Ecology, Ethics, and Hope explores what hope is, how it operates, and whether or not it is important in our response to ecological challenges like climate change, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and pollution. The book offers an accessible and timely overview of this emerging topic within environmental ethics, a platform for further discussion, and refinement of the notion of hope. Hope has started to receive more theoretical attention from philosophers and social scientists. In light of worsening ecological conditions, the concept of hope may offer motivation for us to change our destructive ways and conserve the ecosystem goods and systems we depend on. The authors in this collection take stock of the various accounts of what hope is (or is not), what it does (or does not), and how relevant it is to ecological thinking. The book covers topics including the psychology of hope (how it might operate and change minds), hope as a motivator of positive action, and hope’s essence in the context of a virtue- or obligation-focused morality. Contributors: Elizabeth Andre, Assistant Professor of Outdoor Education, Northland College, USA; Jonathan Beever, Postdoctoral Scholar, Rock Ethics Institute, Penn State University, USA; Andrew T. Brei, Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy, St Mary’s University; Andrew Fiala, Professor of Philosophy, California State University-Fresno, USA; Trevor Hedberg, Graduate Student, University of Tennessee Knoxville, USA; Lisa Kretz, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Evansville, USA; Michael Nelson, Professor of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy, Oregon State University, USA; John Nolt, Professor of Philosophy, University of Tennessee Knoxville, USA; Brian Treanor, Professor of Philosophy, Loyola Marymount University, USA

The Bible is full of images of God caring for his creation in all its complexity. Yet experts warn us that a so-called perfect storm of factors threatens the future of life on earth. The authors assess the evidence for climate change and other threats that our planet faces in the coming decades while pointing to the hope God offers the world and the people he made.

Presents the story of Plenty Coups, the last great Chief of the Crow Nation. This title contains a philosophical and ethical inquiry into a people faced with the end of their way of life.

Reflecting on Nature introduces readers to the fields of environmental philosophy and environmental ethics, offering both classic and current readings that focus on key themes - images of nature, ethics, justice, animals, food, climate, biodiversity, aesthetics and wilderness. It helps students to focus on fundamental issues within environmental philosophy and offers succinct readings that explore the central tensions and problems within environmental philosophy.

In Vibrant Matter the political theorist Jane Bennett, renowned for her work on nature, ethics, and affect, shifts her focus from the human experience of things to things themselves. Bennett argues that political theory needs to do a better job of recognizing the active participation of nonhuman forces in events. Toward that end, she theorizes a “vital materiality” that runs through and across bodies, both human and nonhuman. Bennett explores how political analyses of public events might change were we to acknowledge that agency always emerges as the effect of ad hoc configurations of human and nonhuman forces. She suggests that recognizing that agency is distributed this way, and is not solely the province of humans, might spur the cultivation of a more responsible, ecologically sound politics: a politics less devoted to blaming and condemning individuals than to discerning the web of forces affecting situations and events. Bennett examines the political and theoretical implications of vital materialism through extended discussions of commonplace things and physical phenomena including stem cells, fish oils, electricity, metal, and trash. She reflects on the vital power of material formations such as landfills, which generate lively streams of chemicals, and omega-3 fatty acids, which can transform brain chemistry and mood. Along the way, she engages with the concepts and claims of Spinoza, Nietzsche, Thoreau, Darwin, Adorno, and Deleuze, disclosing a long history of thinking about vibrant matter in Western philosophy, including attempts by Kant, Bergson, and the embryologist Hans Driesch to name the “vital force” inherent in material forms. Bennett concludes by sketching the contours of a “green materialist” ecophilosophy.

Looks at how ecotheology has created a new vision of the natural world and the place of humans within it.

Addressing a topic of growing and vital concern, this book asks us to reconsider how we think about the natural world and our place in it. Steven Bouma-Prediger brings ecotheology into conversation with the emerging field of environmental virtue ethics, exploring the character traits and virtues required for Christians to be responsible keepers of the earth and to flourish in the challenging decades to come. He shows how virtue ethics can enrich Christian environmentalism, helping readers think and act in ways that rightly value creation.

