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Question posted on August 11, 2010; 1 response
Does nature have any meaning? I guess the scientists who like to study the stars and the physical chemists who like to study things at the quantum level find something meaningful in nature. But those people usually say that their...
Environment, Value Show

Question posted on December 24, 2009; 2 responses
It's becoming increasingly clear that democratic societies are incapable of solving long-range, diffuse ecological problems such as climate change and peak oil, which, although indistinct and nebulous, pose what are potentially existential threats to whole populations. How serious a threat...
Environment, Justice Show

Question posted on July 2, 2009; 1 response
It has been suggested that the practice of Bonsai is an expression of animal chauvinism and does great harm to a tree by 'stunting' it. But aren't trees not sentient beings, and therefore the excising of branches, shoots and roots...
Art, Environment, Ethics Show

Question posted on May 12, 2009; 1 response
To what extent can anything be unnatural if every substance initially came from the earth to begin with? Wouldn't that make all things natural? A colleague of mine reminded me that there are ways to alter different things, but does...
Environment Show

Question posted on February 23, 2009; 1 response
Do we have an obligation from preventing one wild plant or animal species from wiping out another? For instance, is it morally problematic to introduce to an ocean habitat an exotic species of fish which goes on to drive species...
Environment, Ethics Show

Question posted on August 4, 2007; 1 response
Is it important to save endangered species?...
Environment Show

Question posted on July 3, 2007; 1 response
What does it mean to "respect" nature? Is there a difference between "respecting" nature and just liking it a whole lot?...
Environment Show

Question posted on April 15, 2007; 1 response
To what degree do humans have an ethical responsibility to sustain the species? Let's imagine a situation in which every single person on the planet decided to opt for voluntary sterilization (or every person of child-bearing age). Would this be...
Environment, Ethics Show

Question posted on December 22, 2006; 1 response
Prof. Hawking has voiced his opinion that environmental problems will eventually bring the demise of humanity on the earth, and therefore we should immediately begin to prepare for emigration to some extra-terrestrial destination. If we are in any way responsible for...
Environment Show

Question posted on December 19, 2006; 1 response
Scientists, artists, poets, technocrats..., philosophers (etc.) ..., all may respond in their differing ways to a phenomenon like global warming. What might philosophers bring to this serious planetary crisis?...
Environment, Ethics Show

Question posted on November 13, 2006; 1 response
Considering Evolution as a mechanism ensures the survival of the fittest gene pools, and well over 90% of all species ever to have existed have gone extinct, is it right for humans to put such an effort into preventing species...
Environment, Ethics Show

Question posted on August 9, 2006; 1 response
I'm a print designer. Knowing how much waste is caused by my work and how it precludes several industries causing harm to the environment in different ways, and considering that I am concerned about having a healthy environment, is it...
Environment, Ethics Show

Question posted on June 8, 2006; 1 response
I get the impression that arguments for nature preservation hinge largely on the idea that what industrial nations are doing to the earth is somehow "unnatural," that in uprooting forests and clubbing baby seals we are throwing off some "balance"...
Environment, Ethics Show

Question posted on April 21, 2006; 3 responses
Why do people say that some things mankind does are unnatural? Isn't every human development natural because we are part of nature?...
Environment Show

Question posted on March 13, 2006; 1 response
What can explain the blindspot of mainstream politics that prevents global warming from being the biggest current agenda? This question is not possible to answer unless you accept the blatant assumption within it viz. that global warming should be the...
Environment, Ethics Show

Question posted on February 1, 2006; 1 response
Since life first evolved on Earth, a huge number of species have developed only to subsequently become extinct, a key feature of Darwin's 'survival of the fittest' model of evolution. A number of species face extinction today - is...
Environment, Ethics Show

Question posted on December 27, 2005; 1 response
Regardless of all the technological and agricultural improvements made since the end of the 18th century when Malthus wrote his essay on population, there are more people living in extreme poverty today than there were people (in total) living when...
Environment, Ethics Show

Question posted on November 28, 2005; 1 response
Does "intrinsic value" - i.e., the value that nature has as of itself, as opposed to a value for humans - exist? The concept seems like an oxymoron. Nature also has economic values, which include "existence value", being the value...
Environment, Value Show

Question posted on November 4, 2005; 1 response
How immoral (amoral?) is it that, despite rising awareness over the past few decades of "Spaceship Earth's" limited resources and carrying capacity, we continue to pursue a growth-dependent economy and grossly materialistic lifestyles that are clearly unsustainable and must have...
Environment, Ethics Show

Question posted on November 3, 2005; 1 response
I know I feel very strongly about the importance of conserving biodiversity, but I really can't pin down why it is so important to me, or how to make the argument to convince others that it is important. Can...
Environment, Ethics Show