Boundaries: A Casebook in Environmental Ethics / Edition 1

by Christine E. Gudorf, James Edward Huchingson

Overview

Two professors of religious studies (Florida International U.) introduce issues of environmental ethics through case studies that span the globe. Technology plays an important role in many of the cases, since, the authors note, it increasingly raises two important issues: "to what extent humans are a part of the environment (rather than only the subject that conceptualizes it) and the appropriate limits of human intervention in the environment." The title refers to three major themes involved in the cases described—the boundary between fields of ethics, the boundary between humans and the rest of the environment, and the boundary between what is and what could or should be in the environment. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780878401345
Publisher:	Georgetown University Press
Publication date:	11/01/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 5.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Christine E. Gudorf is professor and chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Florida International University. She was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Indonesia in 2002. She is the coauthor of Christian Ethics: A Case Method Approach and author of Body, Sex, and Pleasure: Reconstructing Christian Sexual Ethics.

James E. Huchingson is professor emeritus in the Department of Religious Studies at Florida International University. He is the editor of Religion and the Natural Sciences: The Range of Engagement and author of Pandemonium Tremendum: Chaos and Mystery in the Life of God.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Part I Environmental Ethics: The Range of Engagement

1 Theory in Environmental Ethics 3

2 We're All in This ... Alone: The Individual and Community 29

Part II Maintaining and Managing the Ecosystem

3 For Ecological Health or Profit? The POPs Elimination Treaty 49

4 Heart Thieves: Preserving Endangered Ecosystems or Endangered Cultures in Madagascar 68

5 Must Java Have No Forests? Nature Preserves and Human Population Pressures 83

6 Buried Alive: Future Generations and Permanent Underground Disposal of Nuclear Waste 101

7 Water: Economic Commodity and Divine Gift 121

8 Guardian Angels of Angel Oak: To Till or Keep 142

Part III Restoring and Re-creating the Ecosystem

9 River Run or River Ruined: Hydropower or Free-Flowing Rivers? 163

10 Nature Creates Deserts Too: Addressing Desertification in China 181

11 Rewilding: Restoration of Degraded Ecosystems 196

12 Planning for Climate Change 211

Part IV Ecosystem Interventions Aimed at Innovation

13 Improving on Natural Variation? Genetically Modified Foods 227

14 Nature Red in Tooth, Claw, and Bullet: Hunting and Human Presence in Nature 242

15 Understanding Xenotransplants: Crossbreeding Humans or Advanced Domestication of Animals? 259

Appendix: Using Environmental Case Studies in the Classroom 285

Index 297

What People are Saying About This

Pamela Brubaker

This edition of Boundaries maintains its outstanding features: an in-depth overview of environmental ethics theories as well as global religions and ecology, that inform substantive case studies. Four new cases are engaging and timely additions to this essential text.

From the Publisher

"This edition of Boundaries maintains its outstanding features: an in-depth overview of environmental ethics theories as well as global religions and ecology, that inform substantive case studies. Four new cases are engaging and timely additions to this essential text." -- Pamela Brubaker, professor of religion and ethics, California Lutheran University

Editorial Reviews

An excellent, provocative introduction to environmental ethics, beginning 'on the ground' in practice and searching for a 'well-grounded' principled ethic. . . . Here is environmental ethics at its most complex, challenging boundaries, bordering the tragic, with a deep sense of its urgency.

Holmes Rolston

Having used this text for a graduate environmental ethic s seminar, I saw even the most skeptical ministerial students succumb to the masterful presentations and convincing answers to dubious queries. . . . I highly recommend this book for upper undergraduate, seminary, and graduate level courses as well as parish and adult study groups. This text should be in any library that serves these populations.

Catholic Library World

"An excellent, provocative introduction to environmental ethics, beginning 'on the ground' in practice and searching for a 'well-grounded' principled ethic.... Here is environmental ethics at its most complex, challenging boundaries, bordering the tragic, with a deep sense of its urgency." -- Holmes Rolston, III, University Distinguished Professor, Colorado State University and winner of the 2003 Templeton Prize, reviewing a previous edition or volume

From the Publisher