Hope on Earth is the thought-provoking result of a lively and wide-ranging conversation between two of the world’s leading interdisciplinary environmental scientists: Paul R. Ehrlich, whose book The Population Bomb shook the world in 1968 (and continues to shake it), and Michael Charles Tobias, whose over 40 books and 150 films have been read and/or viewed throughout the world. Hope on Earth offers a rare opportunity to listen in as these deeply knowledgeable and highly creative thinkers offer their takes on the most pressing environmental concerns of the moment. Both Ehrlich and Tobias argue that we are on the verge of environmental catastrophe, as the human population continues to grow without restraint and without significant attempts to deal with overconsumption and the vast depletion of resources and climate problems it creates. Though their views are sympathetic, they differ in their approach and in some key moral stances, giving rise to a heated and engaging dialogue that opens up dozens of new avenues of exploration. They both believe that the impact of a human society on its environment is the direct result of its population size, and through their dialogue they break down the complex social problems that are wrapped up in this idea and attempts to overcome it, hitting firmly upon many controversial topics such as circumcision, religion, reproduction, abortion, animal rights, diet, and gun control. For Ehrlich and Tobias, ethics involve not only how we treat other people directly, but how we treat them and other organisms indirectly through our effects on the environment. University of California, Berkeley professor John Harte joins the duo for part of the conversation, and his substantial expertise on energy and climate change adds a crucial perspective to the discussion of the impact of population on global warming. This engaging and timely book invites readers into an intimate conversation with some of the most eminent voices in science as they offer a powerful and approachable argument that the ethical and scientific issues involved in solving our environmental crisis are deeply intertwined, while offering us an optimistic way forward. Hope on Earth is indeed a conversation we should all be having.

"[Being Human] is one of the few books that begins to integrate theological narratives with scientific ones, looking for a compelling correlation between them where modern and religious sensibilities might both be affirmed. This is a unique work."—Bron Taylor, Professor and Director of Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, and author of Ecological Resistance Movements: The Global Emergence of Radical and Popular Environmentalism. "Being Human succeeds at accounting for people's conception of humaness and human's relationship with nature—no easy task, but one that is a crucial starting point for any discussion of environmental ethics."—Kay Read, Associate Professor of Comparative Ethics and Native American Religions, DePaul University, and author of Time and Sacrifice in the Aztec Cosmos "Anna Peterson's Being Human is a stellar work of integration. Peterson argues that the ideology of human exceptionalism and disconnection from the rest of nature is a major source of social and ecological harm. She draws together cultural constructionist, Asian, Native American, feminist and evolutionary thought to present a view of the human as both an integral part of nature and a creator of culture, called to develop an ethic of interrelationality for the sake of the wellbeing of the whole earth community."—Rosemary Radford Ruether, Garrett Theological Center, author of Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing. "In the postmodern academic climate of slice-and-dice, take-no-prisoners 'analysis,' and 'critical theory,' Anna Peterson's book is a welcome breath of fresh air. She positions her discussion as a development of—rather than a deconstructive triumph over—earlier work in the field of environmental philosophy. Peterson takes up the themes that are absolutely central to the field—the nature of nature, human nature, and the appropriate relationship between the two. Her conclusions are well-informed, well-reasoned, reasonable, and last but not least, beautifully and engagingly expressed."—Baird Callicott, Professor of Philosophy and Religion Studies, University of North Texas, and author of Earth's Insights: A Multicultural Survey of Ecological Ethics from the Mediterranean Basin to the Australian Outback (California, 1997), In Defense of the Land: Essays in Environmental Philosophy, and Beyond the Land Ethic: More Essays in Environmental Philosophy. "Peterson challenges us to think critically about the ideas about nature and humanity that shape our ethical behavior. She also brings into critical dialogue insights from a wide variety of religious traditions—Buddhist, Taoist, Navaho, Koyukon, Catholic and Protestant. Peterson helps us think creatively and critically about the task of comparative ethics, and the imperatives of environmental ethics. This book is a must-read for any one concerned with environmental ethics and with comparative ethics."—Sharon Welch, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and author of A Feminist Ethic of Risk, Sweet Dreams in America: Making Ethics and Spirituality Work, and Communities of Resistance and Solidarity: A Feminist Theology of LIberation.

What is the environment, and how does it figure in an ethical life? This book is an introduction to the philosophical issues involved in this important question, focussing primarily on ethics but also encompassing questions in aesthetics and political philosophy. Topics discussed include the environment as an ethical question, human morality, meta-ethics, normative ethics, humans and other animals, the value of nature, and nature's future. The discussion is accessible and richly illustrated with examples. The book will be valuable for students taking courses in environmental philosophy, and also for a wider audience in courses in ethics, practical ethics, and environmental studies. It will also appeal to general readers who want a reliable and sophisticated introduction to the field.