginning
June 1993. He occupies the A. D. and Mary Elizabeth Anderson Hulings Chair
in the Humanities, with an emphasis on Environmental Ethics. Northland College
celebrated its centennial in 1992 and is home to the Sigurd Olson Environmental
Institute.
The 19th World Congress of Philosophy, meets in Moscow, August 22- 28, 1993.
ISEE has organized two sessions on environmental ethics, one a roundtable
discussion. Anticipated participants in the two sessions: include Karen
Warren (Macalester College), James Sterba (University of Notre Dame), Holmes
Rolston (Colorado State University), Laura Westra (University of Windsor),
Freya Mathews (La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia), Avner de-Shalit
(Political Science, Hebrew University, Jerusalem), Yrjo SepÑnmaa
(University of Helsinki), Donald VandeVeer (North Carolina State University),
Brad Marden and Eric Hol (Environmental Protection Agency). Contact Laura
Westra, address below, on the ISEE sessions. For congress information and
registration contact World Congress of Philosophy, EGA Studio, Viale Tiziano
19, Rome, Italy. Fax (06) 32-22-006.
The Fifth World Wilderness Congress will be held in Tromso, Norway, September
24-October 1, 1993. The theme is wild nature and sustainable living in circumpolar
regions. David Rothenberg has organized a session on philosophy and wilderness,
emphasizing criticism and clarification of what "wild" means in
relation to conservation goals. The aim is analysis that will be useful
for conservation, as well as advancing philosophical inquiry and understanding
of nature. One participant is Marvin Henberg, Philosophy, University of
Idaho. Contact David Rothenberg, Department of Humanities, New Jersey Institute
of Technology, Newark, NJ 07102.
Ian Player, prominent South African conservationist, is a visiting scholar
in residence at the University of Idaho, Moscow, during spring 1993. Player
has been especially active in wilderness conservation and is a founder of
the series of World Wilderness Congresses, with the fifth one in Norway
this fall, see above.
At the Pacific Division, American Philosophical Association, March 24-28,
San Francisco, in addition to the ISEE session, there: Lilly-Marlene Russow
(Purdue University), "Respecting, Using and Exploiting Animals."
Kathryn Paxton George ((University of Idaho), "Should Feminists Be
Vegetarians?"
Laura Westra, Henry Regier, David Pimentel and others have a major grant
to study environmental integrity as it applies to environmental policy in
Canada, including Canadian-U.S. relations in the Great Lakes and transboundary
problems. A series of focus groups are in progress over two years, with
Focus Group No. 3, "Ecosystem Integrity and Ecosystem Health,"
at the University of Guelph in late June, and Focus Group No. 4, "Ecosystem
Integrity and Policy: International Issues," to be held in Washington,
November 10-13, coordinated with Mark Sagoff's Center for Philosophy and
Public Policy and the Environmental Management of Enclosed Coastal Seas
Conference. See events, below. The grant at present amounts to $ 94,000.
The ISEE session for the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
February 1994, in San Francisco is being organized by David Pimentel (Entomology,
Cornell University) on the theme, "Global Population, Food, Environment,
and Ethics." At present, the participants include Ann Ehrlich (Stanford
University), Henry Kendall (MIT), Sandra Postel (Worldwatch), David Pimentel,
Laura Westra (Windsor), with Bryan Norton (Georgia Institute of Technology)
as chair.
The Willard Environmental Ethics Symposium was held at the University of
Nebraska at Omaha, April 15. Speakers were, Benjamin Nelson, Governor of
Nebraska, "Environmental Ethics and the State of Nebraska"; Phil
Hoebing, Quincy College, "St. Francis and the Environment"; Nelson
D. Kloosterman, Mid-America Reformed Seminary, "Environment as Religion:
Matthew Fox's CREATION SPIRITUALITY as a Paradigm for Environmental Ethics";
David P. Meyer, Concordia College, NE, "The Unified Germany and the
Ecological Crisis: The Quest for Spiritual Religious Foundations";
Donald M. Braxton, St. Norbert College, "Stewardship of Nature or Unity
with Nature: Settling the Debate with an Eye to Ethics"; Randolph Feezell
and William O. Stephens, Creighton University, "The Argument from Marginal
Cases: Why Speciesism is Indefensible"; Michael P. Nelson, University
of Colorado, "Once and for All: Environmental Holism Does not Equal
Environmental Fascism"; Warren J. Platts, Colorado State University,
"An Evolutionary Explanation of Intrinsic Value in Biological Populations
and Species"; Hollis Glaser, UNO, "Ethics and the Environment:
An Ecofeminist Perspective"; Richard A. Freund, UNO, "Animal Rights
and the Ab/use of the Bible."
The Society for Range Management's (SRM) national meeting in Albuquerque
included a session on professional ethics. Gary Varner (Philosophy, Texas
A&M) compared the SRM's code to that of the Society of American Foresters
(SAF), which has recently been modified to include a land ethic. Both groups
have felt a growing public perception that natural resources must be protected
FROM (as much as BY) professional resource managers, coupled with a growing
interest in a land ethic. Varner was followed by comments and a panel with
John McLain, a range management consultant from Carson City, NV, Jim Kennedy,
dean of the college of natural resources, Utah State University, and Bill
Hurst, a former regional forester for the U.S. Forest Service.
Ethics and Captive Breeding. At a conference last fall on "Conservation
Genetics and Evolutionary Ecology: A Case Study of the Cichlid Fauna of
Lake Victoria, Africa," hosted by the Columbus Zoo and Ohio State University,
Gary Varner presented a paper, "Ethics and Captive Breeding: Questions
about Animal Rights and Environmental Ethics. Varner argued that the captive
breeding program for cichlid fishes of Africa's Lake Victoria (as many as
90% of which are endangered) raises no questions about animal rights and
minimal questions of animal welfare. The program scores relatively well
from a perspective of either environmental holism or enlightened anthropocentrism.
At the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston
in February, Stephen Jay Gould spoke (February 12) to a dinner meeting of
the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science on "The Proper Scale
of Stewardship" in environmental ethics.
Earth will take care of itself on longer time scales, and the proper scale
of stewardship is decades or at most a century or so.
Education for Environmental Competence, in Singapore. This seminar was held
February 15-17, organized by the Information and Resource Centre, led by
Padmasiri de Silva. There were about 60 participants, including 25 academics
from the National University of Singapore. The theme was integrating environmental
ethics into environmental education, mending the broken circle: ecology,
economics, ethics, and culture. Georg Webber of the Hanns Seidel Foundation
(Germany, sponsors of the conference) and Abdiul Ghafoor-Ghaznawi, Chief
of Environmental Education for UBESCO, addressed the inaugural session.
Speakers included Alastair Gunn (University of Waikato, New Zealand), Padmasiri
de Silva, J. Baird Callicott (University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point), Patsy
Hallen (Murdoch University, Western Australia), Andrew Brennan (University
of Western Australia), Victor Valbuena (Asian Mass Communication and Information
Center), Meena Raghunathan (Centre for Environmental Education, Ahmedabad,
India), Arun Balasubramanian (Philosophy, National University of Singapore),
Victor Savage (Geography, National University of Singapore), Thai Quang
Trung (Information and Resource Centre, Singapore), David Bowden (Worldwide
Fund for Nature, Malaysia), and Ho Hua Chew (Philosophy, National University
of Signapore). The conference proceedings are available. Contact Padmasiri
de Silva, Information and Resource Center, 6 Nassim Road, Singapore 1025.
(Thanks to Andrew Brennan and J. Baird Callicott.)
Georgetown University has a Visiting Fellows Program for research in biomedical
ethics. The research can include environmental health issues. Contact Robert
M. Veatch, Joseph and Rose Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University,
Washington, DC 20057. The University has the world's largest library and
library staff devoted to bioethics.
Princeton University offers a DeCamp Fellowship in Ethics and the Life Sciences.
Scholars from ethics, political philosophy, philosophy, or religion can
spend a year researching and writing about an ethical issue in the life
sciences. Fellows participate in graduate-faculty seminars in Ethics and
Public Policy, in the Department of Molecular Biology, the Department of
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and
International Affairs, and the University Center for Human Values. Contact:
Nancy Duprey Koehler, The DeCamp Committee, Center for Energy and Environmental
Studies, H-102 Engineering Quadrangle, Princeton University, Princeton,
NJ 08544.
The Applied Ethics Project of the Center for the Advancement of Applied
Ethics, Carnegie Mellon University, has a video-based course in applied
ethics, "Ethical Issues in Professional Life."
There are 14 half hour videos, with accompanying text and audio tapes. Module
13, "Ethics, the Environment, and Professionals," features Lisa
Newton, on the leadership role of the professions in environmental ethics.
Contact Peter Madsen, Center for the Advancement of Applied Ethics, Carnegie
Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. Phone 412/268-5703.
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, proposals by October 15
Pacific Division, January 1, proposals by October 15
Eastern Division meets Dec. 27-30, 1993 in Atlanta, GA, at the Atlanta Marriott.
Central Division meets in late April 1994, exact date and location not yet
set.
Pacific Division meets in late March 1994, exact date and location not yet
set.
Submit Central Division proposals to Professor Laura Westra, Department
of Philosophy, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4, Canada.
Phone: 519/253-4232 (2342). Fax: 519/973-7050.
Submit Western Division proposals to Professor James Heffernan, Department
of Philosophy, College of the Pacific, University of the Pacific, 3601 Pacific
Avenue, Stockton, CA 95211. Phone: 209/946-2281. PLEASE NOTE THIS CHANGE
FROM ERNEST PARTRIDGE, WHO WAS PREVIOUSLY RECEIVING THESE PROPOSALS, but
who is now moving to Northland College, Ashland, Wisconsin, see above.
United Nations Conference on Ethical Issues in Agenda 21, January 1994.
The Conference will be held at the United Nations Building, United Nations
Plaza, New York, NY. Don Brown, Director, invites papers. Abstracts of 250
words should be sent to Donald Brown, Ethics Research Group, 2915 Beverly
Road, Camp Hill, PA 17011 (near Harrisburg). Fax 717/787-9379. Notice of
acceptance will be given by July 1, and final papers are due in December.
Brown, who is trained in philosophy and ethics, was Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Representative at UNCED and is Director, Hazardous Sites Enforcement, Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg.
Holmes Rolston (Philosophy, Colorado State University) will be Visiting
Distinguished Professor at Union College, Schenectady, NY, May 16-30, as
part of the launching of an environmental studies program there. Kristin
Shrader-Frechette (Philosophy, University of South Florida) has also been
visiting professor there.
