Introduction to Environmental Ethics: Caring for the Earth

A comprehensive introductory textbook that integrates environmental ethics with social and religious perspectives, this cross-disciplinary approach helps students understand the depth and breadth of environmental issues in a globally relevant way. Environmental problems are explained by ecological, social, ethical, and religious dimensions that inspire environmental conservation. It underlines the reasons why intrinsic values of nature, and those who inhabit it, must be taken into consideration when making decisions that affect them. This book is also intended for those interested in understanding the environmental debate which is a critical component of environmental management.

Features

• Presents the historical review of the environmental movement
• Introduces ethical reasoning in environmental problems
• Explains environmental ethic approaches and practical implications
• Discusses the role of religions in nature conservation and Eco-theology
• Includes exercises for reflection in each chapter to stimulate student engagement with environmental issues

This great textbook gives readers new insight into caring for the environment. It is for undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in environmental studies, geography, sociology, anthropology, and philosophy, as well as professionals in environmental management and environmental policy, and for those interested in environmental issues and the ethics of nature conservation.

Emilio Chuvieco is Professor of Geography at the University of Alcalá, Spain, where he coordinates the Environmental Remote Sensing Research Group and is Director of the Environmental Ethics Chair. He is a correspondent member of the Spanish Academy of Sciences. He has taught postgraduate courses in twelve different countries. He has been a visiting scholar at the Universities of Berkeley, Nottingham, Clark, Cambridge, Santa Barbara, Maryland, Oxford, and the Canada Center for Remote Sensing. He has coordinated 27 research projects and 20 contracts. He has supervised 43 Ph.D. theses and is co-author of 430 scientific papers and 26 books. His main research interest is the extraction of environmental information from Earth observation satellites, but he has also explored environmental ethics and how religious traditions have approached environmental protection, a topic on which he is involved on a DPHIL program at Oxford University.

María Ángeles Martín is professor of environmental impact assessment and landscape planning at the University of Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain. She has a doctorate in biology from the Polytechnic University of Madrid. She has been the principal investigator of a national CICYT project. She received a Fulbright scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in environmental policy at the Yale University School of Forestry. She has published a book with Professor Susan Clark from Yale University. She teaches environmental ethics in different Universities: Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain, University Francisco de Vitoria, Mexico, and Finis Terrae, Chile.