ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS
Carleton College, Environmental Studies
Professor Kim Smith
“…we are inquiring not in order to know what virtue is, but in order to become good,
since otherwise our inquiry would have been of no use.” Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics,
Book II.
This course is an introduction to the central ethical debates in environmental policy and
practice and some major traditions of environmental thought. It investigates such
questions as whether we can have moral duties towards animals or ecosystems; whether
we have duties to future generations; what is the ethical basis for wilderness preservation;
and what is the relationship between environmentalism and social justice.
Objectives:
•
To develop your own ethical relationship to the natural world
•
To become competent at identifying, discussing and writing about
ethical issues that commonly arise in environmental policy work
Products:
•
Reflective journal . This will involve completing a number of activities outside of
class and writing about them, including a project involving interviews with
“moral exemplars”
•
Group project: students will work in groups on the 5 case studies,
make a short presentation to class (a preliminary report) on the day assigned and,
at the end of the term, produce a position paper
•
Short Paper: Students will also produce a short individual paper
on a topic to be assigned.
Outline
I. Introduction: What is Environmental Ethics?
Class 1: Introduction: what is ethics?
Class 2: Leopold, Odyssey; The Land Ethic
Sylvan, Is There A Need for a New, an Environmental, Ethic?
II. Traditions of American environmental ethics
Stewardship
Class 3: Berry, An Agricultural Crisis
Wilderness Preservation
Class 4: Thoreau, Walking
Abbey, Down the River with Henry Thoreau
Class 5: Leopold, Flambeau; Wilderness
Berry, Hell No. Of Course Not, But.
Conservation/Sustainability
Class 6: Pinchot, The Fight for Conservation (selections)
Brundtland et al, Our Common Future (selections)
The African American Tradition
Class 7: Anthony, Reflections on African American Environmental History; The
Environmental Justice
Movement: An Activist’s Perspective
Walker, Only Justice Can Stop a Curse; Am I Blue?
The Radical Tradition
Class 8: Foreman/Bookchin, Defending the Earth (selections)
III. Seeing the Land: Ethics of Perception
Class 9: A walk in the Arboretum with Arb director Nancy Braker
***Short paper due***
Class 10: Leopold, Conservation Esthetic; Illinois Bus Ride; Natural History
Blum, Moral Perception and Particularity, Ch. 2
IV. Caring for the Land: Property and Stewardship
Class 11: Leopold, Great Possessions
Freyfogle, Good-Bye to the Public/Private Divide
Kheel, Nature Ethics, pp. 218-233
Class 12: Continued
Class 13: Case study presentation
Class 14: Discussion of interviews with “moral exemplars”
V. Who Counts in Environmental Ethics
Animals, Plants, Ecosystems
Class 15: Singer, Not for Humans Only
Frey, Rights, Interests, Desires, Beliefs
Class 16: Leopold, On a Monument to the Pigeon; Red Legs Kicking;
Katz, Is There a Place for Animals in the Moral Consideration of Nature?
Russow, Why Do Species Matter?
Class 17: Leopold, Thinking Like a Mountain
Kheel, Thinking Like a Mountain, Thinking Like a Man
Class 18: Leopold, The Land Ethic (again)
Rolston, Duties to Ecosystems
Class 19: Case study: Should Carleton College allow bow-hunting of deer in the
Arboretum?
Wilderness preservation/restoration
Class 20: Cronon, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature
Callicott, A Critique of and an Alternative to the Wilderness Idea
Noss, Wilderness—Now More Than Ever: A Response to Callicott
Class 21: Elliott, Faking Nature
Katz, The Big Lie: Human Restoration of Nature
Class 22: Case Study: Should Carleton College include the planting of geneticallymodified soybeans as
part of its prairie restoration project?
Future Generations
Class 23: Golding, Limited Obligations to Future Generations
Parfit, Energy Policy and the Further Future: The Identity Problem
Class 24: Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change, sec. 2.4
Varian, Recalculating the Costs of Global Climate Change (NY Times
12/14/2006)
Class 25: Environment vs Social Justice?
Rolston, Feeding People vs Saving Nature?
Attfield, Saving Nature, Feeding People, and Ethics
Class 26: Wenz, Does Environmentalism Promote Injustice for the Poor?
Jamieson, Justice: The Heart of Environmentalism
Class 27: Case study: Should Bridgewater Township allow industrial development along
Armstrong Rd,
which would affect Spring Brook?
Class 28: Case study: Should Bridgewater Township permit the Advance Bio Energy
ethanol plant?