The ISEE sessions at the American Philosophical Association, Central Division,
Chicago, April 22-23 were: Session I: "Environmental Justice,"
with papers by James Sterba (Philosophy, University of Notre Dame), "Violence
against Nature"; Lisa Newton (Director, Program in Environmental Studies,
Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT), "The Day I Discovered I Had Cancer";
Donald VanDeVeer (Philosophy, North Carolina State University, "Designing
a Biodiverse Planet," and Shawn Brennan and Marcello Guarini (University
of Windsor), "Environmental Holism and Communities."
Session II: Panel Discussion: Cases in Environmental Ethics, led by Lisa
Newton. Panelists: Bryan G. Norton (Georgia Institute of Technology), Karen
Warren (Philosophy, Macalester College), Brad Marden (Environmental Protection
Agency), Don Brown (Director, United Nations Conference on Ethical Issues
in Agenda 21, and Director, Hazardous Sites Enforcement, Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania), and Laura Westra (Philosophy, University of Windsor).
Also at the Central APA in Chicago: Sanford S. Levy (Montana State University),
"Indirect Utilitarianism and Ecocentric Environmentalism"; Bart
Gruzalski (Northeastern University), "The Orthodoxy of Human Superiority";
and a symposium, "Monism vs. Pluralism in Environmental Ethics,"
with J. Baird Callicott (University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point), "Moral
Monism in Environmental Ethics Defended,"; Eugene C. Hargrove (University
of North Texas), "Callicott's Critique of Moral Pluralism: Theory and
Practice"; and Anthony Weston (SUNY, Stony Brook), "Four Pictures
of Pluralism." This session was chaired by Mary Anne Warren, San Francisco
State University.
Also at the Central APA in Chicago: "Agricultural Philosophy: A Ten
Year Look," with Philip Shepard (Michigan State University); Paul B.
Thompson (Texas A&M University), Charles Blatz (University of Toledo).
Also at the Central APA in Chicago, in sessions of the Concerned Philosophers
for Peace: James P. Sterba, "Environmental Justice," and Dean
Curtin (Gustavus Adolphus College), "Indigenous Women's Agriculture
and the Peace Politics of the Green Revolution."
Also at the Central APA in Chicago, in sessions of the Society for the Study
of Ethics and Animals: Panel: "Forbearance and/or Privilege in Respect
to Animals," with Judith A. Barad (Indiana State University, Terre
Haute), Diane Legomsky (St. Norbert College); and Mary Carman Rose (Goucher
College); and a paper: David DeGrazia (George Washington University), "On
Misunderstanding Wittgenstein's Private Language Argument and Its Implications
for Animals: Rollin's Reading and Reply," with commentary by R. G.
Frey (Bowling Green State University). (Thanks to Ned Hettinger for much
of the above.)
Ecophilosophy Institute in Kenya. Professor Odera Oruka, professor of philosophy
at the University of Nairobi, is director of the Ecophilosophy Institute,
African Centre for Technology Studies, based at that University. Professor
Oruka organized the 1991 World Conference of Philosophy there on philosophy,
environment, and development. They hope to publish some of the papers from
that conference, in conjunction with the University of Georgia Press. (See
ISEE Newsletter, 3, 3, Fall 1992 for an environmental ethics unit at the
University of Stellenbosch in South Africa.) Contact: Professor Odera Oruka,
Department of Philosophy, P. O. Box 30197, Nairobi Kenya. Another address
is: Ecophilosophy Institute, African Centre for Technology Studies, P. O.
Box 45917, Nairobi, Kenya. (Thanks to Robin Attfield, Cardiff, Wales.)
Ted Bolen, Senior Editor, College Division, for Prentice-Hall reports that
the new Michael Zimmerman anthology, ENVIRONMENTAL PHILOSOPHY, was far and
away the most requested of their titles at the American Philosophical Association
meeting in Washington last December.
The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment has recently
been formed to provide a network for literary scholars and writers interested
in the relationship between humans and the natural world. They publish ISLE:
INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES IN LITERATURE AND ENVIRONMENT (see ISEE Newsletter,
3,4, Winter 1992) and also THE AMERICAN NATURE WRITING NEWSLETTER. Contact
Michael Branch, Department of English, University of Virginia, Charlottes-
ville, VA 22903.
The Oxford Centre for the Environment, Ethics and Society has been launched,
sited at Mansfield College, Oxford, a unit of the University of Oxford.
The focus is on ethics and values as a foundation for the serious study
of the social dimensions of environmental issues. A multi-disciplinary staff
is being assembled, with Andrew Linzey as the first appointee. Some representative
questions to be addressed: Do humans have moral duties to respect other
living beings, to avoid causing the extinction of species, or to preserve
the integrity of existing natural ecosystems? Should the interests of humans
yet unborn count when we take decisions today that are likely to alter substantially
the world in which they live. How can we justly distribute costs entailed
by the adoption of environmentally friendly practices. There is an emphasis
on the resolution of practical problems that are emerging as society grapples
with the social aspects of environmental issues. The project is officially
endorsed by the World Wildlife Fund of the United Kingdom. Further information
from the Oxford Centre Development Office, Mansfield College, Oxford OX1
3TF, UK. Phone: 865 (city code) 27- 0999. Fax 27-0970.
At the University of New Hampshire, the Department of Natural Resources
and the programs in philosophy and religious studies have been actively
cooperating in courses on environmental philosophy, ecology and religion,
and ecology and value. Some thirty faculty from fifteen different departments
have been involved. Contact John E. Carroll, Department of Forest Resources,
University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824.
Douglas J. Buege, who is completing a dissertation in environmental ethics
at the University of Minnesota, has volunteered to compile a list of E-mail
address for members of ISEE. Send him your E-mail address. Douglas J. Buege,
355 Ford Hall, Department of Philosophy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis,
MN 55455. <bueg0002@student.tc.umn.edu>. He is also interested in
references on degree of organic unity as a basis for value.
Ecoline and TogetherNet. 800-ECOLINE (800-326-5463) is a toll- free telephone
gateway to environmental agencies and environmentalists, offering advice
on research data, educational materials, news, media and events, funding.
This is a joint project of the University of Vermont and the Together Foundation.
Together Foundation also operates TogetherNet, a computer service to similar
information. Phone 303/444-9567.
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,
NSW, 2351, Australia. Telephone (087) 7333. Fax (067) 73 3122. E-mail: relliot@metz.une.oz.au
Wouter Achterberg is the contact person for the United Kingdom and Europe
(For Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, see below.) Those in Western
Europe and the Mediterranean should send their dues to him (the equivalent
of $ 10 US) at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe
Doelenstraat 15, 1012 CP Amsterdam, Netherlands. Contact him if in doubt
what currencies he can accept. Fax: 31 (country code) 20 (city code) 5254503.
Phone: 31-20-5254530.
Jan Wawrzyniak is the contact person for Eastern Europe and the former Soviet
Union. He is on the faculty in the Department of Philosophy at Adam Mickiewicz
University of Poznan, Poland. Because of the fluid economic situation in
Eastern Europe, members and others should contact him regarding the amount
of dues and the method of payment. He also requests that persons in Eastern
Europe send him information relevant to a regional newsletter attachment
to this newsletter, as well as to share such information with the international
membership of the society. Business address: Institut Filozofii, Adam Mickiewicz
University, 60-569 Poznan, Szamarzewskiego 91c, Poland. Phone: 48 (country
code) 61 (city code) 46461, ext. 288, 280. Fax: 48 (country code) 61 (city
code) 535535 (NOTE NEW FAX). He reports that mail service is very unreliable
in certain parts of Eastern Europe. Home address: 60-592 Poznan, Szafirowa
7, Poland. Phone 48/61/417275. Checks can be sent to his home with more
security.
Azizan Baharuddin, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, is the contact
person for ISEE for South-East Asia (Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore,
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, and the Philippines). Dr. Azizan teaches
history and philosophy in the Science Faculty. Contact her with regard to
membership and dues payable (the approximate equivalent of $US 10, but with
appropriate adjustment for currency differentials and purchasing power).
Her address is The Dean's Office, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya,
59100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Fax 60 (Country code) 3 (City code) 756-6343.
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. 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.
Summary ISEE Financial Report for year 1992.
Receipts in U. S. Dollars
Membership Dues (& gifts) $ 4,032
Expenses
Newsletter, Printing $ 2,201
Postage 1,246
Wages 478
Other, miscellaneous 216
Deficit $ 323
The deficit is covered, temporarily at least, by transferring money received
in 1993. In addition, small sums of money, from dues collected and used
to mail the newsletter, are held in the Netherlands by Wouter Achterberg,
in Poland by Jan Wawrzyniak, and in Australia by Robert Elliot, the contact
persons in these areas.
Thanks to H. Stelmach, Hastings Center, for a donation of $ 100, and to
Dr. Larry Stowell, PACE Consulting (Plant Pathology), for a donation of
$ 50, and to many others for an additional $ 5 or $ 10.
ISEE dues for 1993 are payable now. Memberships run on a calendar year basis,
with NEW members who join in October, November, and December having memberships
extended through the following full calendar year. The Secretary is not
ordinarily able to send receipts, as this takes additional time and expense.
The Society runs on a rather minimal budget, with dues mostly (and barely)
covering the costs of Newsletter printing and mailing. To pay dues, see
the last page of the Newsletter.
Back issues of the ISEE Newsletter? Back issues are available at US $ 10.00
per year, or $ 4.00 per single issue, and these requests should be directed
to the Secretary (address on last page).
The present officers are:
President: Holmes Rolston, III,
term to expire end of academic year (June 1) 1994
Vice-President: Eric Katz, 1994
Secretary, Laura Westra, 1995
Treasurer, Ned Hettinger, 1996
Positions Available
St. Mary's College of Maryland, at St. Mary's City, has advertised a position
as assistant professor that includes, among other things, environmental
thought. The College is especially interested in candidates concerned with
global justice issues. The College has also advertised a visiting assistant
professor position with similar interests, a sabbatical replacement with
the possibility of becoming a regular position. Contact: Chair, Philosophy
Search Committee, Division of Human Development, St. Mary's College of Maryland,
St. Mary's City, MD 20686. JOBS FOR PHILOSOPHERS, January 1993.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has advertised a tenure-track
assistant professor position, with an area of competence in environmental
ethics. Contact Professor Herbert Burhenn, Department of Philosophy and
Religion, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, TN. Phone 615/7555-4334.
JOBS FOR PHILOSOPHERS, January 1993.
