Defending Biodiversity Environmental Science and Ethics

includes index and biblioraphy

1 Biodiversity and the environmentalist agenda ...1 Introduction ...1 What do we mean by biodiversity ...2 Why think the earth is Running out of biodiversity ? ...6 The enviromentalist agenda ...15 Total commitment vs. the ceteris paribus environmentalist ...22 Part 1 Instrumental value defenses ...43 2 Ecosystem functioning and stability ...47 The basic argument ...47 Preliminaries ...50 Relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning ...51 Limitations of experimental design ...60 A summary of the empirical evidence ...67 Questionals relevance of the experimental evidence ...77 Unpalatable implied commitiments commitments ...86 Conclusions ...91 Further reading ...92 Appendix : Economioc value of ecosystem functioning ...93 3 The precautionary principle ...97 Introduction ...97 What is a precautionary defense ...98 Defining the precautionary principle ...100 Why vs how : Uses of the precautionary principle ...101 The precautionary principle, Risk assessment and cost- benefit analysis ...107 Further ptoblems for the precautionary principle ...118 Conclusion ....130 Further reading ...131 4 Agricultural and pharmaceutical benefits ...132 Introduction ...132 A precautionary warning ...133 Is biodiversity necessary for food ...134 The argument from pharmaceutical valve ...141 Conclusions ...170 Further reading ...171 5 Nature based tourism and transformative value ...173 Introduction ...173 Demand value of biodiversity ...175 The transformative value of biodiversity ...187 Conclusions ...190 Further reading ...192 6 How far do instrumental value defences get environmentalists ? ...193 Introduction ...193 The ecosystem function defense ...194 The precautionary defense ...195 The food and medicine defense ...195 Nature-based tourism and transformative value defenses ...200 Conclusions about instrumental value defenses ...200 Part II Intrinsic value defenses ...205 7 Methodology in philosophical ethics ...209 Approaches to justification in philosophical ethics ...209 The role of thought experiments ...223 Some conceptual and terminological issues ...227 Conclusions ...232 Further reading ...232 8 Extensionism in environmental ethics ...233 Introduction ...233 The animal wefare/ Animal rights distinction ....234 Singer`s utilitarian sentientism ....236 Regan`s rights based (decontological) sentientism ...243 The practical charges against sentientism ...252 Can sentientists responed to the practical charges ...257 Biocentric individualism and environmental ethics ...272 Further reading ...273 9 Ecoholism : Do ecological wholes have intrinsic value ....274 Introduction ...274 Some non-starters and common problems ...275 Extensionist defenses of ecoholism ....283 Conclusions ...299 Further reading ...300 10 Ecoholism 2: Callicott on the leopold land ethic ...301 Leopold`s life and style of writing ...302 Callicott`s Triangular affair paper ...307 Callicott`s later interpretation of leopold ..314 Some objections to callicott`s interpretation of leopold ...333 Where does reaading leopold get us ...348 Further reading ...353 11 Should biodiversity be conserved for its aesthetic value ...354 Introduction ...354 Russow, Sober and the duty to conserve artwork ...361 The superficality objection ...370 The problem of unappealing species and ecosystems ...374 Environmental aesthetics and the natural environmental model ...377 Outstanding challenges for an aesthetic defense of conservation ...383 Further reasding ...386 12 How far do intrinsic value defenses get environmentalists ? ...387 Introduction ....387 Anthropocentrism ...387 Sentientism ...393 Ecoholism and biocentric individualism ...394 Aesthetic intrinsic value ...395 Conclusions ...396 13 Conclusions and personal reflections ...397 Jonathan newman ....397 Gary varner ...403 Stefan linquist ...408 Don`t agree to disagree ...416 Why ought we conserve buodiversity ...417