ABSTRACT
The American conservationist Aldo Leopold suggested that we humans need to extend our circle of relations deserving of our moral concern from our immediate families to include not only all people, but also all of nature as well. Ultimately our human welfare will depend on our level of respect for nature. This book makes a similar claim for adopting an ethical relationship with water ecosystems. Water values and ethics are divided here into five categories – environmental, economic, social, cultural, and governance – which constitute a structural aid in working with ethics and are a unique contribution of this book to the field of water ethics. The relatively short history of water ethics is recounted, and related concepts (water integrity, stewardship, and justice) are explained, all of which occupy a space within water ethics. Responsible use of water is discussed as prelude to the concept of “water scarcity,” presented as a social construct which an ethics perspective can help to disentangle.
