Boundaries

If we are part of the environment, and we are, what are the limits, the boundaries, of human intervention in the environment? Environmental ethics involves virtually all other existing areas of ethics and the authors set out to explore the line that separates the current state of the environment from what it should be in the future, along the way systematically investigating the crucial and prevailing issues of technology, business, medicine, and bioethics. Beginning with an outstanding overview of the field, they highlight key developments and schools of thought in the environmentalist movement, then proceed to lay out a series of cases on such topics as: preservation of the Everglades; use of pesticides in developing countries; preserving ecosystems in Madagascar; the battle over deforestation in Java; disposing of nuclear waste in Nevada; the human cost of restoring coral reefs in Indonesia; the impact of hydropower via U.S. rivers; desertification in China; restoring degraded ecosystems in Nebraska; the legitimacy of genetically modified foods; hunting and the human presence in nature; and xenotransplantation (implantations of living cells from other species). This book is a case-study textbook on environmental ethics, and its analysis is accessible, open and inclusive, inviting the reader to participate in applying existing theory in environmental ethics, testing and correcting it in real situations, and devising new theory that contributes to the growth and maturity of this developing field on which the health and welfare of the world environment depend. The case studies in this volume bring into sharp focus a clearer understanding of the human place in the environment, and an understanding of the environment that should guide both public policy and individual lifestyle decisions, bringing new urgency to the task of sustaining the biosphere.