V UMBER S ISSN 82248250

1 ISEE Newsletter Summer 2015

Surfer Dede Surinaya catches a wave in a remote but garbagecovered bay on Java,Indonesia, the world’s most populated island. Photo: © Zak Noyle

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR

ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS

NEWSLETTER

VOLUME 25, NUMBER 2SUMMER 2015ISSN 82248250

ADVANCING THE FIELD OFENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS ANDPHILOSOPHY SINCE 1990

PRESIDENTPHIL CAFARO

VICEPRESIDENTBENJAMIN HALE

SECRETARYWILLIAM GROVEFANNING

TREASURERALLEN THOMPSON

NEWSLETTER EDITORMatt Ferkany

WEBSITE MANAGERAline Ramos

2ISEE Newsletter Summer 2015

IN THIS ISSUE

General announcements 3

Member news 4

News from the field 7

Biodiversity and Environmental Ethicists 9as Educators: An Interview with PhilCafaro

New publications: Journals 15

ISEE business 21

GENERALANNOUNCEMENTS


NEWS FROM THE FIELD

New website to integrate and coordinateactivities of climate change scholars

Our members might well be interested ina new initiative, Global Climate ChangeWeek (GCCW), intended to integrate andcoordinate the efforts of the wide rangeof academics interested in climatechange action. The intent is to focusefforts around the week of Oct 1925through the use of the GCCW website(http://globalclimatechangeweek.com).

From Keith Horton, the organizer, “Oneof the website’s features is a map thatwill show which academics around theworld are taking part and (if appropriate)what they are planning to do(http://globalclimatechangeweek.com/gccwmap). The map becomes populatedwhen academics fill in the ‘register yourinterest’ (or ‘register an activity’) formon the rhs of every page. So if you thinkyou would like to participate, do pleasefill the form in!” If you have anyquestions or suggestions regardingGCCW, please contact KeithHorton:[email protected].

Ken Shockley

An Update on OBET

Editor’s note: David Lahti is AssistantProfessor of Biology at Queen’s CollegeCUNY. He maintains the OnlineBibliography of Environmental Thought(OBET), which has recently been downsome time for updating. He recentlyshared information on the history ofOBET, its current state, and future plansfor improvement. He can be contacted [email protected].

For those unfamiliar with it, OBETis the Online Bibliography ofEnvironmental Thought (OBET), aresource of ISEE. It is a database ofprofessional literature and other mediaon the relationship between humans andnature. It has been (and will continue tobe, once it is up again) locatedat http://www.iseeobet.org.

OBET has been down for about ayear to prepare for a newplatform, which should be up in July2015.

OBET began as a way of bringingISEE's existing environmental databaseup to date electronically, with a modernweb interface. Several ISEE membershave submitted materials to it, and ourmeager staff here at the City Universityof New York (with a lot of early help fromWilliam GroveFanning) have brought thetotal number of references currentlycovered up to over 20,000. 22environmental journals are completelycovered by it so far. To ourknowledge, OBET is the first fully usermanaged topical academic database.Like other bibliographic databases, it isfully searchable and sortable, groupedinto topical categories, and results canbe exported in generic formats.



ARTICLE

Biodiversity and Environmental Ethicistsas Educators: An Interview with Phil

Cafaro

Editor's note: In the coming issues, I willbe interviewing different thinkers onsome aspect of their work inenvironmental ethics, but also on thebigger theme of how environmentalthinkers can bring their ideas to thebroader public or otherwise act toeducate the public on environmentalissues. I started at the top of ISEE byasking Phil Cafaro some questions onbiodiversity and the role of the universityprofessor in environmental education.

Ferkany: You have defended relativelyrecently a broadly nonanthropocentricway of thinking about the morality ofspecies preservation. If I understand itcorrectly, you think human interests inspecies preservation matter, we need topay attention to how this affects us, butthere's still a moral imperative topreserve biodiversity. Can you speak towhy we should worry about speciesextinction and why should people reallycare about this?

Cafaro: I think there are a number ofreasons why we should care aboutspecies extinction. The science isrelatively clear that we are convertinghabitats rapidly, changing the climate,introducing exotic species, overharvesting wildlife, and altogetherputting tremendous pressure on otherspecies. A recent study by the WorldWildlife Fund, for example, affirmed thatif you look at vertebrate populations, allvertebrate types—birds, mammals, fish,reptiles, amphibians—there has been a52% decline in overall populationsaround the world in just the last twogenerations, the last 40 to 50 years. Sowe are looking at a world where we arerapidly replacing everything else with usand our economic support systems, and

we are losing a tremendous amount.

