political ecology

Onora O’Neill discusses environmental values and anthropocentrism and speciesism, with reference to obligation-based reasoning.

Vernon G. Thomas discuss attitudes and issues preventing bans on toxic lead shot and sinkers in North America and Europe, to point out that despite the parallels between these countries’ reforms, there has been little parity between the banning of lead shot and fishing sinkers.

Jonah H. Peretti questions nativist trends in Conservation Biology that have made environmentalists biased against alien species.

Robyn Eckersley discusses the concepts of “human racism” and ecocentricm in relation to Tony Lynch and David Wells’ argument that any attempt to develop a non-anthropocentric morality must invariably slide back to either anthropocentrism (either weak or strong) or a highly repugnant misanthropy in cases of direct conflict between the survival needs of humans and nonhuman species.

Michael Mason argues that Habermasian moral theory reveals a key tension between, on the one hand, an ethical commitment to wilderness preservation informed by deep ecological and bioregional principles that is oriented to a naturalistic value order and, on the other, the procedural norms of democratic participation.

Paul M. Wood discusses biodiversity as the source of biological resources.

Giuseppe Munda presents a systematic discussion, mainly for non-economists, on economic approaches to the concept of sustainable development.

Maurie J. Cohen undertakes a comparative analysis of how national context has differently shaped science as a public epistemology.

Sheila Jasanoff reflects on the role of science in promoting convergent perceptions of risk across disparate political cultures.

Robin Grove-White writes an afterword on this special issue of Environmental Values.