Doing Environmental Ethics

Doing Environmental Ethics is a brief, accessible applied-ethics book offering an inclusive and practical way for an individual to personally address the worlds ecological crisis. Author Robert Traer builds on a commonsense understanding of doing what is right and being a good person and suggests how, with a deeper sense of self and ones place in nature, we can begin to change our carbon footprint. To consider and understand public policies and personal environmental practices, Traer draws on secular and religious perspectives, as well as Eastern and Western traditions. Doing Environmental Ethics devotes central attention to considerations of duty (to other people, species, and ecosystems), character (personal traits and virtues), relationships (to people and the natural environment) and rights (of people to participate in land-use decisions that affect them). Discussion questions at the end of each chapter help readers clarify their reasoning and create action plans for change. Doing Environmental Ethics demonstrates how valuable defining ones own philosophy about the environment is to living with greater ecological awareness and sense of personal responsibility.