In this expanded and revised edition of a fresh and original case-study textbook on environmental ethics, Christine Gudorf and James Huchingson continue to explore the line that separates the current state of the environment from what it should be in the future.
Boundaries begins with a lucid overview of the field, highlighting the key developments and theories in the environmental movement. Specific cases offer a rich and diverse range of situations from around the globe, from saving the forests of Java and the use of pesticides in developing countries to restoring degraded ecosystems in Nebraska. With an emphasis on the concrete circumstances of particular localities, the studies continue to focus on the dilemmas and struggles of individuals and communities who face daunting decisions with serious consequences. This second edition features extensive updates and revisions, along with four new cases: one on water privatization, one on governmental efforts to mitigate global climate change, and two on the obstacles that teachers of environmental ethics encounter in the classroom. Boundaries also includes an appendix for teachers that describes how to use the cases in the classroom.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part I. Environmental Ethics: The Range of Engagement
1. Theory in Environmental Ethics
2. We're All in This ... Alone: The Individual and Community
Part II. Maintaining and Managing the Ecosystem
3. For Ecological Health or Profit? The POPs Elimination Treaty
4. Heart Thieves: Preserving Endangered Ecosystems or Endangered Cultures in Madagascar
5. Must Java Have No Forests? Nature Preserves and Human Population Pressures
6. Buried Alive: Future Generations and Permanent Underground Disposal of Nuclear Waste
7. Water: Economic Commodity and Divine Gift
8. Guardian Angels of Angel Oak: To Till or Keep
Part III. Restoring and Re-creating the Ecosystem
9. River Run or River Ruined: Hydropower or Free-Flowing Rivers?
10. Nature Creates Deserts Too: Addressing Desertification in China
11. Rewilding: Restoration of Degraded Ecosystems
12. Planning for Climate Change
Part IV. Ecosystem Interventions Aimed at Innovation
13. Improving on Natural Variation? Genetically Modified Foods
14. Nature Red in Tooth, Claw, and Bullet: Hunting and Human Presence in Nature
15. Understanding Xenotransplants: Crossbreeding Humans or Advanced Domestication of Animals?
Appendix: Using Environmental Case Studies in the Classroom
Index
Reviews
"An excellent, provocative introduction to environmental ethics, beginning 'on the ground' in practice and searching for a 'well-grounded' principled ethic. . . . Here is environmental ethics at its most complex, challenging boundaries, bordering the tragic, with a deep sense of its urgency."—Holmes Rolston, III, University Distinguished Professor, Colorado State University and winner of the 2003 Templeton Prize, reviewing a previous edition or volume
"Having used this text for a graduate environmental ethic s seminar, I saw even the most skeptical ministerial students succumb to the masterful presentations and convincing answers to dubious queries. . . . I highly recommend this book for upper undergraduate, seminary, and graduate level courses as well as parish and adult study groups. This text should be in any library that serves these populations."—Catholic Library World
"This edition of Boundaries maintains its outstanding features: an in-depth overview of environmental ethics theories as well as global religions and ecology, that inform substantive case studies. Four new cases are engaging and timely additions to this essential text."—Pamela Brubaker, professor of religion and ethics, California Lutheran University
About the Author
Christine E. Gudorf is professor and chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Florida International University. She was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Indonesia in 2002. She is the coauthor of Christian Ethics: A Case Method Approach and author of Body, Sex, and Pleasure: Reconstructing Christian Sexual Ethics.
James E. Huchingson is professor emeritus in the Department of Religious Studies at Florida International University. He is the editor of Religion and the Natural Sciences: The Range of Engagement and author of Pandemonium Tremendum: Chaos and Mystery in the Life of God.