So, why should we care about that? Whynot just think, “Well, we're running theshow now and these changes are goodfor us?” Well they’re not good for us,that's one answer. But another answer isother species have intrinsic value.They're complex, they have ancientgenealogies … Each species is a genuineachievement, with a unique history and aunique destiny.

Then too, they call it biodiversity for areason. I mean it's part of what makesthis world a wonderful place, the factthat there are so many different kinds oforganisms, living in so many differentways, interacting in so many differentways. When we just rapidly displace allthat, it's a tremendous loss.

In his new book, Flight Ways: Life andLoss at the Edge of Extinction, Thom vanDooren's take on this is that eachparticular endangered species is adifferent case, you're tampering with adifferent history, you're cutting offdifferent ties that human beings couldhave to that species. So he resiststalking in general terms. He wants tosay, if we keep these around we canhave wonderful relationships with themand appreciate them, and all of thatrings very true to me. But you know,we've also got this idea that we'veinitiated a 6th mass extinction, and wehave to reckon with that, get at what theoverall story means. We’re not justlosing this, that, or the other species. Weare on track to do away with a fairamount of the biodiversity in the world inthe next century or two.

Ferkany: You've also defended broadideas within environmental virtue ethics,too, which sometimes casts itself astaking an approach to these issues thatsomehow fits in between the


anthropocentric and nonanthropocentricdivide. I am wondering whether youwould agree that maybe there's a spacefrom within a virtue orientation that'ssomewhere in between saying, one theone hand, "Well we should care justbecause it's in our interest to do so, wedon't want to ruin the planet forourselves" and "We should care becausewe have a duty grounded in the intrinsicvalue of species to do so," a space whichfocuses on the virtue, or lack thereof,that would be shown by us of justrampantly destroying these otherspecies, as if we're the only ones herethat matter. Right, why are we soimportant that we get to decide who getsto stay and who gets to go?

Cafaro: Yeah, it think it's true, you cantake just a very nuts and bolts approachto it and say, "These might be resourcesfor our use and so we should be carefulwith them." But on the other hand youhave the kind of intrinsic valueapproaches that Holmes Rolston andBaird Callicott, have advanced, and thereis a sense in which the environmentalvirtue ethics approach is a little bitsplitting the difference there and saying,"Look at our enlightened selfinterest.Think about the kind of world you wantyou and your children to live in. Thinkabout the kind of relationships with therest of nature you want to have. Thinkabout the kind of story you would becomfortable telling yourself and yoursociety about your role in eitherstewarding creation or in destroying it,displacing it.” So there's a sense in whichyou are sort of splitting the differencethere in a nice way.

Ferkany: In one of the older papersyou've written, on wildness, you get intosome of these issues. And there I thinkone of your ideas is that one of the mainthings we need to do relative tobiodiversity is to have a robust parkssystem. We need to limit development tomake sure we have spaces for wildspecies to be wild. Is that a view you still

hold today? What do you see as the maindrivers of species loss today and whatare the main things you think we need todo about it?

Cafaro: Yeah, I'm still a big proponent ofparks and protected areas. I think thecase is absolutely clear that protecting asmuch landscape and seascape aspossible is really one of the keys topreserving biodiversity. That's beenshown over and over again.

Recently, it's funny, people have beenpointing out that just preserving landdoesn't necessarily preserve species;habitat can be degraded and Impactsfrom outside can come in. And so, somepeople are saying that we don't need tofocus as much on protected areas. Theysay we have to focus more on conservingthings outside of protected areas. And,it's just a classic logical fallacy: protectedareas are a necessary part of conservingbiodiversity, but not in themselvessufficient for doing so, and so somepeople are talking as if they weren’t evennecessary.

There's been a big debate in theconservation biology literature aboutthis, and sure enough, the studies arecoming back, over and over again,saying that you do a much better job ofpreserving biodiversity in stronglyprotected areas. Outside lands, multipleuse lands, these are very important forconservation, very important forbiodiversity. We should do more workingwith them. But all that said, the bestthing you can do to preserve species is topreserve relatively unmodified habitat.And I think the conservation biologistsare stating that relatively clearly.

On your other question: if you look atthe main drivers of species loss,biodiversity loss, conservation biologistsalways come back to what they call thebig five: habitat loss and degradation,overexploitation (overhunting,overfishing and such), pollution, invasive



NEW PUBLICATIONS:JOURNALS

Environment, Space, Place

Environment, Space, Place is a peerreviewed transdisciplinary andinterdisciplinary journal committed tovalues contributing to our rootedness tothe earth and attunement to theenvironment, space, and place.Interdisciplinary is taken to mean thateach discipline is encouraged to share itsown particular excellence with the otherdisciplines in an open exchange.Transdisciplinary is taken to mean thatcontributors are required to make the"geographical turn." Meant in theetymological sense of "earthinscription"or the spatiality of meaning, thegeographical turn frames or makesthematic the spatial aspect of any and allearthly / worldly phenomena.

