THIRD REVIEW

On Monday, 22 Nov, you will be asked to write an essay on an environmental problem of your choosing, discussing at least four different points of view (counting your own, if distinct, as one). You must outline at least three of the following positions on ecological issues. You are encouraged to mention authors from earlier portions of the course (e.g., Kant or Mill or Onora O’Neill or Peter Singer), but the three must come from the following list.

1. Mainstream liberals, e.g., McKibben

2. Mainstream conservatives, “free marketers,” e.g., Gurcharan Das; President Bush

3. The local-empowerment, anti-development, “small is beautiful” faction of “greens,” e.g., editors of the Ecologist and authors of Whose Common Future (also called “pluralist communitarians” and “devolutionists”)

4. “Deep ecologists,” e.g, Callicut and Overholt’s Amerindian ethic, or Ruether’s eco-feminism

5. Socialists, e.g., Cohen

6. Progressives (the “capabilities approach”), e.g., Sen

SAMPLE EXAM QUESTION

Drawing on the readings by McKibben or the map and statistics from National Geographic in your packet of photocopies or another (reputable) source, state briefly what you see as the chief, or at least a major, environmental problem or problems facing individuals and, more importantly, public-policy makers in the US and throughout the world. Go on to say what general strategy should be adopted in the US and elsewhere to meet the challenge you have identified and why. Try to construct a debate, or present arguments and counterarguments from different points of view.

BATTLE CRIES

Liberals: “Good laws, international treaties, and iron-fist enforcement”

Conservatives: “Create markets” (of pollution credits, etc.)

Local-empowerment people: “Just say no to development” and “Respect local (unwritten) commons regimes”

Deep ecologists: “Listen to the voice of Mother Earth” and “Respect all life-forms’’

Socialists: “Power to the people. End exploitation of the commons by capitalists. Foster cooperation.”

Progressives: “People before penguins.” “Secure a smidgen of equal opportunity.”

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

Liberals: Correct abuses with targeted legislation and fund research for technological solutions

Conservatives: Create market solutions to environmental problems that make polluters pay costs acceptable to consumers according to principles of supply and demand and thus maximize liberty and individual initiative. Find market solutions that maximize individual and corporate choice.

Local-empowerment people: Local communities should retain, or retake, control of local commons, ending “public access regimes.” Or, as say the Ecologist editors, since there are no universal solutions to ecological problems, which are local, let us state a negative recommendation: Help prevent local commons regimes from being destroyed by international developers and local elites. Or, help re-establish commons regimes.

Deep ecologists: Depopulate. Set aside more wilderness. Change your consciousness.

Socialists: Cooperation and communication among all parties to avoid the tragedy of the commons and “prisoner’s dilemma.”

Progressives: Don’t let ecological problems distract attention from the central problem in the world, which is absolute poverty and the sad fact that tens of millions of children are not realizing their “basic capabilities.”

Note also:

Guha’s critique of deep ecology may be coupled with either the local-autonomy folks or the progressives, since there is a common emphasis on social justice.

Deep ecology has in its favor species interdependence. It also has a neat individualist ethic: “Practice ecological yoga” (i.e., reduce your ecological footprint).

The environmental ethic of premodern American Indians may be formulated: Respect all life forms as you respect

members of your own family. All nature deserves reverence. This is a lot like the recommendations of Ruether, but she goes further: “change your consciousness to appreciate the Feminine Divine (Gaia), not only the traditional patriarchal prophets of mainstream Western religions. Live in close-knit, ecologically self-contained communities.”

Guha against deep ecology: Don't let the romanticizing fluff surrounding the Wilderness Preservation movement in the US (and the model of US National Parks) be projected on the Third World since this offends social justice. Practice ecological yoga yourself, American, if you are ecologically concerned, and work for world peace, but don't export your radical environmentalism.

Amartya Sen: World governments should target people's "basic capacitites" and help

alleviate the miserable condition of things today. Environmentalism, with its concern for a distant (implausible) future, is a distraction.

Socialists (Cohen): Rethink the notion of "private property." Adopt community policies in all areas of life.

ARGUMENTS

Be sensitive to the difference between factual and value-laden claims.

Be clear about whether the problem you identify is local or global, calling for, presumably, a local or a global solution.