Canadian Issues in Environmental Ethics

Is it possible to design a forest policy that satisfies ethical and environmental concerns and is acceptable to business, labour and First Nations representatives? What is the best path through the tangle of ethical issues surrounding the collapse of the east coast fishery? What sort of obligations does a rich nation such as Canada have to satisfy the claims of global environmental justice?

These are the sorts of issues in applied ethics that are tackled in this collection of essays, the vast majority of which have been written especially for this volume. It is the first Canadian collection of its kind.

The book is divided in to sections detailing with such topics as the environment and the economy; ethical issues relating to non-human animals; issues of gender; and issues relating to native peoples. Most of the authors are philosophers, though specialists in geography, geology, and the social sciences are also among the contributors.

Frequent reference is made to theoretical ethical concerns, but the focus throughout is on applied ethics, and a variety of case studies are included. (Examples include essays on animal rights and the case of native hunters; surface mining in Northern Ontario, the Quebec arctic; and fishing communities in the Maritimes.) Comparisons are frequently drawn to policies and ethical questions arising in other countries-most prominently the United States.