Environmental Ethics: An Introduction to Environmental Philosophy

I purchased this book for an environmental ethics class, and found it to be very interesting! The many changes in our environment are truly thought-provoking, and to look at them through the eyes of an ethicist was enjoyable. The reading is compelling, and good fodder for many interesting dinner table conversations.

Book arrived in great shape and in a very timely fashion

This review is based on the 2nd edition. This book presents a good introduction to the major ideas of ethical thinking about the environment. He presents ideas on how rights might be derived as a gradation from purely human interest, rights based on whether animals suffer, and nature with its own right. Throughout the book questions of individual versus community rights are discussed. Each chapter starts with a short essay that highlights some of the complexities; for example whether Mountain Goats should be introduced or eliminated in Olympic National Park. Each chapter is concluded with discussion questions that also help the reader grapple with the issues. He presents many of the major ideas and criticisms of animal rights, energy use, the land ethic, deep ecology, and ecofeminism. Particularly in the areas of deep ecology he presents the diversity of views. Perhaps he is weak in presenting third world views and the impact that "Deep ecology" might have on poor and agrarian populations. He is lacking discussion of religious based environmental ethics ("Theocentric ethics"). Christian Ecology seeks to develop a stewardship view, and Native American, and Eastern religions center on respect for nature. I think this book works best when read with selections from the authors discussed; for example read some of Leopold's "Sand County Almanac", then read the chapter on "The Land Ethic."

I read the first edition of this book (1993) and have no doubt that the third edition will surpass its scope and clarity. In a few hundred pages, Joseph Des Jardins unspools the thread of western philosophical tradition and makes it relevant for today's urgent environmental issues. Each chapter begins with a timely case study--salmon and economic develoment, nuclear waste and the rights of future generations to a clean environment--then develops the philosophical arguments required to more deeply understand just what is at stake in these and similar issues. Des Jardins' style is easy-going and eminently accessible. He wastes no words, gets to heart of the matter, and leaves the reader wanting more. Footnotes and additional readings lead to original material if the reader wants to delve more thoroughly into the topics. But you can just stop with Des Jardins if you are not a scholar, and still gain a firm grasp on how the big thinkers of western philosophy brought us to a critical divide in our environmental future. Edition One included late-breaking news from the social environmental and eco-feminist fronts, and I am confident the 2000 edition will be just as current.