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INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICSNEWSLETTER
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Volume 21, No. 1, Winter 2010
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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 caneither use the form on the last page of this Newsletter to mail check to ISEE Treasurer MarionHourdequin, or you can use PayPal with a credit card from the membership page of the ISEEwebsite 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 27-30December 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, SanFrancisco, California, 31 March-3 April 2010:
Wednesday, 31 March, 1800-2100:Topic: Environmental MetaphysicsChair: Geoffrey Frasz (College of Southern Nevada)Speakers:1.
Nathan Kowalsky (University of Alberta) “The Metaphysics of Crisis: Maintaining MoralContingency in Environmental Philosophy”Commentator: John Basl (University of Wisconsin—Madison)2.
Bob Sandmeyer (University of Kentucky) “An Existential Interpretation of Aldo Leopold’sConcept of Land”Commentator: Dylan Trigg (University of Sussex)3.
Tim Christion (University of North Texas) “Nature’s Agency or Nature’s Response? What ItIs for the Natural World to Relate to Us”Commentator: Avram Hiller (Portland State University)Friday, 2 April 1900-2200:Topic: Moral Responsibilities to NatureChair: Christina M. Bellon (California State University—Sacramento)Speakers:1.
Toby Svoboda (Pennsylvania State University) “Natural Goods and the MoralConsiderability of Non-humans”Commentator: Lisa Kretz (Dalhousie University)2.
David Wood (Vanderbilt University) “In the Face of Anthropogenic Climate Change, HowStrong 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)
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Millennium Assessment of Human Behavior (MAHB):
Millennial assessments of theenvironmental problems confronting people of all nations have shown that the problems aresevere 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 resourceswith 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 totake 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 broadspectrum of stakeholders, followed by workshops, research activities, and the construction of ahuman dimensions portal, the MAHB will begin to re-frame people’s definitions of, andsolutions to, sustainability problems. The MAHB would encourage a global discussion aboutwhat 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, religiouscommunities, 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 andinstitutional structures. Research will also be central to the program, recognizing that we nowneed more insights from the social sciences and humanities than from biology and the physicalsciences. It would focus on analyzing and evaluating the attitudes and practices of individualsand groups. In relation to both outreach and research functions, MAHB envisions establishingan “observatory” on behavior. It would gather evidence from existing documents andestablished databases as well as from a variety of global stakeholders, and promote newdirections for outreach and new research projects. The behavioral observatory will establish aMAHB-line (similar to Medline), providing access to social science and humanities researchrelating to sustainability. It will have an interactive portal receiving and providing up-to-dateinformation about particular environmental problems, human factors relating to these problems,and initiatives to deal with them. The observatory will work with the MAHB secretariat todevelop outreach-research programs that explore the role of values in behavior and on humanwell-being to determine what institutional and cultural barriers stand between declared valuesand actual practices, the factors that drive human happiness and fulfillment, and the implicationsof these factors for ecological sustainability. It will raise questions about how societies measuresuccess and happiness, depict the links between global environmental threats and lifestylechoices, and embed the human story in a deeper understanding of humankind’s relationship tonature. 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 andresearch in environmental ethics. To join or leave the listserv, or to alter your subscriptionoptions go to: <http://listserv.tamu.edu/archives/isee-l.html>. Contact Gary Varner, the listservmanager, for more information: <gary@philosophy.tamu.edu>.
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ISSUES
Heinz Award Winners:
Now in its fifteenth year, the Heinz Awards are given to outstandingindividuals for their extraordinary achievements in various fields. The 2009 recipients of HeinzAwards 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 buildingadvocacy and promotion of sustainable design and planning; he helped found the United StatesGreen 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 theimpact 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’sDepartment of Global Ecology and a biology and environmental professor at Stanford, wasrecognized for his work toward understanding the effects of climate change on the Earth’secosystems. (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, wasrecognized for his work as a researcher, inventor, and humanitarian; he is known for creatinginventions 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 PolyfaceFarm, author and lecturer, was recognized for creating environmentally friendly farmingtechniques. (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 hisadvocacy of wind and solar energy efficiency. (10) Beverly H. Wright of New Orleans wasrecognized 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 inCopenhagen, 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 EvoMorales who had been re-elected just days before with an overwhelming majority—stronglycondemned 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 IPCCrecommended, did not include any constraints on emissions or financing commitments for theSouth. Just a few days later President Morales issued an invitation to the “Peoples WorldConference on Climate Change and Mother Earth’s Rights” in Cochabamba, Bolivia on 19-22April 2010. Although the initiative from Morales raised a lot of interest and enthusiasm fromactivist networks across the world, there were still many questions about the nature and theobjectives of the conference. Pablo Solon, Bolivia’s ambassador to the UN and a veteran of theWorld Social Forum, came to the Porto Alegre WSF 10th year events, to share information and
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