The School of Public Affairs at the University of Maryland seeks to make
two tenure track appointments in the field of environmental policy. Contact:
Peter G. Brown, Chair, Search Committee, Environment, School of Public Affairs,
University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742. Phone 301/404-6351.
Videotapes and media
--THE EARTH SUMMIT, 28 minutes. United Nations Videos, Department of Public
Information. English, also available in other languages. Phone: 212/963-6982.
Fax: 212/963-6869. Excellent overview of the conference and balanced presentation
of issues, with many ethical issues. Maurice Strong: "We are the most
successful species ever; we are now a species out of control." Anwar
Saifullah Khan (Pakistan): "We cannot save the environment if the rich
refuse to provide greater aid to the poor." William Reilly (U.S.) vs.
Ahmud Swaley Kasenally (Mauritius) on intellectual property rights and national
ownership of biodiversity. Ting Wen Lian (Malasia): "We won't save
our forests for those who cut their own and now claim ours as the common
heritage of mankind." The global warming debate. Excerpts from speeches
by heads of state. What next after Rio? All or portions of it are excellent
for starting discussions on these issues. See also Rogers, THE EARTH SUMMIT,
in recent books, below.
Teleconference: "Seeds of Conflict: Biodiversity in the Food Supply"
will air Friday, October 15 (with World Food Day on that Saturday). This
is on PBS Adult Learning Satellite Service, and your school can probably
pick it up on request. 800/257-2578
--AN EVENING WITH JOHN MUIR. 60 minutes. Lee Stetson performs in a soliloquy
as John Muir, reliving a 100 foot climb to the top of a Douglas fir in the
midst of a bracing windstorm, a dance with death in the midst of the Yosemite
Falls, a wilderness saunter with Teddy Roosevelt, and his stirring defense
of Yosemite National Park, threatened by a dam project. The text is largely
drawn from Muir's own words. Excellent, used in whole or in part, as an
introduction to Muir's philosophy, ethics, and capacity for sensitive wilderness
experience. About $20 from Wild productions, P. O. Box 811, Yosemite, CA
95389.
Recent Books, Articles, and Other Materials
Reminder: ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS, ENVIRONMENTAL VALUES, and (for the most
part) THE TRUMPETER and BETWEEN THE SPECIES and ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY REVIEW
are not catalogued here. ISEE members interested in keeping abreast of the
literature in the field need to consult those journals directly. Members
are also encouraged to send notice of articles (preferably copies) to the
editor, especially of those articles and books published in places members
at large are less likely to see.
--RESTORATION ECOLOGY is a newly launched journal, the official journal
of the Society for Ecological Restoration. Blackwell Scientific Publications
will publish it. Both practical and fundamental considerations are to be
covered. Restoration ecology is defined as the intentional alteration of
a site to establish an indigenous, historic ecosystem. Contact: William
Niering, Department of Botany, Connecticut College, 270 Mohegan Avenue,
New London, CT 06320.
--Clarissa Pinkola EstÇs, WOMEN WHO RUN WITH THE WOLVES: MYTHS AND
STORIES OF THE WILD WOMAN ARCHETYPE. New York: Ballentine Books, 1992. 521
pages. $ 20.00 "Within every woman there is a wild and natural creature,
a powerful force, filled with good instincts, passionate creativity, and
ageless knowing. Her name is Wild Woman, but she is an endangered species.
Though the gifts of wildish nature come to us at birth, society's attempt
to "civilize" us into rigid roles has plundered this treasure,
and muffled the deep, life-giving messages of our own souls. Without Wild
Woman, we become over-domesticated, fearful, uncreative, trapped."
EstÇs is a Jungian analyst who lives in Colorado and Wyoming. Her
book has been number one on the NEW YORK TIMES non- fiction best-seller
list.
--Niles Eldredge, ed., SYSTEMATICS, ECOLOGY, AND THE BIODIVERSITY CRISIS.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. 220 pages. Thirteen essays on
what systematists have to say about, and how they can contribute to, biological
conservation. Eldredge is in the Department of Invertebrates, American Museum
of Natural History.
--Rodney R. White, NORTH, SOUTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 1993. 256 pages. Cloth, Canadian $ 50. Paper
$ 17.95. What used to be viewed as local environmental problems are really
linked to the whole process of global industrialization, urbanization, and
rapid population growth. In the extension of European power over most of
the globe, the environment was considered as external to economic rationality.
In developing countries population is producing megacities that are creating
an alarming imbalance between population and resources at the same time
that they are becoming major industrial producers and major polluters. A
serious problem is the lack of shared technologies. Unless the richer nations
share their technologies, and unless they support trade policies that will
allow poor nations to export their goods and to generate wealth for environmental
conservation, the implications are ominous for all of us. White is in geography
at the University of Toronto.
--Jennifer Crawford, THE SUSTAINABLE SELF: AN INQUIRY INTO THE METAPHYSICS
OF SUSTAINABILITY AND THE SELF. Environmental Paper No. 10. Graduate School
of Environmental Sciences, Department of Geography and Environmental Science,
Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3168, Australia. 1993. 70 pages.
ISBN 0 909685 51 7. The monograph, developed from a Master's thesis there,
considers the meaning of Self realization, introduced into environmental
thought by deep ecologists. The term was borrowed from Gandhi and transplanted
into Western environmental philosophy, a "conceptual colonization"
that has, to the great loss of ecophilosophy, deformed the traditional meaning
of both Self realization and the Self. The author argues for a return to
Gandhi's concept, against the Western loss of the vertical dimension of
being, which leaves an impoverished sense of reality and of self. She critiques
the work of deep ecologists. Their deformation of the concept of Self has
created confusion and misunderstanding and even been used by some to strengthen
the modern Western mind set which they purport to change. Yet the positive
significance of deep ecology is acknowledged as potentially providing an
opening for the reintroduction of metaphysics into our understanding of
ourselves and our relationship with nature.
--The Group of Green Economists, ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS. London: Zed Books,
1992. The Group of Green Economists, associated with the German Greens,
draw on various environmental, women's and human rights movements to argue
that there are practical alternatives to the vast inequalities and social
and environmental dislocations caused by two centuries of market-led industrialization
and European colonial rule.
--Wolfgang Sachs, ed., GLOBAL ECOLOGY. London: Zed Books, 1993. 320 pages.
Essays with the common theme of the contradictions in the fashionable notion
of sustainable development.
--Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva, ECOFEMINISM. London: Zed Books, 1993. 288
pages. Examines the relation between patriarchal oppression and the destruction
of nature in the name of profit and progress. Zed Books carries many dozens
of titles in environment and development.
--Matt Cartmill, A VIEW TO A DEATH IN THE MORNING: HUNTING AND NATURE THROUGH
HISTORY. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993. 384 pages. $ 24.95.
The origins and the strange allure of the myth of "man the hunter."
What it means to be human, to stand uncertainly between the wilderness of
beast and prey and the peaceable kingdom. "It is hard to see how we
can justify sportive hunting, since it inflicts grave suffering for the
sake of mere amusement." Such "hunting, then, is not a `natural'
activity in any meaningful sense" (pp. 240-242). Cartmill is in biological
anthropology at Duke University.
--Andrew McLaughlin, REGARDING NATURE: INDUSTRIALISM AND DEEP ECOLOGY. Albany,
NY: State University of New York Press, 1993. Deep ecology explained and
demystified for a general readership by drawing out areas of continuity
and discontinuity between deep ecology and progressive political thought.
The fundamental assumptions of the ideologies within which we find ourselves
caught--capitalism, socialism, anthropocentrism, egocentrism. McLaughlin
is professor of philosophy, Herbert H. Lehman College, City University of
New York.
--Frances Ferguson, SOLITUDE AND THE SUBLIME: THE ROMANTIC AESTHETICS OF
INDIVIDUATION. New York: Routledge, Chapman and Hall, 1992. 256 pages. Cloth,
$ 45; paper, $ 15.95. Especially examines Burke and Kant in terms of the
philosophical issues they raise. Ferguson is professor of English at Johns
Hopkins University.
--Sally McFague, THE BODY OF GOD: AN ECOLOGICAL THEOLOGY. Minneapolis, MN:
Fortress Press, 1993. Most accounts of religion and science address only
issues pertaining to epistemology and method or offer a simple theology
of the stewardship of nature. McFague wants to link the whole scientific
worldview with questions of social justice, the environment, and Christian
doctrines. She wants an organic model and constructs something like a liberation
theology of nature. She shifts from person- centered to cosmos-centered
theology. Seeing the universe as God's body impels us into an ethic of care.
This is a model of God specifically for the sake of the Earth. McFague teaches
theology at Vanderbilt Divinity School. Her 1987 MODELS OF GOD received
the American Academy of Religion's Award for Excellence.
--Delores LaChapelle, SACRED LAND, SACRED SEX: RAPTURE OF THE DEEP. Durango,
CO: Kivaki Press, 1992. 384 pages. 2nd edition, the first was published
in 1988. Said to be the first and only complete manual on experiential deep
ecology, written by a woman who has advocated it for 30 years.
--Jeremy Rifkin, "Beyond Beef, "UTNE READER, March/April 1992.
The cattle industry threatens the environment, human health, and the world
food supply. Our beef-eating habits are killing us, and the rest of the
world.
--Theodore Roszak, "Beyond the Reality Principle," SIERRA, March
April 1993. Planet sanity; why we need an eco-therapy. "Traditional
psychiatry regards consciousness as an accident of nature, doomed--like
life itself--by the entropic destiny of the physical universe. But the Gaia
hypothesis, which views the biosphere as a self-regulating, essentially
eternal mechanism, may point the way to an ecological conception of sanity."
"Ecopsychology commits itself to understanding people as actors on
a planetary stage who shape and are shaped by the biospheric system."
--Phillip Shabecoff, A FIERCE GREEN FIRE: THE AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT.
New York: Hill and Wang, 1993. 352 pages. Shabecoff covered the environmental
beat for the NEW YORK TIMES for 14 years. Historical figures as well as
contemporary figures. Shabecoff projects an all inclusive environmentalism
capable of achieving real power, primarily through electoral means. He wants
to close the gap between the mainstream environmentalist organization and
the grassroots groups "whose members comprise an army of millions ready
to be mobilized in the war for political power."
--Bob Walter, Lois Arkin and Richard Crenshaw, SUSTAINABLE CITIES: CONCEPTS
AND STRATEGIES FOR ECO-CITY DEVELOPMENT. Los Angeles: Eco-Home Media, 1992.
354 pages. $ 20.
