This chapter shows how, ironically, racism has often been combated on the basis of speciesist assumptions, in particular in the humanist post-WW2 United Nations discourse on human rights. It traces... Show moreThis chapter shows how, ironically, racism has often been combated on the basis of speciesist assumptions, in particular in the humanist post-WW2 United Nations discourse on human rights. It traces those assumptions to various roots - in biological and anthropological thinking of the period, European metaphysics, middle class cultural attitudes, and, ultimately, evolution. The subsequent Great Ape Project, which claimed moral respectability for all great apes, ran into a similar problem. The paperalso makes some observations on the ritual, performative character of various declarations of the rights of human and nonhuman beings. Show less
This article explores the implications of the shift of environmental education (EE) towards education for sustainable development (ESD) in the context of environmental ethics. While plural... Show moreThis article explores the implications of the shift of environmental education (EE) towards education for sustainable development (ESD) in the context of environmental ethics. While plural perspectives on ESD are encouraged both by practitioners and researchers of EE, there is also a danger that such pluralism may sustain dominant political ideologies and consolidated corporate power that obscure environmental concerns. Encouraging plural interpretations of ESD may in fact lead ecologically ill-informed teachers and students acculturated by the dominant neoliberal ideology to underprivilege ecocentric perspective. It is argued that ESD, with its focus on human welfare, equality, rights and fair distribution of resources is a radical departure from the aim of EE set out by the Belgrade Charter as well as a distinct turn towards anthropocentrically biased education. This article has two aims: to demonstrate the importance of environmental ethics for EE in general and ESD in particular and to argue in favour of a return to instrumentalism, based on the twinned assumptions that the environmental problems are severe and that education of ecologically minded students could help their resolution. Show less
Biodiversity preservation is often viewed in utilitarian terms that render nonhuman species as ecosystem services or natural resources. The economic capture approach may be inadequate in... Show moreBiodiversity preservation is often viewed in utilitarian terms that render nonhuman species as ecosystem services or natural resources. The economic capture approach may be inadequate in addressing biodiversity loss because extinction of some species could conceivably come to pass without jeopardizing the survival of the humans. People might be materially sustained by a technological biora made to yield services and products required for human life. The failure to address biodiversity loss calls for an exploration of alternative paradigms. It is proposed that the failure to address biodiversity loss stems from the fact that ecocentric value holders are politically marginalized and underrepresented in the most powerful strata of society. While anthropocentric concerns with environment and private expressions of biophilia are acceptable in the wider society, the more pronounced publicly expressed deep ecology position is discouraged. ‘‘Radical environmentalists’’ are among the least understood of all contemporary opposition movements, not only in tactical terms, but also ethically. The article argues in favor of the inclusion of deep ecology perspective as an alternative to the current anthropocentric paradigm. Show less
