Robert L. Chapman

Ecological Restoration Restored

Conceptual and methodological changes in ecology have the potential to alter significantly the way we view the world. A result of embracing a dynamic model (the flux of nature, and disturbance regimes) has been to make ecological restoration projects a viable alternative, whereas under equilibrium ecology (climax communities/nature-knows-best) restoration was considered destructive interference. The logic of sustainability strategies within the context of dynamic forces promises a greater compatibility with anthropogenic activity. Unhappily, environmental restoration turns out to be paradoxical under the current identification of wilderness with wildness where wildness is, at least, a necessary condition for the possession of natural value. The solution to the paradox is to separate wilderness from wildness both conceptually and ontologically by enlarging the domain of wildness to include certain human activities.

Immigration and Environment: Settling the Moral Boundaries

Large populations fuelled by immigration have damaging effects on natural environments. Utilitarian approaches to immigration (whether restrictive or permissive) are inadequate, since they fail to draw the appropriate boundaries between people, as are standard rights approaches buttressed by sovereignty concerns because they fail to include critical environmental concerns within their pantheon of rights. A right to a healthy environment is a basic/subsistence right to be enjoyed by everyone, resident and immigrant alike. Current political-economic arrangements reinforced by familiar ethical positions that support property rights and preference satisfaction favours (privileged) residents while directly or indirectly denying basic rights to potential immigrants and should be abandoned and a basic rights procedure adopted.

No Room at the Inn, or Why Population Problems Are Not All Economic

Among the conditions necessary for human well-being is an environment where human populations remain within the biological and cultural carrying capacity of their respective geographies. Overpopulation, although difficult to define precisely, produces serious environmental problems. It might be the case that no one ever died from overpopulation, but certainly many have experienced a diminished quality of life. This paper will argue first, and briefly, numbers do count; second, there are good familiar arguments for restricting the cherished rights to reproduce (and by parity of reasoning property ownership) when these rights conflict with “subsistence” rights; third, some type of government intervention is necessary and desirable if we are to efficiently currtail population growth. This is especially important if we view subsistence rights as positive rights that need official recognition and guidance.

The Goat-stag and the Sphinx: The Place of the Virtues in Environmental Ethics

Standard virtue ethics approach to environmental issues do not go far enough because they often lack significant attachment to local environments. Place provides the necessary link that enlarges the arena of moral action by joining human well-being to a place-based goal of wildness (Thoreau) or biotic harmony (Leopold). Place defines a niche for human activity as part of nature. Virtuous action, then, is understood as deliberation from a position of being in and <?/the natural world; respect and gratitude are examples of this type of deliberation.