--John Hart, SAVING CITIES, SAVING MONEY: ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGIES THAT
WORK. Resource Renewal Institute, 1992. 116 pages. $ 15.95.
--Wendell Berry, FIDELITY: FIVE STORIES. Pantheon. 200 pages. $ 20. Stories
about the way the beloved community brings people through tragedy into celebration
and joy, and stories about the way wilderness becomes a place of renewal
and rebirth in which we rediscover humanity.
--Calvin Luther Martin, IN THE SPIRIT OF THE EARTH: RETHINKING HISTORY AND
TIME. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992. 152 pages. $ 19.95.
Teachers and writers of history must go beyond history-as-usual to speak
of the much deeper story of humans and their connections to the earth. Martin
earlier wrote KEEPERS OF THE GAME, on native American relationships with
the animals. The more participatory sense of the natural world held by small
hunting groups led more clearly to the fundamental truth that nature conserves
humans.
--Jan Narveson, MORAL MATTERS: AN INTRODUCTION. Lewiston, NY: Broadview
Press, 1993. With a section on animal rights. A brief introduction for undergraduates.
--Donald Ludwig, Ray Holborn, and Carl Waters, "Uncertainty, Resource
Exploitation, and Conservation: Lessons from History," SCIENCE 260
(April 2, 1993):17, 36. Short, excellent, powerful argument that everyone
interested in environmental ethics and biological conservation should read.
"There are currently many plans for sustainable use or sustainable
development that are founded upon scientific information and consensus.
Such ideas reflect ignorance of the history of resource exploitation and
misunderstanding of the possibility of achieving scientific consensus concerning
resources and the environment. Although there is considerable variation
in the detail, there is remarkable consistency in the history of resource
exploitation: resources are inevitably overexploited, often to the point
of collapse or extinction. We suggest that such consistency is due to the
following common features: (i) Wealth or the prospect of wealth generates
political and social power that is used to promote unlimited exploitation
of resources. (ii) Scientific understanding and consensus is hampered by
the lack of controls and replicates, so that each new problem involves learning
about a new system. (iii) The complexity of the underlying biological and
physical systems precludes a reductionist approach to management. Optimal
levels of exploitation must be determined by trial and error. (iv) Large
levels of natural variability mask the effects of overexploitation. Initial
overexploitation is not detectable until it is severe and often irreversible."
"For many years the concept of maximum sustained yield (MSY) guided
efforts ... There is now widespread agreement that this concept was unfortunate."
"It is more appropriate to think of resources as managing humans than
the converse." Harvesting of resources is subject to a ratchet effect;
in good times industry ratchets up to exploit, but in normal or bad times,
industry, unwilling to retrench, is propped up by government subsidy, which
results in overexploitation of the resource.
"We propose that we shall never attain scientific consensus concerning
the systems that are being exploited. There have been a number of spectacular
failures to exploit resources sustainably, but to date there is no agreement
about the causes of these failures (in California sardines, the Peruvian
anchoveta, Pacific salmon)." There is no scientific consensus about
what went wrong in the past, much less about how to predict the future.
Five principles of effective management:
1) Include human motivation and responses as part of the system
to be studied and managed.
2. Act before scientific consensus is achieved.
3. Rely on scientists to recognize problems, but not to remedy
them.
4. Distrust claims of sustainability.
5. Confront uncertainty.
"We must consider a variety of plausible hypothesis about the world;
consider a variety of possible sustainable strategies; favor actions that
are robust to uncertainties; hedge; favor actions that are informative;
probe and experiment; monitor results, update assessments and modify policy
accordingly; and favor actions that are reversible. ... By and large the
scientific community has helped to perpetuate the illusion of sustainable
development through scientific and technological progress. Resource problems
are not really environmental problems: They are human problems that we have
created at many times and in many places, under a variety of political,
social, and economic systems." Ludwig is in zoology and mathematics
at the University of British Columbia, Walters in zoology there; Hilborn
is in the School of Fisheries, University of Washington.
--THE EGG: AN ECO-JUSTICE QUARTERLY is now in volume 12. The quarterly explores
critical issues of ecology and justice. Short articles, book reviews, news,
and a steady update on these issues. Contact: Eco-Justice Project and Network,
Anabel Taylor Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-1011. The editor
is Dieter T. Hessel.
--John Torrance, ed., THE CONCEPT OF NATURE. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1993. 138 pages. Six authors on Greek, medieval, and modern conceptions
of nature. Includes Elliott Sober on Darwinism, Roger Penrose on physical
nature, and Robert May on molecular and population biology. Torrance is
at Hertford College, Oxford.
--R. J. (Sam) Berry, ed., ENVIRONMENTAL DILEMMAS: ETHICS AND DECISIONS (London:
Chapman and Hall, 1993), 271 pages. Hardcover, ú 29.95. Case studies
in environmental ethics. Andrew Brennan (Philosophy, University of Western
Australia) has the opening article, "Environmental Decision-Making."
See next paragraph. Frank Golley (Ecology, University of Georgia) has an
article, "Environmental Attitudes in North America." Wolfgang
Haber: "Environmental Attitudes in Germany." Case studies by other
authors, all British: air quality ("History and Ethics of Clean Air",
nuclear power, agriculture, farm animals, wetland conservation, Scottish
nature conservation, economics of pollution control, industry and government
policy formation. With an emphasis on the practical factors that had to
be weighed in when decisions were made in these areas. Sam Berry is professor
of genetics at University College, London, past President of the Linnean
Society and the British Ecological Society and currently president of the
European Ecological Federation.
--Andrew Brennan, "Environmental Decision-Making," in Berry volume,
above. A widespread, puzzling phenomenon underlies our inability to tackle
environmental issues. This is the plight of those who are "incontinent"
in Aristotle's term. Recent philosophy recognizes self-deception and bad
faith as a widespread human failing. We are a long way, in governments,
public agencies, and corporations, from full honesty in our debates on the
environment. To make progress in tackling our increasingly desperate environmental
plight we have to make strenuous efforts to overcome our myth-making and
ready acceptance of partial, shallow versions of the truth. Many of those
who regard themselves as morally deep fall foul of such shallowness. Brennan
reaches in net result a blend of pessimism and qualified optimism. We are
always going to be prone to self-deception and incontinence, deep seated
and largely unchanging aspects of human life, but there is nothing equally
inevitable about shallow and mythic thinking. These failings can be identified
now and guarded against.
The G-7 Nations convened a Sixth Economic Summit Nations Conference on Bio-Ethics
meeting in Brussels, May 10-12, 1989, which set up a Working Committee to
propose a Code of Environmental Practice for the G-7 Nations. This Code
is Appendix A in the Berry anthology, above. Its fundamental principle is
"stewardship of the living and non-living systems of the earth to maintain
their sustainability for present and future, allowing development with equity"
(p. 249). The Code also says, "For this purpose it is not necessary
to distinguish whether a high valuation for nature is based on anthropocentric
usefulness, intuitive wonder at nature's power and intricacy, respect for
all living things, or a combination of all three. However, both undiluted
anthropocentrism and ecocentrism are inadequate" (p. 256).
--M. Mellon, BIOTECHNOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT: A PRIMER ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL
IMPLICATIONS. A publication of the National Wildlife Foundation, Biotechnology
Policy Center, 1400 16th St., N. W. Washington, DC 20036.
--LAW IN THE NEW AGE OF BIOTECHNOLOGY. Environmental Law Centre, 201, 10350-124
St., Edmonton, Alberta T5N 3V9, Canada. Canadian $ 42.75.
--Avner de-Shalit, "Environmental Policies and Justice Between Generations,"
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH 21(1992):307- 316.
--Avner de-Shalit, "Community and the Rights of Future Generations:
A Reply to Robert Elliot," JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHILOSOPHY 9 (no. 1,
1992).
--David Seamon, ed., DWELLING, SEEING AND DESIGNING: TOWARD PHENOMENOLOGICAL
ECOLOGY. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. $ 19.95 paper, $ 59.50 cloth. Thirteen
essays by architects, philosophers, landscape architects, geographers, and
others, who focus on ways that humans might see and understand the natural
and built environments in a deeper, more receptive way. This is in a new
monograph series, "Environmental and Architectural Phenomenology."
Seamon is in architecture at Kansas State University.
--Lee A. Travis and Oliver F. Williams, eds., THE PHARMACEUTICAL CORPORATE
PRESENCE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame
press, 1993. 488 pages. $ 34.95 cloth. 33 contributors. All aspects of the
issue, including intellectual property rights. The ethical concerns of multinational
corporations in the production, distribution, and use of pharmaceuticals
in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The authors teach business at Notre
Dame.
--David Pimentel, ed., THE PESTICIDE QUESTION: ENVIRONMENT, ECONOMICS, AND
ETHICS. New York: Chapman and Hall, 1993. 448 pages. $ 45, cloth. Environmental
impacts of pesticide use and value tradeoffs and ethical issues. Sometimes
the pesticide use is as much for cosmetic purposes as for real nutritional
or health significance.
--Shridath Ramphal, OUR COUNTRY, THE PLANET. Washington, DC: Island Press,
1992. 291 pages, paper. Chapters on: a fragile world, air and water, earth
and fire, the profligate rich, the powerless poor, population, a feudal
world, ethics of survival, muddling through or worse, enlightened change.
Sir Shridath Ramphal is a former foreign minister of Guyana and a member
of the Brundtland Commission. He is President of the World Conservation
Union (IUCN).
--Robert Edgerton, SICK SOCIETIES: CHALLENGING THE MYTH OF PRIMITIVE HARMONY.
New York: Free Press, 1992.
--Drucker, Peter, THE ECOLOGICAL VISION. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction,
1992.
--Lehr, Jay, ed., RATIONAL READINGS ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES. New York: Van
Nostrand Reinhold, 1992.
--D. Scott Slocombe, ECOSYSTEM APPROACHES: AN ANNOTATED MULTIDISCIPLINARY
BIBLIOGRAPHY (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfred Laurier University Cold Regions
Research Centre, 1991), 58 pages. Also Working Paper No. 1 of the Commission
on Environmental Strategy and Planning of the International Union for Conservation
of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). A bibliography for ecosystem approaches
to environmental planning and management, with a keyword index. 207 annotated
items, selected as the key references in the field. Slocombe is a geographer
at Wilfred Laurier University. Canadian $ 5 plus $ 2 shipping, from Cold
Regions Research Centre, Wilfred Laurier University, Waterloo, Ont. N2L
3C5, Canada. Phone: 519/884-1970.
