Environment in Question

by David Edward Cooper (editor), Joy A. Palmer (Editor)

By addressing specific global problems and placing them within an ethical context, "The Environment in Question" provides the reader with both a theoretical and practical understanding of environmental issues. The contributors are internationally known figures drawn from the various disciplines which bear upon these issues, such as geography, psychology, social policy, and philosophy. The contributions range from those tackling individual concrete issues (such as nuclear waste and the threat to the rain forest) to those addressing matters of policy, principle and attitude (such as our obligations to future generations and the nature of technological risk).
"The Environment in Question" is designed as a text for students of philosophy, environmental science, environmental education, ecology, and teacher education. It can be used as an inter-disciplinary, self-contained course book or in conjunction with relevant material. In addition, as the essays directly and controversially address current environmental debates in a non-technical manner, it is of great interest both to professionals in those areas and to readers who care about the planet's future. The substantial cross-section of concerns and approaches will enable all readers to develop the necessary level of understanding required to initiate and sustain debate on environmental issues.
Contributors: Robert Allsion, David E. Cooper, Barry S. Gower, F. G. T. Holliday, C. A. Hooker, Mary Midgley, Philip Neal, Joy A. Palmer, Robert Prosser, Holmes Rolston III, Mark Sagoff, Vandana Shiva, Stephen Sterling, Rosemary J. Stevenson, Jennifer Trusted.

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 30, 1992

Reviews

[Melissa]

Read Vandana Shiva essay "The Real Meaning of Sustainability." Argument against the 80's market-based solution (Brundtland Report, World Bank's president Clausen) to poverty and inequity. She outlines three fallacies of this approach: 1. primacy of capital, 2.separation of production from conservation and 3. assumption that nature can be substituted by capital. She argues instead that nature's currency is life. Her basic idea is embedded in this concise quote: "Nature shrinks as capital grows. The growth of the market cannot solve the very crisis it creates." p 189

read Herman E Daly essay: Sustainable Growth: An Impossibilty Theorem

Growth = bigger, Development = different, so we should be talking about sustainable development, sustainable growth is impossible

sustainable development should begin with industrialized countries