An evolutionary analysis of history suggests that technology and morality can and will respond to a clearly perceived future threat to civilization. But will our response be fast enough?
Markus Peterson and Tarla Rai Peterson outline the history of valuation techniques using the Exxon Valdez disaster response and the valuation of whooping cranes as examples of how these tools can constrain policy, presenting an ethical dilemma for democracies by naturalizing, then ethicizing, existing patterns of domination.
Laura Westra discusses environmental holism in relation to the democratic rights of individuals and of nation states within the international community.
Paul Craig, Harold Glasser, and Willett Kempton interview senior policy advisors to four European governments active in global climate change negotiations and the UNCED (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development) process.
John Adams discusses the resurgence of cost-benefit analysis and its failures relating to lack of progress and environmental damage caused by major transport projects.
Shrader-Frechette and McCoy use examples related to preservation versus development, hunting versus animal rights, and controversies over pest control, to show that, because ecology is conceptually and theoretically underdetermined, environmental values often influence the practice of ecological science.
Peter H. Kahn Jr. makes a case that both litigation and mediation need to be embedded within a more ethically comprehensive context, one of “courting ethical community.”
John M. Francis examines the dilemma that arises from the British application of “voluntary principle” legislation to long-term land management strategies in support of nature conservation.
Russell Keat presents a critical evaluation of Mark Sagoff’s critique of economistic approaches to environmental decision-making in The Economy of the Earth.
Jack L. Knetsch discusses the contingent valuation of people’s willingness to pay in relation to environmental valuation.