Vol 6, No 1, 2014

Placing Humanity: TheReconstruction of Prehistory atLascaux.5475. David DillardWright A Poetic Phenomenology of theTemperate Seasons.732. LukeFischer First Along the River: A Brief Historyof the U.S. Environmental Movement.4th ed. By Benjamin Kline.152154.Brooks J. Flippen Explore Everything: Place Hackingthe City. By Bradley L. Garrett.154157. Terrence W. Haverluk Farb Peter’s Garden: Case Study of aSpanish Art Environment.97124. JoHernández Home 7696. Melissa LeyCervantes Arctic Summer. 3353. AlphonsoLingis Space and/or Place in EarlyAtlases.125151.Newman, Winifred E.

Environmental Values

Environmental Values brings togethercontributions from philosophy,economics, politics, sociology, geography,anthropology, ecology, and otherdisciplines, which relate to the presentand future environment of human beingsand other species. In doing so it aims toclarify the relationship between practicalpolicy issues and more fundamentalunderlying principles or assumptions. EVis published by the White Horse Press.This journal came into existence in 1992and is published four times a year.

Vol.24, No.1, February 2015

Editorial: The Dying Planet Index:Life, Death and Man’s Domination ofNature. Clive L. Spash Paradigm Dressed as Epoch: TheIdeology of the Anthropocene. JeremyBaskin Naturalness or Biodiversity:Negotiating the Dilemma ofIntervention in Swedish ProtectedArea Management. Anders Steinwall Pushing the Radical NatureDevelopment Policy Concept in theNetherlands: An Agency Perspective.Simon Verduijn, Huub Ploegmakers,Sander Meijerink and Pieter Leroy Contesting Death: Conservation,Heritage and Pig Killing in Far NorthQueensland, Australia. Carla Meurk Nature Advocacy and the IndigenousSymbol. Mihnea Tanasescu



ISEE OFFICERS

President: Philip CafaroAddress: Department of Philosophy,Colorado State University, Fort Collins,CO 805231781 USATel: 9704912061Fax: 9704914900Email: [email protected]: Organizing ISEE at theAnnual Joint ISEEIAEP Meeting onEnvironmental Philosophy

VicePresident: Ben HaleAddress: Philosophy and EnvironmentalStudies, 1333 Grandview, UCB 0488,University of Colorado, Boulder, Boulder,CO, 80309Tel: 3037353624Fax: 3037351576Email: [email protected]: Organizing ISEE sessionsat the Eastern APA

Secretary: William GroveFanningAddress: Department of Philosophy,University of Portland, 5000 N.Willamette Blvd., Portland, OR, 97203,USAEmail: [email protected]: Organizing ISEE sessionsat Pacific APA

Treasurer: Allen ThompsonAddress: Department of Philosophy,Oregon State University, 102C HovlandHall, Corvallis, OR, 973313902, USATel: 5417375654Fax: 5417372571Email: [email protected]: Organizing ISEE sessionsat the Central APA

Newsletter Editor: Matt FerkanyAddress: Department of Philosophy,Michigan State University, East Lansing,MI, 48824, USATel: 5173536470Email: [email protected]: Assemble and circulatethe newsletter 3 times annually

Website and listserve manager: AlineRamosAddress: CRC en Théorie de laConnaissance, Université du Québec àMontréal, Pavillion ThérèseCasgrain (W),455, Boulevard RenéLévesque Est, 5e.Étage, Local W5245, Montréal, QC,CANADA H2L 4Y2Email: [email protected]

Editor of Environmental Ethics: EugeneHargroveAddress: Department of Philosophy andReligious Studies, University of NorthTexas, P.O. Box 310980, Denton, TX762030980, USATel: 9405652266 Fax: 9405654448Email [email protected]

NEWSLETTER SUBMISSIONSPlease send any announcements,member news, bibliographic informationor other news items via email (preferred)or snail mail to Matt Ferkany at hisaddress listed above.

WEBSITE/LISTSERVE SUBMISSIONSPlease send any calls for papers, jobpostings, or related news items via email(preferred) or snail mail to Aline Ramosat her address above.


We continue to update and expand ourregional representation. Here is thecurrent list. If you are a member of ISEEin a country not on this list, pleasecontact Philip Cafaro [email protected] if you areinterested in representing ISEE.

