Ethics of Environmental Development: Global Challenge

The purpose of this book is to cast the current debates about environmental conservation and economic development within an ethical framework. Using the concept of sustainability, the distinguished editors, following a broad-ranging survey of the nature and practice of ethical ideas in approaching problems and conflicts in environmental and development issues, have invited scholars from a wide range of cultural, political, religious and philosophical backgrounds to review what constitutes the major ethical issues within their own fields. Contributions from the perspectives of the western liberal democratic societies, the eastern command economies, Japan, Latin America, and Africa provide illuminating and sometimes surprising models for ethical ways of environmental thinking. The final important section invites contributions from each of the major world religions to address the moral and pholosophical standpoints their faiths offer for reconciling human stewardship of the natural world with providing the essentials of life for the human community.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: The ethics of sustainable development, J.Ronald Engel. Part 1 Global challenge: environment, technology, and ethics, Rajni Kothari; development ethics and ecological wisdom, Denis Goulet; the encounter of religion and conservation, Martin Palmer; science-based versus traditional ethics, Holmes Rolston. Part 2 Western Europe and North America: towards an ecological worldview, Stephen R.Sterling; sustainable development and deep ecology, Arne Naess; reverence for life, Henryk Skolimowski; a new Christian reformation, Robert J.Moore. Part 3 Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union: raising the biosphere to the noosphere, I.Laptev; the development vision of socialist humanism, Mihailo Markovic. Part 4 South and Central America: the search for an ethnic of sustainable development in Latin America, Eduardo Gudynas; the hope for just, participatory ecodevelopment in Costa Rica, David A.Crocker. Part 5 Africa and Middle East: native African land ethics, C.K.Omari; communalism - the moral factor in African development, Jimoh Omo-Fadaka; "the range of mountains is his pasture" - environmental ethics in Judaism, Bill Blark; Islamic environmental ethics - law and society, Mawil Y.Izzi Deen (Samarrai). Part 6 Asia: Satyagraha for conservation - awakening the spirit of Hinduism, O.P.Dwivedi; the Buddhist idea of a desirable society, S.Sivaraksa; ancient wisdom, green politics, and sustainable development in China, Simon Sui-cheong Chau and Fung Kam-Kong. Part 7 The experience of women: the daughters of earth - women's culture as a basis for sustainable development, Hilkka Pietila; living with nature - reciprocity or control?, Ariel Salleh.