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Question posted on July 19, 2012; 1 response
Suppose a species is brought to another region, where it quickly overruns its local rivals and drives the native species to extinction. This is something that has been suggested might happen with the larger grey squirrels that are slowly...
Animals, Environment Show

Question posted on January 26, 2012; 1 response
Given ever-increasing population compared with the fixed size of the Earth, is it ethical for me to want to raise my children in a house with a yard, when a handful of houses could make room for apartments that could...
Children, Environment, Ethics Show

Question posted on December 9, 2011; 1 response
Why aren't more philosophers involved in discussions and policy on global warming? It is a desperate issue to be addressed and regardless of the philosophical stance in regard to it (i.e. moral skepticism), moral reasons and moral knowledge motivate action...
Environment Show

Question posted on July 29, 2011; 1 response
Over at TED.com, a website where videos are posted of speakers discussing things from consciousness and virtual reality to comedy and architecture, there are often talks dealing with issues such as hunger, AIDS, and poverty. Shockingly, to me, many people who...
Environment, Ethics Show

Question posted on April 14, 2011; 2 responses
Many people find the idea of letting a species such as the wolf go extinct to be disconcerting. Many environmental policies are put in place to protect endangered species. Why should it really matter though whether a species goes extinct...
Environment Show

Question posted on March 30, 2011; 1 response
The moral of some science fiction stories is that humanity shouldn't "play God". Why not? Is it just the issue of our own ignorance and incompetence, or is there something fundamentally wrong with trying to tamper with the...
Environment, Ethics Show

Question posted on October 14, 2010; 1 response
In everyday common sense, as I've always experienced it, a beaver dam or hut, a bird's nest or a termite mound are generally considered natural, while a human house is considered artificial. Given that beaver dams and beaver huts...
Environment Show

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




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