Global change and biodiversity loss: Some impediments to response

Discussed here are the effects of anthropogenic global climate change on biodiversity. The focus is on human responses to the problem. Greenhouse warming-induced climate change may shift agricultural growing belts, reduce forests of the Northern Hemisphere and drive many species to extinction, among other effects. If these changes occur together with the mass extinctions already occurring, we may suffer a profound loss of biological diversity

Values and the Public Lands

11 pages. Contains 3 pages of references

Values and the Public Lands

11 pages. Contains 3 pages of references

Wild / Captive and Other Suspect Dualisms

Dualisms have had a hard time in recent years. Philosophers used to think that facts and values were distinct, and that philosophy and science were radically different enterprises. While scientists employed empirical methods to discover the way the world happens to be, the job of philosophers was to use conceptual analysis to reveal how the world necessarily is. In the wake of the revolution unleashed by Quine in the early 1950s, philosophers either had to learn some science, find another job, or fight an irredentist action on behalf of conceptual analysis that is mainly of interest only to a few other philosophers. The loss of these comfortable dualisms has upset the complacency of scientists as well as philosophers. Ethics cannot be ignored when the NIH requires ethics modules as part of all new training grants, when human and animal research must be approved by university committees, and when both the general public and opinion leaders feel free to comment on a wide range of issues that a generation ago might have been regarded as purely scientific

The Ethical Aspects of Biodiversity Protection: Duties to Human Beings and Duties to Other Species

11 pages. Contains 2 pages of references

Reflective Ethology, Applied Philosophy, and the Moral Status of Animals

Currently there is an unprecedented interest in ethological studies of nonhuman animals. Much of this interest is motivated by a desire to learn more about animals themselves. For scientists assuming this stance, a secondary goal is to use this knowledge to assess the place of humans in the natural order of things, stressing continuity or discontinuity depending on one\u27s views. Others, however, study animals primarily to apply this knowledge to human behavior. We argue that behavioral research demands the rigorous application of methods that are minimally harmful to the animals being studied. We argue for a moderate, but rigorous and uncompromising, position on issues of animal welfare. A number of areas that in our opinion require careful scrutiny before research should be permitted are identified. It is a privilege to study nonhumans even in what seem to be noninterventive situations, and we should reflect on what we are doing by empathizing with the animals that are being studied. From this point of view, ethological interests and philosophical concerns with morality, mind, and science complement one another. Thus, ethology and philosophy should inform one another with respect to the way in which animals are studied, and how data are analyzed, applied, and disseminated

China\u27s Food Pagodas: Looking Forward By Looking Back?

In this Article we provide a close analysis of the Chinese Dietary Guidelines – the Food Pagoda. Our focus on the dietary guidelines is motivated by two main considerations. First, the guidelines represent the most comprehensive, nationwide, state sponsored effort to educate the people of China about food. Like citizens in most countries, Chinese people are presented with numerous, often competing, messages from scientists, food gurus and online influencers. The dietary guidelines are different in that they are backed by an entire suite of governmental resources for nationwide dissemination through hospitals, schools, public billboards, TV and radio ads, among others. Among all the food advices and recommendations in China, it is the official dietary guidelines that have the greatest potential for changing dietary preferences. Second, understanding the Chinese dietary guidelines provides a useful basis for international comparison, since more than 100 countries around the world have dietary guidelines. Whether in the form of a pyramid or a plate, visualizations of the “ideal” national diet have become a common vector for official food advice. Examining the dietary guidelines therefore helps situate China in the broader context of government proffered food advice. In this Article, we examine the historical evolution of China’s Dietary Guidelines and their implications for environment, health, and animal welfare. Comparing the guidelines to longitudinal survey data about actual consumption provides a unique window on these issues, and in this Article we discuss what this glimpse may suggest for climate, health, and animal welfare going forward

SLIDES: The Moral and Political Challenges of Climate Change and Ethics and Climate Change

Presenter: Dale Jamieson, Professor, New York University, New York NY. Commentator: Michael (Mickey) Glantz, Center for Capacity Building, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO. 9 pages and 13 slides. Contains references