--D. Scott Slocombe, ed. TOOLS FOR SUSTAINABILITY: EXPLORATIONS AND PROSPECTS,
proceedings of a workshop held at Wilfred Laurier University, October 1991
(Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Cold Regions Research Centre,
1991), 156 pages. Also Working Paper No. 2 of the Commission on Environmental
Strategy and Planning of the International Union for Conservation of Nature
and Natural Resources (IUCN). Fifteen papers: sample topics: bioregionalism,
adaptive management in the Canadian north, information technology as an
enabling tool, sustainability in indigenous systems, integrating populations
and nature conservation. Canadian $ 10, plus $ 2 shipping, from Cold Regions
Research Centre, address above.
--Denis Goulet, "Ethics and Development," NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
RESEARCH AND EXPLORATION 8(no. 2, 1992):138-147. The global quest for development
raises difficult ethical questions about the relation between having goods
and being good, the foundations of justice in society, and the proper human
stance toward nature. The failure of reductionist economic approaches to
development opens the door to ethics to find its place in development debates
and practice. Goulet is at the University of Notre Dame.
--Kent H. Redford, "The Ecologically Noble Savage," ORION NATURE
QUARTERLY, vol. 9, no. 3, 1990, pp. 25-29. Indigenous knowledge is important
because "it reflects the accumulated wisdom of unique cultures ...
and occasionally, though only occasionally, it offers methods that, when
modified, can be of use to inhabitants, native and nonnative, in the modern
Neotropics." Nevertheless "the ecologically noble savage"
is a myth; "the recently accumulated evidence ... refutes this concept
of ecological nobility." "These people behaved as humans now do;
they did whatever they had to to feed themselves and their families,"
often with adverse environmental results. Redford is with the Center for
Latin American Studies and the Department of Wildlife at the University
of Florida.
--Anne Matthews, "Slow Death Beyond the 98th Meridian. Can Anyone Out
There Save the Great Plains?" OUTSIDE, May 1993. Two percent of the
nation live in this vast area, largely depopulated with the agricultural
revolution and industrialization. The plains are overgrazed, overplowed,
overfenced, and also a wheat basket. Can the plains be re-invented as an
alternative to industrial, urban civilization? "We're hard-wired for
the Paleolithic," says Wes Jackson. "We need less technological
cleverness, more understanding."
--David J. Eagan and David W. Orr, eds., THE CAMPUS AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY.
Theme issue of NEW DIRECTIONS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION, No. 77, Spring 1992.
133 pages. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1992. Single copies $
14.95, Jossey-Bass Publishers, 350 Sansome St., San Francisco, CA 94104.
Eleven articles on making a campus green. Campus environmental audits at
UCLA; environmental literacy and action at Tufts University, campus energy
management at the University of Rochester, making Brown University green,
the environmental ombudsman at the University of Kansas, campus environmental
stewardship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, procuring locally grown
foods at Hendrix College, Arkansas, the campus and the biosphere initiative
at Carleton and Saint Olaf colleges, student environmental organizations,
and campus recycling. Ways to find a college, if you can, that does the
least damage to the environment. About 7,000 copies have gone to subscribers
at colleges and universities, largely college administrators. Eagan is at
the University of Wisconsin, Madison; Orr is at Oberlin College.
--April A. Smith, CAMPUS ECOLOGY: A GUIDE TO ASSESSING ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
AND CREATING STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE. Los Angeles: Living Planet Press, 1993.
130 pages. $ 17.95. Waste reduction, energy efficiency, water conservation,
environmental justice, transportation alternatives, recycling, green investment
strategies, environmental education and careers. April Smith is an environmental
planner based in Los Angeles.
--Adam Rogers, THE EARTH SUMMIT: A PLANETARY RECKONING. Los Angeles: Global
View Press (7095 Hollywood Blvd, Suite 717, LA 90028), 1993. Paper, 350
pages. $ 16.95 plus $ 2 shipping. Preparations for Rio, the Global Forum,
the Summit, indigenous peoples there, the business presence, what the Summit
cost, what it recommends spending, selected speeches, a summary and analysis
of the convention on climate change, on biodiversity, the Rio Declaration,
the statement of forest principles, and Agenda 21, missing agendas (what
the Summit failed to do), alternative treaties (prepared by NGO's and others),
and the road from Rio. A thorough account. Foreword by Noel Brown, afterword
by David Suzuki. Rogers is editor of the Los Angeles based environmental
journal, EARTH NEWS. See also THE EARTH SUMMIT in video section.
AGENDA 21, produced at the Rio Earth Summit, is a long and rather unwieldy
document (700-900 pages, depending on the printing format), 40 chapters.
The whole thing is has been about $ 75.00, but a version has now been released
for $ 25.00, if sold in developed countries (free copies are available in
developing countries). There is both an English and a French text. Various
introductions and short versions are appearing. It is also available, rather
inexpensively or even free, on computer disk (if you supply your own disk).
Also, various videos. United Nations Publications, Sales Section, Room DC2-853,
United Nations, NY 10017. Phone 212/963-8300. 800/253-9646.
--Kilaparti Ramakrishna and George M. Woodwell, eds., WORLD FORESTS FOR
THE FUTURE. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. $ 18.50. 208 pages.
Both authors are at Woods Hole Research Center.
--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 ...
a strenuous program of self- effacement is the best contribution our species
has left to offer, is neither good biology nor good history."
--Scott H. Slovic and Terrell H. Dixon, eds., BEING IN THE WORLD: AN ENVIRONMENTAL
READER FOR WRITERS. New York: Macmillan, 1993. 704 pages. Eighty-five selections,
with a wide diversity. Includes multiple selections by ten noted writers.
A general introduction to environmental writing, for use in nature writing
courses. Discussion topics and writing assignments designed to encourage
students to explore their own relationship to nature as a way of strengthening
their writing. Readings are grouped thematically moving from detached observation
of nature into direct contact to familiarity and internalization. Sample
sections: Encounters with the Otherness of Nature; Fecundity and Mortality;
Walking: On the Trail and Off; Water: Water Narratives; Birds and Beasts;
Nearby Nature; Climbing: Mountain Narratives; A Sense of Place; Spiritual
and Aesthetic Responses to Nature; Visual Representations of Nature (with
four color prints); Nature and the Mind. Slovic is at Southwest Texas State
University, Dixon is at the University of Houston.
--Rita C. Manning, SPEAKING FROM THE HEART: A FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE ON ETHICS
Rowman and Littlefield, 1992. 224 pages. $ 14.99 paper; $ 40.00 cloth. Contains
a section "Caring for Animals: Should a Feminist Care?" Manning
is in the Department of Philosophy, San Jose State University.
--Henry David Thoreau, FAITH IN A SEED. Washington, DC: Island Press/Shearwater
Books, 1993. Edited by Bradley P. Dean. The first publication of Thoreau's
last manuscript. "Though I do not believe that a plant will spring
up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that
you have seen a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders."
--Yi-Fu Tuan, PASSING STRANGE AND WONDERFUL: AESTHETICS, NATURE, AND CULTURE.
Washington, DC: Island Press/Shearwater Books, 1993. 288 pages. Aesthetic
needs are basic, not secondary, essential parts of life and society. The
aesthetic is not one aspect of culture but its central core. Starting with
the building blocks of aesthetic experience--sight, hearing, smell, touch,
taste--Tuan gradually expands his analysis to include art, architecture,
literature, philosophy, music, and landscape. How can the aesthetic become
a moral and political force? How the aesthetic operates in four widely disparate
cultures: Australian aboriginal, Chinese, medieval European, and modern
American. Tuan is professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin,
Madison. Shearwater Books is a new imprint of Island Press designed for
the trade market.
--John S. Parkinson and David F. Blair, "Does E. COLI Have a Nose?"
SCIENCE, March 19, 1993. Studies now suggest that the common ESCHERICIA
COLI bacterium has a remarkably sophisticated nose-spot, a precursor of
smelling! The authors are in biology, University of Utah.
--John L. Allen, ed., ENVIRONMENT 93/94. 12th ed. Guilford, CT: Dushkin
Publishing Co., 1993. 243 pages. 32 articles, all drawn from the popular
press, debating environmental issues. I. The Global Environment. II. Population
and Hunger. III. Energy. IV. Pollution. V. Resources: Land, Water, and Air.
VI. Biosphere: Endangered Species. Articles are easy and short, suitable
for freshmen and high school use, but raise issues that are right at the
center of the debate. Allen is in geography at the University of Connecticut.
--Evelyn Martin and Timothy Beatley, "Our Relationship with the Earth:
Environmental Ethics in Planning Education," JOURNAL OF PLANNING EDUCATION
AND RESEARCH 12(1993):117-126. The results of a study of the extent to which
university planning programs are contributing to new ethical relationships
through the teaching of environmental ethics. Eighty-one programs were surveyed.
The links between environmental ethics and environmental planning are often
weaker than they can be and ought to be. Implications for planning education
and recommendations for future curriculum development. The survey involves
some rather sophisticated inquiry about where (in which departments) environmental
ethics is and is not taught on which campuses. "Exposure to such ethical
theories, concepts, and tools is as essential to the long term productivity,
effectiveness, and relevance of planners as are the more conventional skills-based
courses." Martin is with the Center for Respect of Life and Environment,
a division of the Humane Society of the United States; Beatley is chair
of the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning at the University
of Virginia. Also involved is Bruce K. Ferguson, Landscape Architecture,
University of Georgia. This study was also the subject of panels at the
Annual conference, Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, Charlottesville,
VA, October 17-20, 1992 and at the Association of Collegiate Schools of
Planning, Columbus, OH, October 30-November 1, 1992. Those interested in
further information and in the Land Ethics program are invited to contact
Evelyn Martin, Center for Respect of Life and Environment, 2100 L Street,
N.W., Washington, DC 20037. Phone 703/329-3320.
--Margaret Stevens, "Environmental Ethics: Elective Only?" LAND
(LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE NEWS DIGEST), March-April 1993. A briefer summary
of the same study. The Code of Professional Conduct of the American Society
of Landscape Architects says, "the member has a social and environmental
responsibility to reconcile the public's needs and the natural environment
with minimal disruption to the natural system." Ian McHarg says, "The
study of environmental ethics, with its roots in ecology, is absolutely
essential to landscape architecture." Yet very few design education
programs have incorporated environmental ethics into their curricula.
--Evelyn Martin, "The Last Mountain," AMERICAN FORESTS, April
1993. "The Mt. Graham red squirrel controversy [building a telescope
that threatens a subspecies of red squirrel] raises fundamental questions
about whether we humans should reach for the stars without coming to know
the land at our feet."
