ABSTRACT

We live in a world confronted by mounting environmental problems; increasing global deforestation and desertification, loss of species diversity, pollution and global warming. In everyday life people mourn the loss of valued landscapes and urban spaces. Underlying these problems are conflicting priorities and values. Yet dominant approaches to policy-making seem ill-equipped to capture the various ways in which the environment matters to us.

Environmental Values introduces readers to these issues by presenting, and then challenging, two dominant approaches to environmental decision-making, one from environmental economics, the other from environmental philosophy. The authors present a sustained case for questioning the underlying ethical theories of both of these traditions. They defend a pluralistic alternative rooted in the rich everyday relations of humans to the environments they inhabit, providing a path for integrating human needs with environmental protection through an understanding of the narrative and history of particular places. The book examines the implications of this approach for policy issues such as biodiversity conservation and sustainability.

Written in a clear and accessible style for an interdisciplinary audience, this volume will be ideal for student use in environmental courses in geography, economics, philosophy, politics and sociology.

chapter 1|10 pages

Values and the environment

part |2 pages

PART ONE Utilitarian approaches to environmental decision making

part |2 pages

PART TWO A new environmental ethic?

chapter 8|26 pages

Nature and the natural

part |2 pages

PART THREE The narratives of nature

chapter 9|12 pages

Nature and narrative

chapter 10|18 pages

Biodiversity: biology as biography

chapter 11|19 pages

Sustainability and human well-being

chapter 12|15 pages

Public decisions and environmental goods