International Society for Environmental Ethics
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INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS NEWSLETTER _____________________________________________________ Volume 21, No. 1, Winter 2010 _____________________________________________________ GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS ISEE Membership: ISEE membership dues are now due annually by Earth Day—22 April—of each year. Please pay your 2010-2011 dues now if you have not already done so. You can either use the form on the last page of this Newsletter to mail check to ISEE Treasurer Marion Hourdequin, or you can use PayPal with a credit card from the membership page of the ISEE website at: <http://www.cep.unt.edu/iseememb.html>. ISEE at APAs: Please see the “Conferences and Calls” section of this Newsletter for calls for papers for the 2010 Eastern American Philosophical Association (APA) meeting on 27-30 December 2010 in Boston and the 2011 Pacific APA meeting on 20-23 April 2011 in San Diego. ISEE Sessions at the Upcoming APA, Pacific Division Meeting, Westin St. Francis, San Francisco, California, 31 March-3 April 2010: Wednesday, 31 March, 1800-2100: Topic: Environmental Metaphysics Chair: Geoffrey Frasz (College of Southern Nevada) Speakers: 1. Nathan Kowalsky (University of Alberta) “The Metaphysics of Crisis: Maintaining Moral Contingency in Environmental Philosophy” Commentator: John Basl (University of Wisconsin—Madison) 2. Bob Sandmeyer (University of Kentucky) “An Existential Interpretation of Aldo Leopold’s Concept of Land” Commentator: Dylan Trigg (University of Sussex) 3. Tim Christion (University of North Texas) “Nature’s Agency or Nature’s Response? What It Is for the Natural World to Relate to Us” Commentator: Avram Hiller (Portland State University) Friday, 2 April 1900-2200: Topic: Moral Responsibilities to Nature Chair: Christina M. Bellon (California State University—Sacramento) Speakers: 1. Toby Svoboda (Pennsylvania State University) “Natural Goods and the Moral Considerability of Non-humans” Commentator: Lisa Kretz (Dalhousie University) 2. David Wood (Vanderbilt University) “In the Face of Anthropogenic Climate Change, How Strong Is the Case for Voluntary Human Extinction?” Commentator: Jeff Sebo (New York University) 3. Jennifer Welchman (University of Alberta) “A Defense of Environmental Stewardship” Commentator: Chris Cuomo (University of Georgia) 1 Millennium Assessment of Human Behavior (MAHB): Millennial assessments of the environmental problems confronting people of all nations have shown that the problems are severe and, in large part, the product of human activities. Key issues include climate change, decline of food security, loss of biological diversity, depletion of water and other vital resources with consequent conflict, use of unsustainable and environmentally malign energy technologies, deleterious changes in patterns of land use, and toxification of the planet with unregulated pollutants. All of these problems threaten the human future. Yet society stubbornly refuses to take comprehensive steps to deal with them and their drivers, including population growth, overconsumption by the rich, and the deployment of environmentally malign technologies. Through a MAHB inaugural global conference, involving scholars, politicians and a broad spectrum of stakeholders, followed by workshops, research activities, and the construction of a human dimensions portal, the MAHB will begin to re-frame people’s definitions of, and solutions to, sustainability problems. The MAHB would encourage a global discussion about what human goals should be (i.e., “what people are for”) and examine how cultural change can be steered toward creation of a sustainable society. A key task will be to get governmental buy- in and the support of other key decisionmakers in the media, industry, academia, religious communities, foundations, and elsewhere who can participate in the discussion and are in positions to amplify outreach and help to accelerate needed changes in public perceptions and institutional structures. Research will also be central to the program, recognizing that we now need more insights from the social sciences and humanities than from biology and the physical sciences. It would focus on analyzing and evaluating the attitudes and practices of individuals and groups. In relation to both outreach and research functions, MAHB envisions establishing an “observatory” on behavior. It would gather evidence from existing documents and established databases as well as from a variety of global stakeholders, and promote new directions for outreach and new research projects. The behavioral observatory will establish a MAHB-line (similar to Medline), providing access to social science and humanities research relating to sustainability. It will have an interactive portal receiving and providing up-to-date information about particular environmental problems, human factors relating to these problems, and initiatives to deal with them. The observatory will work with the MAHB secretariat to develop outreach-research programs that explore the role of values in behavior and on human well-being to determine what institutional and cultural barriers stand between declared values and actual practices, the factors that drive human happiness and fulfillment, and the implications of these factors for ecological sustainability. It will raise questions about how societies measure success and happiness, depict the links between global environmental threats and lifestyle choices, and embed the human story in a deeper understanding of humankind’s relationship to nature. Humanity cannot avoid dramatic change, but potentially it can do a much better job of managing it. Please visit the MAHB website at: <http://mahb.stanford.edu/>. ISEE-Listserv: The ISEE Listserv is a discussion list for the International Society for Environmental Ethics. Its creation was authorized by the ISEE Board of Directors in December 2000. It is intended to be a forum for announcements and discussion related to teaching and research in environmental ethics. To join or leave the listserv, or to alter your subscription options go to: <http://listserv.tamu.edu/archives/isee-l.html>. Contact Gary Varner, the listserv manager, for more information: <[email protected]>. 2 ISSUES Heinz Award Winners: Now in its fifteenth year, the Heinz Awards are given to outstanding individuals for their extraordinary achievements in various fields. The 2009 recipients of Heinz Awards in fields related to the environment were: (1) Robert Berkebile of Kansas City, Missouri, who is an architect with BNIM Architects, was recognized for his green building advocacy and promotion of sustainable design and planning; he helped found the United States Green Building Council and the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system. (2) P. Dee Boersma of Seattle was recognized for developing a greater understanding of the impact of humans on marine ecosystems through her studies at the University of Washington on penguins and other sea birds; she also founded and is the executive editor of Conservation magazine. (3) Christopher Field, who is the founding director of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology and a biology and environmental professor at Stanford, was recognized for his work toward understanding the effects of climate change on the Earth’s ecosystems. (4) Ashok Gadgil of Berkeley, California, who is a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and a group leader at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, was recognized for his work as a researcher, inventor, and humanitarian; he is known for creating inventions to solve fundamental problems in developing countries, such as an inexpensive water purification system and an improved cook stove for use in the conflicted Darfur region of Sudan. (5) Chip Giller of Seattle, Washington was recognized for founding the environmental magazine Grist in 1999. (6) Deborah Rice of Augusta, Maine, who works in the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, was recognized for her research into neurotoxicology—the study of the interactions of chemicals within the brain and nervous system and the potential effect of toxins on human development. (7) Joel Salatin of Swoope, Virginia, who is a farmer at Polyface Farm, author and lecturer, was recognized for creating environmentally friendly farming techniques. (8) Kirk R. Smith of Berkeley, California, who is a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, was recognized for exposing the relationships among household air pollution, fuel use, climate, and health. (9) Thomas Smith of Austin, Texas, who is the director of the consumer and environmental group Texas Office of Public Citizen, was recognized for his advocacy of wind and solar energy efficiency. (10) Beverly H. Wright of New Orleans was recognized for her work as an environmental justice advocate with the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard University. For more information, please visit: <http://www.heinzawards.net/recipients>. Defending Mother Earth in Cochabamba: On the night of 18-19 December 2010 in Copenhagen, a handful of governments opposed the text presented by the United States, China, Brazil, India, and South Africa. Among those few, Bolivia—represented by President Evo Morales who had been re-elected just days before with an overwhelming majority—strongly condemned the agreement both on the process (the text was discussed in small groups outside of the UN) and on the content, which fell far short of anything close to what the IPCC recommended, did not include any constraints