Watersheds 4 Ten Cases in Environmental Ethics

by Newton, Lisa H.; Dillingham, Catherine K.; Choly, Joanne H.

• ISBN13: 9780534521264
• ISBN10: 0534521266
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-02-24
• Publisher: Cengage Learning

Summary

Environmental issues can be complex. You need an environmental ethics textbook that you can actually understand. WATERSHEDS 4: TEN CASES IN ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS provides ten fascinating case studies of real-life environmental conflicts and explains the principles involved in an easy-to-understand, impartial way.

Table of Contents

PREFACE	VIII
INTRODUCTION	X
CHAPTER 1 OF GREENHOUSES AND FREEZERS	1	(15)
The Perils of Global Climate Change
Introduction: Hollywood at Its Best	1	(1)
The Current Concern Over Global Warming	2	(2)
The Litany of Disaster	4	(4)
National Policy Options	8	(2)
Can International Agreements Cool Off the Greenhouse?	10	(3)
Conclusion	13	(3)
CHAPTER 2 GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS	16	(21)
The Complex Difficulties of Frankenfood
Introduction: A Hungry World	16	(1)
Law and Order: The Prosecutor's Tale	17	(3)
The Origins of Genetic Modification of Plants	20	(2)
The Unexpected Political Backlash	22	(8)
The Future of GMOs	30	(7)
CHAPTER 3 SKUNKED	37	(18)
Crisis in the New England Fisheries
Introduction	37	(1)
Too Many Boats Chasing Too Few Fish	38	(2)
The Captains Courageous: Fishing in New England	40	(4)
The Russians Are Coming! And the Germans, Poles, Spanish	44	(4)
Present and Future	48	(7)
CHAPTER 4 THE INGENUITY OF THE BUGS	55	(23)
Combating Resistance to Antibiotics
Introduction: Thinking Like an Ecosystem	55	(3)
The Slow Destruction of an Ecosystem	58	(4)
Down on the Pharm	62	(3)
Plague Years: AIDS, Tuberculosis, and the Future of Disease	65	(5)
A Nuclear Solution?	70	(2)
The Search for Bears	72	(6)
CHAPTER 5 OIL ON THE ROCKS	78	(20)
The Wreck of the Exxon Valdez
Introduction	78	(1)
Reflections on Responsibility	78	(1)
The Event: Ship Meets Reef	79	(2)
Prince William Sound: The End of Innocence	81	(2)
The Response: Studies in Dysfunction	83	(6)
A Slick of Lawyers over Alaska	89	(2)
Hazelwood Was Not Alone	91	(2)
So It Will Never Happen Again	93	(5)
CHAPTER 6 THE EXTENDED FAMILY	98	(18)
The Saga of the Great Apes
Introduction	98	(1)
The Traditional Food of the Indigenous Populations	98	(3)
The Quarry in the Great Bushmeat Hunt	101	(3)
Apes in the Wild: The Preservation of Endangered Ecosystems	104	(2)
Apes in the Laboratory: Utilitarian Benefits and Troubling Claims of Right	106	(2)
Apes in Court: Should They Have the Rights of Persons?	108	(2)
Ecotourism and Respect	110	(6)
CHAPTER 7 CHLORINE SUNRISE	116	(25)
The Beneficent Possibilities of a Known Poison
Better Living through Chemistry, Or Maybe Not	116	(3)
The Classic Environmental Debate	119	(17)
The Construction of a Sustainable Industry	136	(3)
Concluding Observation	139	(2)
CHAPTER 8 ARE WE THE PROBLEM?	141	(16)
Addressing the New Population Dilemma
Introduction: China-Four Faces of the Population Problem	141	(3)
Paul Ehrlich's Bomb and the Affluent Society	144	(8)
The Role of the International Community	152	(1)
United States Policy: A Footnote	153	(4)
CHAPTER 9 FUELING THE WORLD	157	(16)
What Are the Alternatives for Energy?
Introduction: 400 Miles on a Tank of Gas	157	(2)
The Black-Hole Question of Conventional Fuel	159	(5)
Alternative Fuels: An Overview	164	(5)
Tides, Geothermals and a Summing Up	169	(4)
CHAPTER 10 BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY	173	(24)
Saving the Uniquenesses of the World
Introduction: The Beginning of the End or Just in Time?	173	(6)
Why Does Biological Diversity Matter?	179	(4)
How Serious Is This? Very.	183	(7)
More on the Response, Legislative and Otherwise	190	(2)
Action to Save Species-What Can We Do?	192	(1)
Conclusion	192	(5)
EPILOGUE	197	(4)
BIBLIOGRAPHY	201	(4)
INDEX	205