Is it possible to design a forest policy that satisfies ethical and environmental concerns and is acceptable to business, labour and First Nations representatives? What is the best path through the tangle of ethical issues surrounding the collapse of the east coast fishery? What sort of obligations does a rich nation such as Canada have to satisfy the claims of global environmental justice?

These are the sorts of issues in applied ethics that are tackled in this collection of essays, the vast majority of which have been written especially for this volume. It is the first Canadian collection of its kind.

The book is divided in to sections detailing with such topics as the environment and the economy; ethical issues relating to non-human animals; issues of gender; and issues relating to native peoples. Most of the authors are philosophers, though specialists in geography, geology, and the social sciences are also among the contributors.

Frequent reference is made to theoretical ethical concerns, but the focus throughout is on applied ethics, and a variety of case studies are included. (Examples include essays on animal rights and the case of native hunters; surface mining in Northern Ontario, the Quebec arctic; and fishing communities in the Maritimes.) Comparisons are frequently drawn to policies and ethical questions arising in other countries-most prominently the United States.

Comments:

"I think this introduction indispensable for the student or the general reader....This book is welcome and much needed...." - University of Toronto Quarterly

Alex Wellington and Allan Greenbaum teach in the Department of Philosophy and the Division of Social Sciences, respectively, at York University. Wesley Cragg holds the George Gardiner Chair of Business Ethics in the Faculty of Administrative Studies and the Department of Philosophy at York; among the more recent of his publications is The Practice of Punishment (Routledge, 1992).

Table of Contents: [Back to Top]

Introduction

Themes in Canadian Applied Environmental Ethics
Alex Wellington, Allan Greenbaum and Wesley Cragg

Resource Use – Forestry

1. Shifting Values
Alan Drengson and Duncan Taylor

2. Environmental Ethics and Canadian Forest Policy
Peter Miller

3. The Forests at Barrière Lake
Elise Sheikier and Thomas Meredith

Resource Use – Fishing and Miming

4. The Aftermath of Collapse
Ray Rogers

5. Ethics, Surface Mining and the Environment
Wesley Cragg, David Pearson and James Cooney

Resource Use –Biotechnology and Nuclear Power

6. Ethics for New Life Forms
David Oppenheim and Robert Gibson

7. Ethics of Wastes
Andrew Brook

Resource Use – Corruption and Abuse of Power

8. Politics, Ethics, and Ecology
Lionel Rubinoff

Nature Preservation – Animals and Species

9. Animal Rights and Native Hunters
Wendy Donner

10. Arguments for Vegetarianism
Michael Fox

11. Cattle and Prairie Ecology
Roger Cohen

12. Endangered Species Policy
Alex Wellington

Nature Preservation – Wilderness Preservation and Land Use

13. Wild Nature as Resource
Anne Bell

14. The Long and the Short of Environmental Defence
Jerry Valen DeMarco

15. A Code of Ethics for Short Hills Park
Ingrid Leman Stefanovic

16. Market for Natural Heritage
Allan Greenbaum

Environmental Justice – Native Issues

17. Terrorism at Oka
Laura Westra

18. Ethics and Environmental Impact Statement
Ron Pushchak

19. Lessons for the Moose River Basin
Wesley Cragg and Mark Schwartz

20. Exploring Aboriginal Environmental Ethics
Deborah McGregor

Environmental Justice – Ecofeminism

21. An Overview of Ecofeminism
Annie Booth

22. Allies in Agriculture
Karen Krug

Environment Justice – Pedagogy

23. Environmental Education in a Democratic Society
Pamela Courtenay Hall

Environmental Justice – International/Global Justice Issues

24. International Environmental Justice
Peter Penz

Notes on Contributors