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The Future of Environmental Ethics*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2011

Holmes Rolston III
Holmes Rolston III
Affiliation:
Colorado State University
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Extract

Environmental ethics has a future as long as there are moral agents on Earth with values at stake in their environment. Somewhat ironically, just when humans, with their increasing industry and development, seemed further and further from nature, having more power to manage it, just when humans were more and more rebuilding their environments with their super technologies, the natural world emerged as a focus of ethical concern. Environmental alarms started with prophets such as Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, John Muir, and David Brower, and have, over recent decades, become daily news.

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Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements , Volume 69 , October 2011 , pp. 1 - 28
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Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the contributors 2011

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