Doing Environmental Ethics

by Robert Traer

Doing Environmental Ethics offers a way to face our ecological crisis that draws on environmental science, economic theory, international law, and religious teachings, as well as philosophical arguments. It engages readers in constructing ethical presumptions based on our duty (to other persons and species and also to ecosystems), our character (personal virtues), our relationships (with other persons and nature), and our rights (to sustainable development and a healthy environment). Then it tests these moral presumptions by predicting the likely consequences of acting on them. Readers apply what they have learned to specific policy issues discussed in the final part of the sustainable consumption, environmental policy, clean air and water, agriculture, managing public lands, urban ecology, and climate change. Questions after each chapter and a worksheet aid readers in deciding how to live more responsibly as consumers and as citizens. “What you do matters,” Robert Traer writes, “and the person you are also matters. In ethics we look for reasons to explain why this is so.”

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 4, 2009

About the author

Robert Traer served as the executive director of the International Association for Religious Freedom from 1990-2000, and in that capacity represented the work of the IARF on religious freedom at the United Nations. Dr. Traer now teaches courses on ethics at the Dominican University of California in San Rafael. In 2002 he was a Resident Scholar at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute for Theological Studies in Israel. In the spring of 2005 he served with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Israel/Palestine, which is sponsored by the World Council of Churches, and in June 2005 he participated in the Critical Moment Conference in Geneva convened by the World Council of Churches and also drafted the conference report. He is a retired minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and a member of the Bar of the State of Colorado. His writings on human rights are available at http://religionhumanrights.net, and his writings on environmental ethics are at http://doingethics.com. His work on Christian faith, ethics and interfaith dialogue are at http://christian-bible.com. He and his wife, Nancy, have been married forty-one years and have five children, including two adopted daughters from Asia, and six grandchildren.

Education:

Graduate Theological Union, Ph.D. in Comparative Religion (1988)
School of Law of the University of California at Davis, J.D. (1976)
Divinity School of the University of Chicago, D.Min. (1969), M.Th. (1967)
Carleton College, B.A. with Distinction (1965)

Publications Include:

Doing Environmental Ethics (2009)
Doing Ethics in a Diverse World (with H. Stelmach) (2008)
Jerusalem Journal: Finding Hope (2006)
Faith, Belief, and Religion (2001).
Quest for Truth: Critical Reflections on Interfaith Cooperation (1999).
Faith in Human Rights: Support in Religious Traditions for a Global Struggle. (1991).
"U. S. Ratification of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights," in Promises to Keep: Prospects for Human Rights, ed. Charles McCoy (2002).

"Ending Religious Violence," Dharma World, Vol. 31 (Jan./Feb. 2004): 9-13.
"Our Interfaith Challenge at the Beginning of the Twenty-first Century," World Faiths Encounter, No. 29 (July 2001): 13-21.
"Beyond 'Religion and...'," Breakthrough News, Global Education Associates, (Sep.-Dec. 2000): 1-3.
"Faith in Human Rights." Church & Society, 88, no. 4 (March/April 1998): 46-58.
"Beyond Tolerance: Call to Repentance," Faith & Freedom, 49, (Spring/Summer 1996): 47-51.
"Thinking Globally, Acting Locally, Faith & Freedom, vol. 48, no. 141 (Autumn/Winter 1995):152-56.
"A Confessional Approach to Interfaith Cooperation." Visions of an Interfaith Future: Proceedings
of Sarva-Dharma-Sammelana, ed. Celia and David Storey (Oxford: International Interfaith Centre, 1994), 318-330.
"Religious Freedom." A Sourcebook for the Community of Religions, ed. Joel Beversluis (Chicago: The Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions, 1993), 114-15.
"Religious Freedom at the End of the 20th Century." Church & Society (Sep./Oct. 1992): 38-50.
"Nonadversarial Conflict Resolution." Dharma World, 19 (Jan./Feb. 1992): 29-31, 35.
"Faith in the Buddhist Tradition." Buddhist-Christian Studies, vol. 2 (1991): 85-120.
"Christian Support for Human Rights in Latin America," International Review of Mission, vol. 80, no. 318 (April 1991):245-49.
"Human Rights in Islam," Islamic Studies, vol. 28, no. 2 (Summer 1409/1989):117-29.
"On Human Rights: The U.S. Lives in a Glass House," Human Rights 16, no. 1 (Spring 1989).
"Christian Support in Asia for Human Rights," Asia Journal of Theology, vol. 3, no. 2 (October 1989):670-83.
"Abolishing the Death Penalty, The California Prisoner, (August 1989):8, 10, 12.
"Chinese Views on Human Rights," China Notes, (Autumn 1988):1-3.
"Religious Communities in the Struggle for Human Rights," The Christian Century (September 1988):835-38.

Reviews

[Nizar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bold venture into issues touching all humans specifically those pertaining to duties, rights, characters and relationships.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ethics will always be debatable, and this book will not suit all readers.

[Robert Traer]

I'm grateful for John B. Cobb's endorsement: "In the hands of Traer 'environmental ethics' becomes a critical search for wisdom for individuals and for society in dealing with the greatest crisis in human history. This book includes, and draws from, the whole range of formal ethical systems, but it also treats specific environmental problems such as global warming. It shows how these cannot be separated from economic and political theory and practice. And it does all this is relation to our actual historical situation and cultural diversity. This is 'ethics' as its transdisciplinary best."

I also appreciate Laura Westra's support: "Doing Environmental Ethics stands out among the many available textbooks on the topic because of its clarity and inclusiveness. Most such books show clearly the bias or chosen position of the editor/author, and exclude much important material for that reason. In contrast Traer shows his thorough philosophical background and his strong understanding of morality in the variety of sources he uses, far beyond the usual material found in environmental ethics textbooks. I would recommend this book as the first choice for any course on environmental issues."

To read some of the chapters online, go to dee chapters.