Ecological Justice And The Extinction Crisis

ePDF and ePUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. As the biodiversity crisis deepens, Anna Wienhues sets out radical environmental thinking and action to respond to the threat of mass species extinction. The book conceptualises large-scale injustice endangering non-humans, and signposts new approaches to the conservation of a shared planet. Developing principles of distributive ecological justice, it builds towards a bold vision of just conservation that can inform the work of policy makers and activists. This is a timely, original and compelling investigation into ethics in the natural world during the Anthropocene, and a call for biocentric ecological justice before it is too late.

This book provides keys to decrypt current political debates on the environment in light of the theories that support them, and provides tools to better understand and manage environmental conflicts and promote environmentally friendly behaviour. As we work towards global sustainability at a time when efforts to conserve biodiversity and combat climate change correspond with land grabs by large corporations, food insecurity, and human displacement. While we seek to reconcile more-than-human relations and responsibilities in the Anthropocene, we also struggle to accommodate social justice and the increasingly global desire for economic development. These and other challenges fundamentally alter the way social scientists relate to communities and the environment. This book takes as its point of departure today’s pressing environmental challenges, particularly the loss of biodiversity, and the role of communities in protected areas conservation. In its chapters, the authors discuss areas of tension between local livelihoods and international conservation efforts, between local communities and wildlife, and finally between traditional ways of living and ‘modernity’. The central premise of this book is while these tensions cannot be easily resolved they can be better understood by considering both social and ecological effects, in equal measure. While environmental problems cannot be seen as purely ecological because they always involve people, who bring to the environmental table their different assumptions about nature and culture, so are social problems connected to environmental constraints. While nonhumans cannot verbally bring anything to this negotiating table, aside from vast material benefits that society relies on, the distinct perspective of this book is that there is a need to consider the role of nonhumans as equally important stakeholders – albeit without a voice. This book develops an argument that human-environmental relationships are set within ecological reality and ecological ethics and rather than being mutually constitutive processes, humans have obligate dependence on nature, not vice versa. This would enable an ethical position encompassing the needs of other species and giving simultaneous (without one being subordinated to another) consideration to justice for humans and non-humans alike. The book is accessible to both social scientists and conservation specialists, and intends to contribute to strengthening interdisciplinary collaborations in the field of conservation.

In A Theory of Ecological Justice, Baxter argues for ecological justice - that is, for treating species besides homo sapiens as having a claim in justice to a share of the Earth's resources. It explores the nature of justice claims as applied to organisms of various degrees of complexity and describes the institutional arrangements necessary to integrate the claims of ecological justice into human decision-making.

The present rate and extent of species extinction -- estimated by some scientists as one species every 20 minutes -- are unprecedented in the history of mankind. Human activities are responsible for nearly all species loss, yet ethical aspects of this crisis are rarely mentioned. Any concern expressed tends to be over potentially valuable resources -- information for scientists, or compounds that could be used in new medicines -- that are lost when a species disappears. In The Death of Our Planet's Species, Martin Gorke argues that such a utilitarian perspective is not only shortsighted but morally bankrupt. Holding doctoral degrees in both ecology and philosophy, Gorke is uniquely qualified to examine the extinction crisis from both scientific and philosophical perspectives. He offers a wide-ranging review of the literature on the subject, drawing together those two lines of reasoning that are almost always pursued separately. After critical examination of the current state of relevant ecological knowledge, Gorke presents a carefully considered case for attributing intrinsic value to all of nature, including all species. At the heart of his argument is an analysis of the concept of morality. According to this analysis, the universal character of morality does not permit us to establish limits of moral considerability. More precisely, every act of exclusion from the moral community is an arbitrary act and is not compatible with a moral point of view. The Death of Our Planet's Species sets forth a sound and original argument about the philosophical and ethical dimensions of species conservation. Throughout, the author combines a high level of theoretical sophistication with clear and straightforward writing. Orignially published in German, this Island Press edition makes The Death of Our Planet's Species available for the first time to English-speaking experts and lay readers.

Over the years, we have witness unprecedented growth and development that threatens our planet earth as evidenced by environmental degradation, world poverty all of which will be exacerbated by climate change. “Environmental Crisis or Crisis of Epistemology?” explores the ideas that environmental destruction and injustice is integrally related to unsustainable knowledge and the role that knowledge plays in a racially discriminatory and unequal society. It also challenges us to think more critically about certain kinds of growth and development and creating knowledge that is more sustainable, environmentally benign and just and more compatible with the earth’s lifecycle. To continue business as usual without questioning our epistemology could lead to dire and unintended consequences of Herculean proportions. We can and must reverse this perilous trend. We must embarked upon creating knowledge that is more protective of the environment and the inhabitants of the earth.

The culmination of over three decades of writing by environmental scientist and writer Haydn Washington, this book examines the global environmental crisis and its solutions. Many of us know that something is wrong with our world, that it is wounded. At the same time, we often don’t know why things have gone wrong – or what can be done. Framing the discussion around three central predicaments – the ecological, the social, and the economic – Washington provides background as to why each of these are in crisis and presents steps that individuals can personally take to heal the world. Urging the reader to accept the reality of our problems, he explores practical solutions for change such as the transition to renewable energy, rejection of climate denial and the championing of appropriate technology, as well as a readjustment in ethical approaches. The book also contains 19 ‘solution boxes’ by distinguished environmental scholars. With a focus on positive, personal solutions, this book is an essential read for students and scholars of environmental science and environmental philosophy, and for all those keen to heal the world and contribute towards a sustainable future.

This unique study of social harm offers a systematic and critical discussion of the nature of environmental harm from an eco-justice perspective, challenging conventional criminological definitions of environmental harm. The book evaluates three interconnected justice-related approaches to environmental harm: environmental justice (humans), ecological justice (the environment) and species justice (non-human animals). It provides a critical assessment of environmental harm by interrogating key concepts and exploring how activists and social movements engage in the pursuit of justice. It concludes by describing the tensions between the different approaches and the importance of developing an eco-justice framework that to some extent can reconcile these differences. Using empirical evidence built on theoretical foundations with examples and illustrations from many national contexts, ‘Environmental harm’ will be of interest to students and academics in criminology, sociology, law, geography, environmental studies, philosophy and social policy all over the world.

As the extinction of species accelerates and more species become endangered, activists, filmmakers, writers, and artists have responded to bring this global crisis to the attention of the public. Until now, there has been no study of the frameworks that shape these narratives and images, or of the symbolic meanings that the death of species carries in different cultural communities. Ursula Heise makes the case that understanding how and why endangered species come to matter culturally is indispensable for any effective advocacy on their behalf. Heise begins by showing that the tools of conservation science and law need to be viewed as cultural artifacts: biodiversity databases and laws for the protection of threatened species use rhetorical and cultural resources that open up different approaches to the problem of understanding global wildlife. The second half of her book explores ways of envisioning alternative futures for biodiversity. The narrative of nature s decline or even imminent disappearance has been a successful rallying trope for those skeptical of modernization and ideologies of progress. But environmentalists nostalgia for the past and pessimistic outlook on the future have also alienated parts of the public. Heise tells the story of environmental activists, writers, and scientists who are creating new stories to guide the environmental imagination."