ABSTRACT
There is little doubt that we are in the midst of a period of environmental crisis-indeed, a constellation of crises at local, regional, and global levels. The role for environmental planning and manage ment, then, has become ever important, and we are increasingly forced to confront the finiteness and natural limits of the planet, as well as the competing views about its appropriate use of and our relationship with it. Planners, as a professional group, are increasingly involved in the management and planning of environmental resources, from national forests to coastal wetlands to air and water quality. The myriad of policy and planning decisions, moreover, made by planning bodies at federal, state, and local levels invariably and inextricably involves ethical choices. An understanding of environmental values and ethics is, I would argue, an essential underpinning for environmental planners (and, indeed, all planners) and an especially important component of any environmental planning curriculum or concentration.
