Ethics and the Environment

Catalog description

Class Hours: 3 Lab/Discussion: 0 Credits: 3 Description: Applies ethical theory to environmental issues, including resource depletion, animal rights, biotic endangerment, environmental degradation, climate change, and environmental justice. Considers arguments by which human-caused environmental destruction is intrinsically wrong, wrong independently of human interests and purposes, and arguments for environmental policies by which the following are granted rights, interests, or inherent value: non-human animals, all living things, all natural things, biotic communities, and ecosystems. Also considers arguments that environmental policies cannot be applied globally without injustice to humans, including poor and indigenous peoples.