This volume returns to one of the major themes of the Global Ecological Integrity Group: the interface between integrity as a scientific concept and a number of important issues in ethics, international law and public health. The main scholars who have worked on these topics over the years return to re-examine these dimensions from the viewpoint of global governance.
This book offers recent insights into some of the burning issues of our times: climate change, exposure to chemicals, refugee issues and the ecological harm that accompanies conflict situations. It brings together a group of pioneering scholars, mostly legal experts but also thinkers from various scientific disciplines, to discuss concerns from around the globe – from Australia and New Zealand, to Canada and the United States, European countries including Germany, Italy, Britain and the Czech Republic, as well as the African continent. Presenting the latest climate and ecology-related case law, as well as analyses of the conceptual issues that underlie international problems, it covers the extinction of species, the basic role of women and Indigenous peoples in protecting the environment, the failure of today’s states to protect the human right to a safe environment and public health, the harm arising from industrial food production, and the problems resulting from a growth-oriented economy. Lastly, the book examines various international legal principles and regulations that have been proposed to defend global ecological rights.
'The ecological challenge demands a paradigm shift in our thinking about the human-environment relation. Reconciling Human Existence with Ecological Integrity provides a ?state of the art? account of work on ecological integrity - and offers a compelling vision for the future.' Derek Bell, Senior Lecturer at the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, University of Newcastle ?A book of vast scope and richness ...If policymakers around the world took notice of this insightful set of messages, we would all live with greater happiness, health, and wellbeing, with a brighter future for our children and grandchildren.' Lawrence O. Gostin, O?Neill Professor of Global Health Law, Georgetown University Law Center ?This book attempts to do in theory what the world needs to do in practice. It is an ecological master plan that shows how we can not only survive but also flourish.' James P. Sterba, President of the American Philosophical Association, Central Division Ecosystems have been compared to a house of cards: remove or damage a part and you risk destroying or fundamentally and irreversibly altering the whole.Protecting ecological integrity means maintaining that whole - an aim which is increasingly difficult to achieve given the ever-growing dominance of humanity. This book is the definitive examination of the state of the field now, and the way things may (and must) develop in the future. Written and edited by members of the Global Ecological Integrity Group - an international collection of the world's most respected authorities in the area - the book considers the extent to which human rights (such as the rights to food, energy, health, clean air or water) can be reconciled with the principles of ecological integrity. The issue is approached from a variety of economic, legal, ethical and ecological standpoints, providing an essential resource for researchers, students and those in government or business in a wide range of disciplines.
This book is intended to focus the attention of scholars and policymakers on the ongoing land grabs that occur in all continents, as corporations, conglomerates and powerful governments ally themselves with those who reap economic profits from the dispossession of those who inhabit the lands.Often the dispossession takes place as a legal transaction, even as an internationally sanctioned form of so-called "sustainable development", something that, in reality, is neither sustainable, nor leading to the development of the communities indigenous to the land, who usually attempt to the best of their ability, to resist, and deny what they view as a forceful hostile occupation, of the lands which constitute their only source of sustenance.This book raises a grave question, as it asks, whether these dispositions might represent grave violations of the rights of peoples to be free from racial discrimination, and to their rights to their own resources and self-determination. When climate change is exacerbated by deforestation, in order to use the land for more profitable cash crops, then it is even possible to view the environmental disasters that ensue as crimes against humanity.
This book follows upon earlier work which culminated in the publication of two recent books, Sustainable Development: Science, Ethics, and Public Policy (John Lemons and Donald A. Brown, editors), and Perspectives on Ecological Integrity (Laura Westra and John Lemons, editors). Both of these books also were published by Kluwer Academic Publishers. In this book, we seek to explore more fully the concepts of sustainability and ecological integrity as well as the connections between them. We have divided chapters into three groups. In the first, the concept of sustainability in relation to science, law, and ethics is explored. In the second, concepts of sustainability and ecological integrity are applied to problems in specific natural resources. Finally, in the third group we examine possible approaches to public policy which might include concepts of sustainability and ecological integrity. Overall, we believe that this collection presents a wide variety of perspectives, discussions, and case studies. John Lemons Laura Westra Robert Goodland Editors ix CONTENTS PART I Sustainability in Relation to Science, Law, and Ethics Chapter 1 The Concept of Sustainability: A Critical Approach Lynton K. Caldwell 1. Problems of Definition 2 2. Behavioral Obstacles 4 3. Psychological Obstacles: Seven Deadly Sins of Unsustainability 8 4.