--McIntosh, Robert P., THE BACKGROUND OF ECOLOGY: CONCEPT AND THEORY. NY:
Cambridge University Press. Ecology cannot change the dominant humans-nature
paradigm.
--Bakken, Peter W., J. Ronald Engel, and Joan Gibb Engel, 1993. ECOLOGY,
JUSTICE, AND CHRISTIAN FAITH: A GUIDE TO THE LITERATURE, 1960-1990. Westport,
CT: Greenwood Press. In Press.
--Bratton, Susan Power, 1993. CHRISTIANITY, WILDERNESS, AND WILDLIFE: THE
ORIGINAL DESERT SOLITAIRE. Scranton, PA: University of Scranton Press.
--Earl Winkler and Jerrold R. Coombs, eds., APPLIED ETHICS: A READER. Cambridge,
MA: Blackwells, 1993. 450 pages. $ 19.95 paper, $ 49.95 hardcover. To be
released in July. The papers in the second half of the book are on environmental
ethics, business ethics, and biomedical ethics. The papers on environmental
ethics focus on the question of intrinsic values in nature. More details
when available. Both authors are at the University of British Columbia.
--Riley E. Dunlap and Angela G. Mertig, eds., AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTALISM:
THE U. S. ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT, 1970-1990. Philadelphia: Taylor and Francis,
1992. Eight papers, tracking and interpreting environmentalism in the United
States over two decades. Samples: Robert Cameron Mitchell, Angela G. Mertig,
and Riley E. Dunlap, "Twenty Years of Environmental Mobilization: Trends
Among National Environmental Organizations"; Bill Devall, "Deep
Ecology and Radical Environmentalism"; Lynton K. Caldwell, "Globalizing
Environmentalism: Threshold of a New Phase in International Relations";
Michael McCloskey, "Twenty Years of Change in the Environmental Movement:
An Insider's View." Both authors are sociologists at Washington State
University, Pullman.
--Mary R. English, SITING LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL FACILITIES.
New York: Quorum Books, 1992. 279 pages. With chapters on Trust, Risk, and
Justice, and an examination of how various ethical theories fit what has
happened in policy decisions. Lots of case studies. Documents how the poor
catch most of the radioactive pollution. English is an Associate Director
of the University of Tennessee's Energy, Environment, and Resources Center
and a Senior Fellow of the University's Waste Management Research and Education
Institute.
--Eugene Linden, "Can Animals Think?" cover story in TIME, March
22, 1993. After years of debate, ingenious new studies of dolphins, apes,
and other brainy beasts are convincing many scientists that the answer is
yes. Dolphins, chimps, parrots, sea lions, dogs. Why intelligence evolved.
"If the notion that animals might actually think poses a problem, it
is an ethical one. The great philosophers, such as Descartes, used their
belief that animals cannot think as a justification for arguing that they
do not have moral rights. It is one thing to treat animals as mere resources
if they are presumed to be little more than living robots, but it is entirely
different if they are recognized as fellow sentient beings. Working out
the moral implications makes a perfect puzzle for a large-brained, highly
social species like our own."
"Loved to Death: How the Fight to Save Endangered Species Can Backfire,"
NEWSWEEK, April 12, 1993. Ways in which the attention give to endangered
species can make them more desirable for poachers, hunters, or more liable
to provoke retaliation and other takings that jeopardize the species further.
--Robert Goodland, Herman E. Daly, and Salah El Serafy, eds. POPULATION,
TECHNOLOGY, AND LIFESTYLE. Washington: Island Press, 1992. Ten articles:
samples: Daly: "From Empty-world economics to Full-world economics:
Recognizing an Historical Turning Point in Economic Development"; Goodland,
"The Case that the World Has Reached Limits"; Robert Costanza,
"The Ecological Economics of Sustainability: Investing in Natural Capital";
Jan Tinbergen and Roeffie Hueting, "GNP and Market prices: Wrong Signals
for Sustainable Economic Success that Mask Environmental Destruction."
The editors, who are philosophically quite sophisticated, are with the World
Bank.
--YALE JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, Winter 1993, vol. 18, no. 1, contains
a series of papers, "Earth Rights and Responsibilities: Human Rights
and Environmental Protection." The papers result from a conference
held at Yale Law School, April 3-5, 1992, and sponsored by the American
Association for the Advancement of Science and Yale Law School. Audrey R.
Chapman, Program Director, Science and Human Rights, AAAS, was the principal
coordinator of the conference and introduces the papers. The principal papers
are:
--Kerry Kennedy Cuomo (Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights,
New York, NY), "Human Rights and the Environment: Common Ground."
--James A. Nash (Churches' Center for Theology and Public Policy, Washington,
DC), "The Case for Biotic Rights."
--Holmes Rolston, III (Philosophy, Colorado State University), "Rights
and Responsibilities on the Home Planet."
--James W. Nickel (Philosophy, University of Colorado), "The Human
Right to a Safe Environment: Philosophical Perspectives on Its Scope and
Justification."
--James W. Karr (Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Washington),
"Protecting Ecological Integrity: An Urgent Social Goal."
--J. Andy Smith, III (Social and Ethical Responsibility in Investments,
National Ministries, American Baptist Churches in the USA), "The CERES
Principles: A Voluntary Code for Corporate Environmental Responsibility."
The CERES (Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies) Principles
resulted from the Valdez oilspill.
--Robert D. Bullard (Sociology, University of California, Riverside), "Race
and Environmental Justice in the United States."
--Samara F. Swanston (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), "Legal
Strategies for Achieving Environmental Equity."
--Armstrong Wiggins (a Miskito from the Northern Autonomous Region of Nicaragua,
and Indian Law Resource Center, Washington), "Indian Rights and the
Environment."
--Michelle Leighton Schwartz (Project on Human Rights and the Environment,
National Heritage Institute), "International Legal Protection for Victims
of Environmental Abuse."
--Michael J. Kane (U. S. Department of State, Coordination Center for UNCED),
"Promoting Political Rights to Protect the Environment."
(end of papers in Winter 93, YALE JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW)
--POPULATION AND ENVIRONMENT: A JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES is
now in volume 13, an important journal that may be overlooked by those interested
in environmental ethics. The editor is Virginia Abernethy, Department of
Psychiatry, AA-2206 Medical Center North, Nashville, TN 37232. Phone: 615/322-6608.
The publisher is Human Sciences Press, Inc., 233 Spring Street, New York,
NY 10013-1578. Phone 212/620-8000. A free sample copy is available.
A sample paper, by Virginia Abernethy is: "The True Face of Compassion:
Immigration Policy and Other Ways to Help." "The steadily intensifying
national debate on immigration is incorrectly cast with pro-immigration
`humanitarians' on the one hand and hard-nosed, tight-border, `America-firsters'
on the other. This scenario distorts an underlying question, which is how
to encourage and support third world countries in confronting their own,
very serious problems. From this perspective, positions both for and against
high immigration share the common ground of having a compassionate intent."
"Immigration policy is one of the very few means by which the U. S.
may be able to influence the trend of world population growth. ... Barriers
to immigration which lead to zero population growth in the U.S. make us
a credible international example. ... Only then will the most innovative,
even dissident, people beyond our border be persuaded to remain at home,
where they are needed to confront and lead the way out of the misery which
inevitable results from failure to recognize limits." (Thanks to Ron
Engel.)
--Peter Marshall, NATURE'S WEB: AN EXPLORATION OF ECOLOGICAL THINKING. In
U.K. published by Simon and Schuster and in U.S. by Paragon House, New York,
1992. More detail when available.
--Peter Marshall, DEMANDING THE IMPOSSIBLE: A HISTORY OF ANARCHISM. London:
Harper Collins. 767 pages. ú 25.00 hardcover, also in paper by Fontana,
ú 10.00. Chapters on Taoism, Proudhon, Kropotkin, Gandhi, and Murray
Bookchin.
--Marek M. Bonenburg (Philosophy, Jagellonian University of Cracow), ETYKA
SRODOWISKOWA: ZALOZENIA I KIERUNKI (= ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS: ASSUMPTIONS
AND TRENDS). In Polish. Cracow: Jagellonian University, Institute of Philosophy,
1992. 152 pages. Softcover. There is a brief English summary at the end.
This is the first book on environmental ethics published in Poland and presents,
in short chapters, the main trends in contemporary environmental ethics.
Nine approaches to environmental ethics are analyzed, the approaches by
Tom Regan, Robin Attfield, Paul Taylor, Aldo Leopold and J. Baird Callicott,
Arne Naess, Holmes Rolston, James Lovelock, Edward Goldsmith, and Henryk
Skolimowski. The author concentrates on the theoretical justifications of
each ethical position and also on its practical consequences. On one side,
there is a tendency to concentrate on human relations with nonhuman individuals;
on the other there is a tendency to emphasize duties toward ecosystems.
Sample chapter titles (translated from Polish): Chapter 1: The Basic Theses
of Environmental Ethics. Chapter 2. The Theory of Respect for Nature of
Paul Taylor. Chapter 6: Deep Ecology. Chapter 7: The Ecocentric Theory of
Holmes Rolston, III. (Thanks to Jan Wawrzyniak.)
--Duncan Fisher and Clare Davis, Alexander Juras and Vukasin Pavlovic, eds.
CIVIL SOCIETY AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE. 300 pages.
About US$ 20.00. Available from Institut fÅr EuropÑische Umweltpolitik
e.V., Aloys Schulte Str. 6, 5300 Bonn 1, Germany. Or: Ecological Studies
Institute, 49 Wellington Street, London WC2E 7BN, U.K. These same sources
also have available an NGO DIRECTORY FOR CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE.
Recent Master's Thesis at Colorado State University:
--Brenda Kay Hausauer, PHILOSOPHICAL AND LITERARY METHODOLOGY: HOLMES ROLSTON'S
LITERARY PHILOSOPHICAL METHODS. Spring 1993. Section One: The differences
between nature writing and environmental philosophy, comparing writer Annie
Dillard and philosopher Holmes Rolston. Different strategies and the postures
reader adopt toward the text. One conclusion is that all philosophical texts
should be partially evaluated as artistic works. Section II. Nine of Rolston's
more "non-philosophical" and partially artistic (literary) texts
are examined in detail for the blending of appeal to experience and to argument.
Section III. The place of autobiographical references. All of Rolston's
methods examined are uses of the personal in philosophical texts, here compared
with Annie Dillard's and philosopher Erazim Kohak's uses of the personal.