Africa:SOUTH AFRICA: Johan P. Hattingh,Department of Philosophy, University ofStellenbosch, 7600 Stellenbosch, SouthAfrica. Hattingh heads the Unit forEnvironmental Ethics at Stellenbosch.Office Phone: 27 (country code) 21 (citycode) 8082058. Secretary Phone: 8082418. Home Phone: 8879025. Fax:8864343. Email: [email protected].

Australia:William Grey, Room E338, Department ofPhilosophy, University of Queensland,4067, Queensland 4072 Australia. Email:[email protected].

Asia:CHINA: Yang Tongjing, Institute ofPhilosophy, Chinese Academy of SocialSciences, Beijing, 100732, China. Email:[email protected].

PAKISTAN AND SOUTH ASIA: Nasir AzamSahibzada, Founder Member,Independent Trust for Education (ITE), T28 Sahibzada House, Zeryab Colony,Peshawar City (NWFP), Pakistan. PostalCode. 25000. Phone: (92) (91)2040877). Cell Phone: 03349081801.Email: <[email protected]> [email protected].

TAIWAN: King HenBiau, President, Societyof Subtropical Ecology, 4th Fl. #3, Lane269, Roosevelt Road, Section 3, 106Taipei, Taiwan. Phone: 886223699825. Cell Phone: 886939841403.Fax: 886223689885. Email:[email protected].

Europe:EASTERN EUROPE: Jan Wawrzyniak, Prof.UAM dr hab., Institute of LinguisticsUAM, Al. Niepodleglosci 4, 61874Poznan, POLAND. Phone: +48 / 61 /8293691 and +48 / 61 / 8293663.Mobile: +48 / 66 / 3787032. Fax: +48 /61 / 8293662. Email: [email protected].

FINLAND: Markku Oksanen, Department ofSocial Policy and Social Psychology,University of Kuopio, P.O. Box 1627,70211, Finland. Email: [email protected] [email protected].

THE NETHERLANDS: Martin Drenthen, ISIS,Faculty of Science, Radboud University ofNijmegen, Postbox 9010, 6500 GLNijmegen, the Netherlands. OfficePhone: 31 (country code) 24 (city code)3612751. Fax: 31243615564. HomeAddress: Zebrastraat 5, 6531TWNijmegen, the Netherlands. HomePhone: (31) – (24) –3238397. Email:[email protected].

UNITED KINGDOM: Isis Brook, Centre forProfessional Ethics, University of CentralLancashire, Preston, Lancashire, UnitedKingdom PR1 2HE. Phone: +44(0)1772892542. Email: [email protected].

GREECE: Stavros Karageorgakis, Theofilou26, 54633, Thessaloniki, Greece. Email:[email protected].

South America:Ricardo Rozzi, Department of Philosophyand Religion Studies, P.O. Box 310920,University of North Texas, Denton, TX762030920. Phone: 9405652266. Fax:9405654448. Email: [email protected].

REGIONALREPRESENTATIVES


Mexico and Central America:Teresa Kwiatkowska, UniversidadAutonoma MetropolitanaIztapalapa,Departamento de Filosofia, Av. Michoacany Purissima s/n, 09340 Mexico D.F.,Mexico. Office Phone: (5) 724 47 77.Home Phone: (5) 637 14 24. Fax: (5) 72447 78. Email: [email protected].

North America:CANADA:Thomas Heyd, Department of Philosophy,University of Victoria, P.O. Box 3045,Victoria, British Columbia V8W 3P4,Canada. Office Phone: 2507217512.Fax: 2507217511. Email:[email protected].

Nathan Kowalsky, Philosophy, St. Joseph'sCollege, University of Alberta, Edmonton,AB T6G 2J5, Canada. Office phone: 7804927681 ext. 257. Email:[email protected]

UNITED STATES:Ned Hettinger, Philosophy Department,College of Charleston, Charleston, SouthCarolina 29424, USA. Office Phone: 8439535786. Home Phone: 8439535786.Fax: 8439536388. Email:[email protected].

Holmes Rolston III, Department ofPhilosophy, Colorado State University,Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA. OfficePhone: 9704916315. Fax: 9704914900. Email:[email protected].

Jack Weir, Department of Philosophy,Morehead State University, UPO 662,Morehead, Kentucky 403511689, USA.Office Phone: 6067832785. HomePhone: 6067840046. Fax: 6067835346 (include Weir’s name on Fax).Email: j.weir@moreheadst.edu.


MEMBERSHIP ANDDUES FORM

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V UMBER S ISSN 82248250

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