Publisher's Synopsis
The purpose of this book is to cast the current debates about environmental conservation and economic development within an ethical framework. Using the concept of sustainability, the distinguished editors, following a broad-ranging survey of the nature and practice of ethical ideas in approaching problems and conflicts in environmental and development issues, have invited scholars from a wide range of cultural, political, religious and philosophical backgrounds to review what constitutes the major ethical issues within their own fields. Contributions from the perspectives of the western liberal democratic societies, the eastern command economies, Japan, Latin America, and Africa provide illuminating and sometimes surprising models for ethical ways of environmental thinking.;The final important section invites contributions from each of the major world religions to address the moral and pholosophical standpoints their faiths offer for reconciling human stewardship of the natural world with providing the essentials of life for the human community.