Some of Rolston's non philosophical, literary methods raise questions which
could help to bring about a reconceptualization of philosophy's traditional
methodology.
Issues
In February 1992, the Royal Society of London and the National Academy of
Science issued an unprecedented joint statement, warning that time is running
out for effective response to such problems as overpopulation, climate heating,
and biodiversity. Emphasizing their "deep concern," the communique
asserts that if present patterns of human activities continue, then "science
and technology may not be able to prevent either irreversible degradation
of the environment or continued poverty for much of the world."' See
John Maddox, "National Academy/Royal Society: Warning on Population
Growth," NATURE 355(1992):759.
Hawaii plant crisis deepens. There are 1,102 plant taxa indigenous to Hawaii,
of which 1,020 are endemic (92%). Of these 95 are extinct (9%) and 271 endangered
(25%), of which 104 are Federally listed. Four species are extinct in the
wild, but surviving in cultivation; 16 species have one remaining plant
known in the wild; 68 species have 10 or fewer plants remaining in the wild,
169 species have 100 or fewer plants remaining in the wild; 271 species
have 1,000 or fewer plants remaining in the wild. PLANT CONSERVATION (Center
for Plant Conservation, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis), vol. 7, no.
2, 1993.
Sow grizzly shot for eating a man. Last October John Petranyi was hiking
alone in Glacier National Park and was attacked twice midday by a sow grizzly
with two cubs. He was killed and partially eaten. Park officials debated
killing the bears, received over 100 phone calls pleading for the bears,
including a statement from Charles Jonkel, head of Ursid Research Center,
Missoula. But other bear biologists disagreed and argued that the severe
attack made others more likely from the same bears. So the three were shot.
This was the ninth documented case of a human being killed and eaten in
the United States. No grizzlies had been shot for attacking persons in Glacier
since 1980, although grizzlies have mauled 26 persons and killed six there
since then. Story in OUTSIDE, April 1993.
Bear hunting in California. Boyd Gibbons, Director of the California Department
of Fish and Game has advocated stopping bear hunting with dogs in that state,
with great criticism from California houndsmen, who have demanded his immediate
resignation. Though a hunter himself, Gibbons said, the bear hunt with dogs
"is a challenge to our collective conscience as hunters, who respect
the animals we hunt." Gary West, director of California Houndsmen,
insists that the hunts must be continued: "Our wildlife, our resources
and our children deserve nothing less." Hunters lost a 1990 round about
hunting lions with dogs; it is now illegal to hunt lions with or without
dogs. Gibbons said, "There comes a time in some matters of wildlife
policy when science reaches its limits, and we must rise to a higher plane
of inquiry. The debate over hound hunting of bears has reached that tree,
and now we--not the bears--must climb it. ... This is a moral dilemma."
"Hunting has a future only so long as it shows a soul.
This is time for soul searching." California has between 17,000 and
24,000 black bears, and takes about 1,300 bears a year, two- thirds by hunters
with hounds. The California state animal is the grizzly bear, extinct in
that state since 1922, and present now only as fabric and dye on the state
flag. Colorado voters in a state referendum last fall voted overwhelmingly
to ban spring bear hunting, and all bear hunting with bait and dogs. California
surveys indicate 80% of the state is against bear hunting. Stories in LOS
ANGELES TIMES, March 29, April 3, 1993, or WALL STREET JOURNAL, April 13,
1993, or more information from California Fish and Game, Conservation Education
Office, Resources Building, 1416 Ninth Street, Sacramento, CA 95814.
Polish NGO's met in October in Poznan to coordinate green movements with
animal welfare movements in Poland, to consider new animal welfare laws,
and the integration of Polish laws with those of other European nations.
Another concern was goose farming for fat livers in Poland. The meeting
was moderated by Jan Wawrzyniak; other participants were Janice H. Cox,
World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) regional director for
Eastern Europe, Princess Elizabeth de Croy (WSPA, France), Derek Evans,
(veterinarian, WSPA), and Wanda Blake (U.S. Humane Society and Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). A recent debate has involved whether
to allow foreign hunters to shoot elk, including cows, with some claiming
habitat is declining and elk are overpopulating, and that the hunters can
be used to cull the herds. A report is available by Janice H. Cox, THE STATUS
OF ANIMAL PROTECTION IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE from various WPSA offices,
among them 10 Lawn Lane, London SW8 1UD, U.K., and P. O. Box 190, Boston,
MA 02130.
In March the International Court of Justice for Animal Rights met in Geneva.
A major concern was the conditions of animal transportation in Europe, including
transit shipments, which are often rather unregulated, and where border
officials are often bribed to look the other way.
A new TV program, "Animals" is now aired weekly in Poland, devoted
to animal education and welfare issues. Persons attempting to introduce
more environmental awareness classes in primary, secondary, and university
levels have met increasing resistance, despite the evident environmental
degradation in Poland, as it is feared that such education will slow the
growth of capitalist development and investment in that country. Polish
milk continues to be contaminated as a result of the Cherynobl disaster.
(Thanks to Jan Wawrzyniak.)
Agreements surrounding the California coastal scrub and the California gnatcatcher
(POLIOPTILA CALIFORNICA), recently listed as a federally threatened species,
are being watched as an example of early-on, ecosystem-oriented conservation.
The 3 and 1/2 inch bird was formerly regarded as a race of the Black-tailed
Gnatcatcher of Mexico, Arizona, and New Mexico. About 2,500 pairs of the
birds remain in a dwindling habitat, valuable for residential development.
Developers are willing to set aside some of 250,000 acres for an agreement
to develop the rest. Part of the picture is that some 50 other plants and
animals are to be protected on the same lands, which will be managed from
an ecosystem perspective, including the developed lands within the area.
Story in CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, April 2, 1993.
Greening the churches. In a $ 4 million program, operating out of the Episcopal
Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, some 70,000 congregations
across the United States have been selected for pilot programs in bringing
religion to bear on environmental conservation. Paul Gorman is director
of the program.
Pollution credits have gone on sale. The Chicago Board of Trade will act
as the middleman in a free-market approach to controlling air pollution.
Under 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency has set a national limit on sulfur-dioxide emissions. Utility A and
Utility B may each have to cut emissions by 100 tons. If Utility A, with
a more modern plant, can find a way to overcut, say to 200 tons, it gets
a 100- ton credit surplus, which it can sell on the market. Utility B, an
older plant, can purchase this credit, instead of cutting emissions. The
benefit is the incentive approach, but a difficulty is that those who live
near Utility B get no reduction of pollution in their area, and industries
that can purchase credits to pollute will have little incentive to clean
up--if credit purchase is cheap. Story in CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, March
25, 1993.
Thirty rivers totaling 1,193 miles were added to the U.S. Wild and Scenic
Rivers System in 1992. Some especially notable segments, 129 miles of the
Great Egg Harbor River in New Jersey, 55 miles of the Delaware and 20 miles
for study of the New River. The Niobrara and Missouri River segments in
Nebraska are victories for the interior West. Defeats include the Gunnison
River in Colorado and the Lower Salmon in Idaho. The passage of the Grand
Canyon Protection Act and the halting of the proposed Auburn Dam near Sacramento
represent hard fought victories.
The U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of London issued
an unusual joint statement on population growth and environmental degradation
in 1992. The Royal Society has been traditionally shy of committing itself
to anything other than technical judgments. The two academies argue that
both developed and developing countries are escalating pressure on the environment.
These changes may irreversibly damage the Earth's capacity to sustain life,
and many species have already disappeared or are likely to do so. Biodiversity
gets special attention in the statement. The "loss of biodiversity
... is irreversible ... and has serious consequences for the human prospect
in the future." People should not expect too much from science. "It
is not prudent to rely on science and technology alone to solve problems
created by rapid population growth, wasteful resource consumption and harmful
human practices." Story in NATURE, February 27, 1992.
World Scientists' Warning to Humanity. The Union of Concerned Scientists
issued this warning in December of 1992, signed by a host of prominent scientists.
"Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human
activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment
and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices
put at serious risk the future that we wish for a human society and the
plant and animal kingdoms, and many so alter the living world that it will
be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental changes
are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring
about."
"We the undersigned, senior members of the world's scientific community,
hereby warn all humanity of what lies ahead. A great change in our stewardship
of the earth and the life on it is required, if vast human misery is to
be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably
mutilated." "A new ethic is required--a new attitude towards discharging
our responsibility for caring for ourselves and for the earth. We must recognize
the earth's limited capacity to provide for us. We must recognize its fragility.
We must no longer allow it to be ravaged. This ethic must motivate a great
movement, convincing reluctant leaders and reluctant governments and reluctant
peoples themselves to effect the needed changes." Contact Union of
Concerned Scientists, 26 Church St., Cambridge, MA 02238.
Legislation establishing the U. S. National Institutes for the Environment
(NIE) may be introduced this spring. Study groups have been at work since
Congress appropriated $ 400,000 for the study in October 1990. Contact:
David E. Blockstein, Executive Director, Committee for the National Institutes
for the Environment, 730 11th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20001-4521. Phone
202/628-4303.
Recent and Upcoming Events
--April 17-18. "Human Rights, Ethics, and Justice," at Hagop Kevorkian
Center for Near Eastern Studies, New York University. Various of the panels
on rights involve rights to an environment with integrity, and one panel
is devoted to "Ecology and the Politics of Indigenous Peoples."
Laura Westra gives a paper, "Human Rights in the Third world and Global
Sustainability." --April 19-21. "Science and Religion Forum: Questions
about Ecology." High Leigh Conference Centre, Hoddesdon, Herts., U.K.
Contact: David A. Pailin, Faculty of Theology, University of Manchester,
Manchester M13 9PL, U.K.
--April 20-22. "Restoring Diversity: Is Reintroduction an Option for
Endangered Plants?" Center for Plant Conservation, Missouri Botanical
Garden, P. O. Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166. Contact Marie Bruegmann.
--April 23-24. "Environmental Apocalypse or the Renewal of Reverence:
A Workshop for Reflective Action, at the Science Center of Harvard University."
Sponsored by the Boston Theological Institute and the Harvard Divinity School.
Phone 617/527-4880.
--April 29-May 2. Eastern Communication Association Convention at New Haven,
CT. The theme is "Earthtalk: Saving our Planet and Our Selves Through
Communication Empowerment." Contact Thomas L. Veenendall, Department
of BSCDT, Montclair State College, Upper Montclair, NY 07043. Phone 201/893-5193.