This book increases the visibility, clarity and understanding of ecological law. Ecological law is emerging as a field of law founded on systems thinking and the need to integrate ecological limits, such as planetary boundaries, into law. Presenting new thinking in the field, this book focuses on problem areas of contemporary law including environmental law, property law, trusts, legal theory and First Nations law and explains how ecological law provides solutions. Written by ecological law experts, it does this by 1) providing an overview of shortcomings of environmental law and other areas of contemporary law, 2) presenting specific examples of these shortcomings, 3) explaining what ecological law is and how it provides solutions to the shortcomings of contemporary law, and 4) showing how society can overcome some key challenges in the transition to ecological law. Drawing on a diverse range of case study examples including Indigenous law, ecological restoration and mining, this volume will be of great interest to students, scholars and policymakers of environmental and ecological law and governance, political science, environmental ethics and ecological and degrowth economics.
Containing an in-depth study of the emerging theory and core of ecological law, this book insightfully proposes a 'lens of ecological law' through which the disparity between current laws and ecological law can be assessed. The lens consists of three principles: ecocentrism, ecological primacy and ecological justice. These principles are used within the book to explore and analyse the challenges and opportunities related to the transition to ecological law and to examine three key mining case studies.
The Law and Policy of Ecosystem Services is the first comprehensive exploration of the status and future of natural capital and ecosystem services in American law and policy. The book develops a framework for thinking about ecosystem services across their ecologic, geographic, economic, social, and legal dimensions and evaluates the prospects of crafting a legal infrastructure that can help build an ecosystem service economy that is as robust as existing economies for manufactured goods, natural resource commodities, and human-provided services. The book examines the geographic, ecological, and economic context of ecosystem services and provides a baseline of the current status of ecosystem services in law and society. It identifies shortcomings of current law and policy and the critical areas for improvement and forges an approach for the design of new law and policy for ecosystem services. Included are a series of nine empirical case studies that explore the problems caused by society’s failure to properly value natural capital. Among the case study topics considered are water issues, The Conservation Reserve Program, the National Conservation Buffer Initiative, the agricultural policy of the European Union, wetland mitigation, and pollution trading. The Law and Policy of Ecosystem Services is a groundbreaking look at the question of whether and how law and policy can shape a sustainable system of ecosystem service management. It is an accessible and informative work for faculty, students, and policy makers concerned with ecology, economics, geography, political science, environmental studies, law, and related fields.
'Human laws must be reformulated to keep human activities in harmony with the unchanging and universal laws of nature.' This 1987 statement by the World Commission on Environment and Development has never been more relevant and urgent than it is today. Despite the many legal responses to various environmental problems, more greenhouse gases than ever before are being released into the atmosphere, biological diversity is rapidly declining and fish stocks in the oceans are dwindling. This book challenges the doctrinal construction of environmental law and presents an innovative legal approach to ecological sustainability: a rule of law for nature which guides and transcends ordinary written laws and extends fundamental principles of respect, integrity and legal security to the non-human world.
This innovative book takes a new look at environmental ethics and the need for ecological and biological integrity. Laura Westra explores the necessity for radical alteration not only of interpersonal ethics, but also of social institutions and public policy. In the process, Westra denies the validity of majority rule in environmentally ethical concerns. Issues discussed in the book include the link between ecological integrity and human health; an environmental evaluation of business and technology; biotechnology and transgenics in agriculture and aquaculture; and the environmental ethics of the ancient Greeks and Kant. Living in Integrity is a valuable book for philosophers and environmentalists alike.