--May 13-16. "Theological Education to Meet the Environmental Challenge:
Toward Just and Sustainable Communities," at Stony Point, NY. Over
one hundred theological educators gathering to address how theological education
can help meet the environmental challenge. John B. Cobb, Jr., is the leadoff
speaker. The conference is sponsored by the John D. and Catherine T. McArthur
Foundation and the Center for Respect of Life and Environment. Contact Dieter
Hessel, 2100 L Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20037. Phone 609/921-7942.
--May 17-21. National InterAgency Wilderness Conference, Tucson, AZ. Sponsored
by the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Forest
Service, the National Park Service, and the Society of American Foresters.
Banquet address by Ted Turner, founder of the CNN television network and
active conservationist. Luncheon address by Dave Foreman. Dozens of papers
by agency persons. Lots of preconference and postconference field trips,
led by agency persons. Phone 800/722- 2500.
--May 20-21. Youth from 60 Nations Meet at University of Colorado, Boulder,
for United Nations Environmental Program. For the first time the United
Nations Environment Programme will stages its nine-year old Global Youth
Forum outside of New York City, this time in Boulder. Over 2,000 youth are
expected. Said to be the largest assembly of young environmentalists in
the world.
--May 21-23. "Technology and Ecology," VII Biennial Congress of
the Society for Philosophy and Technology, Valencia, Spain. Eric Katz is
a speaker. Contact: Larry Hickman, Department of Philosophy, Texas A &
M University, College Station, TX 77843- 4237.
--May 24-26. National Association of Environmental Professionals, Raleigh,
NC, North Raleigh Hilton and Convention Center. Theme: "Current and
Future Priorities for Environmental Management."
Contact: National Association of Environmental Professionals, 5165 MacArthur
Boulevard, NW, Washington, DC 20016.
--May 28-29. "Cosmos and Creation: Science, Wisdom, and Beauty,"
at Loyola College, Baltimore, Maryland. Contact Frank McGuire, Loyola College,
4501 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21210. Phone 410-617/2261.
--June 7-11, "Ecology and Ethics," at Graduate Theological Union,
Berkeley, CA, short course, led by Larry Rasmussen. Contact GTU Cooperative
Summer, 1798 Scenic Ave., Berkeley, CA 94709. Phone 800/999-0528 or 510/848-0528.
See also Reuther, "Ecofeminist Theology," July 12-16 below.
--June 7-July 16. The American West: Environment and History, 1993 National
Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Seminar for College Teachers. Donald
Worster, Director, University of Kansas, Lawrence. Full participation is
limited to twelve participants, already chosen. For papers and related activities
contact Donald Worster, The American West Seminar, Hall Center for Humanities,
211 Watkins Home, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66046- 2967.
--June 9-14. Society for Conservation Biology, meeting at Arizona State
University, Tempe. Details on ISEE session, see earlier.
--June 10-July 10. "Environmental Ethics and the Greater Yellowstone."
A study course, with University of Wyoming credit available, that uses the
Greater Yellowstone area to explore environmental ethics. Many field trips
into the park and six national forests. Limited to nine participants. $
995. Nancy Shea is in charge; she has a Ph.D. in philosophy as well as an
M.S. and B.S. in biology. She is Director of Education at the Teton Science
School, an environmental education center in Jackson Hole since 1967. Teton
Science School, Box 68, Kelly, WY 83011. Phone 307/733-4765.
--June 14-20, UN General Assembly, Commission on Sustainable Development,
meets for its first substantive session in New York. An organizational meeting
was held in February. This Commission is being formally established by the
Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. The International Society
of Environmental Ethics has Roster Status and appointed delegates of the
society are eligible to take part in the work of the Commission. Contact:
United Nations Secretariat, ECOSOC/NGO Unit, Room DC-2 2340, New York, NY
10017. Is any ISEE member interested in going? --June 20-26. Sixth Annual
Wildbranch Workshop in Outdoor, Natural History, and Environmental Writing.
Sterling College, Craftsbury Common, Vermont. For those who want to improve
and market their environmental writing. Contact David Brown, Director, Sterling
College, Craftsbury Common, VT 05827.
--June 26-27. Environmental Ethics at Aspen, Colorado. Two-day course led
by Dale Jamieson (Philosophy, University of Colorado) at the Aspen Center
for Environmental Studies. P. O. Box 8777, Aspen, CO 81612-8777. Phone 303/925-5756.
--June 27-July 3. VII Pacific Science Inter-Congress, in Okinawa, Japan.
Main themes are speciation, dispersal, and conservation of species in the
Pacific and appropriate technologies and policies for the development and
conservation of natural environments in the Pacific. Contact Pacific Science
Association, P. O. Box 17801, Honolulu, HI 96817.
--July 7-24, North American Conference on Christianity and Ecology, Second
Touring Ecological Conference, Russia. Contact NACCEE, Box 14305, San Francisco,
CA 94114.
--July 9-11, Ecotheology and Religious Education Workshop, Denton, TX. Sponsored
by the journal ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS and the Center for Environmental Philosophy
at the University of North Texas. Speakers are Susan Power Bratton, James
A. Nash, Max Oelschlaeger, Eugene C. Hargrove, and George A. James. Religious
professionals and college and seminary faculty are the intended participants.
Contact Eugene C. Hargrove, Department of Philosophy, University of North
Texas, P. O. Box 13496, Denton, TX 76303-3496. Phone 817/565-2727.
--July 12-16. "Ecofeminist Theology," a Graduate Theological Union,
Berkeley, CA, short course, led by Rosemary Reuther. Contact GTU Cooperative
Summer, 1798 Scenic Ave., Berkeley, CA 94709. Phone 800/999-0528 or 510/848-0528.
See also June 7-11, "Ecology and Ethics," above.
--July 19-26. "The Ecological Crisis: Rights, Obligations and Opportunities."
At Ghost Ranch, a Presbyterian Conference Ground, Abiquiu, New Mexico. Symposium
led by Joan Martin-Brown, United Nations Environment Programme, Washington;
Wes Granberg Michaelson, coordinator of the World Council of Churches involvement
in the 1992 UN Earth Summit; and William Somplatsky- Jarman, associate for
environmental justice, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Contact Ghost Ranch,
HC 77, Box 11, Abiquiu, NM 87510- 9601. Phone 505/685-4333.
--July 20-22. Royal Institute of Philosophy Conference, Philosophy and the
Natural Environment, Cardiff, Wales. See details earlier.
--July 9-11. Ecotheology and Religious Education, Denton, TX, sponsored
by the Center for Environmental Philosophy. Details earlier.
--July 29-August 1. "A New Generation for Animal Rights." Conference
at Rutgers University, New Brunswick Campus, New Brunswick, NJ. Numerous
speakers, including Tom Regan. Numerous workshops. With a particular interest
in creating a national student organization for animal rights, and a special
appeal to students and teachers. Contact Lisa Finlay, A New Generation for
Animal Rights, 209 N. Graham Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516. Phone 919/942-6909.
Fax 9191/942-3875.
--August 1-14. Applied Deep Ecology, Philo, California. 2 week summer school
course, in association with the Sierra Institute and the California Institute
of Integral Studies. Faculty include Bill Devall, Susan Griffin, Ed Grumbine,
David Abram, Alan Drengson, Bill Moyer and others. The location is a retreat
center two and a half hours north of San Francisco. Cabins and camping are
available. Contact: Institute for Deep Ecology Education (IDEE), Box 2290,
Boulder, CO 80306. Phone 303/939-8398.
--August 12-18. The Community, The Family, and Culture, Conference of the
Institute for Advanced Philosophic Research, Estes Park, Colorado. With
papers on environmental issues. Contact Dr. Nancy E. Snow, Program Chair,
Marquette University, Department of Philosophy, 132 Coughlin Hall, Milwaukee,
WI 53233. Phone 414/288-3670.
--August 17-20. Tenth International Social Philosophy Conference, University
of Helsinki, preceding the World Congress of Philosophy in Moscow. Several
papers deal with environmental issues.
--August 20-26. Ecology and Ethics Symposium. Papers invited. Send inquiry
and proposal to Rev. Nigel Cooper, 40 Church Road, Rivenhall, Witham, Essex
CM8 3PQ, U.K.
--August 22-28. 19th World Congress of Philosophy, Moscow. With two ISEE
Sessions. See details earlier.
--August 24-26. Creating a Forestry for the 21st Century: An Interdisciplinary
Symposium, Portland Oregon. A conference on the wave of change sweeping
over forestry. Numerous sponsoring institution, including Oregon State University,
University of Washington, the U.S. Forest Service New Perspectives in Forestry
Programme, and others. Contact: Washington State University Conferences
and Seminars, 7612 Pioneer Way East, Puyallup, WA 98371. Phone 206/840-4575.
--September 24-October 1. 5th World Wilderness Congress, in Norway, with
ISEE session on philosophy, wild nature, and sustainable human life. See
call for papers by David Rothenberg, above.
--November 5-7, Regional Development in the 21st Century: Think Globally,
Act Locally," Naha, Okinawa. Sponsored by the East-West Center, Honolulu,
at the University of Hawaii. Contact EWCA Alumni Office, 1777 East-West
Road, Honolulu, HI 96948.
--November 10-13. The Environmental Management of Enclosed Coastal Seas,
Baltimore, MD, sponsored by the State of Maryland. Other sponsors include
the EPA, NOAA, the National Academy of Sciences, as well as international
groups. One associated group is the University of Maryland, through the
Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy. Such coastal seas include the
Chesapeake Bay, the Inland Seto Sea of Japan, the Mediterranean, the Baltic,
the Red Sea, the North Sea, and the Caribbean. Papers are invited. A previous
conference was held in Japan in 1990. Contact EMECS Secretariat, Coastal
and Environmental Policy Program, The University of Maryland, Box 775, Cambridge,
MD 21613. Phone 410/974-5047.
1994
--January 20-21, 1994. Conference on Ethical Dimensions in U.N. Agenda 21,
at United Nations, New York. Details earlier.
--March 23-27, 1994. European Conference on Science and Theology: The Concept
of Nature. In Freising and Munich, Germany. Contact: K. H. Reich, PÑdagogischhes
Institut, Rte des Fougäres, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland.
--June 7-10, 1994. Fifth International Symposium on Society and Resource
Management, at Colorado State University, Fort Collins. Contact Michael
J. Manfredo, Department of Recreation Resources, Colorado State University,
Fort Collins, CO 80523. 303/491-6591.
--June 19-22, 1994. lst International Symposium on Ecosystem Health and
Medicine. Organized by the International Society of Ecosystem Health and
Medicine and the University of Guelph.