Lisa H. Newton is Director of the Program in Applied Ethics, Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut.
Preface
Since the advent of environmental philosophy--sentimentally dated to the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent
Spring in 1962 and actually in existence since the first Earth Day in 1970--we have wanted to join the swift-flowing
pragmatic and political streams of environmentalism with the broad river of ethical theory, especially in its "applied"
mode. My previous work, in both ethics and environmental philosophy, positions me well to attempt such a confluence.
I would not be working alone: The courses that such a joining would take have been emerging in the literature (especially
in the pages of the journal Environmental Ethics) for several years. Michael Boylan's invitation to me to contribute
a work on Environmental Sustainability to his Basic Ethics in Action series broke through the hard shell of my
laziness and set me to work on bringing the streams together.
I believe that this volume is the first attempt at tracing the two streams to their juncture and mapping the
course of the river from that point forward. I am grateful to Michael Boylan for goading me into action on the
subject, very grateful to Rocky Mountain Institute for permission to quote at length from their publication, Natural
Capitalism, and infinitely grateful to my family and colleagues for their patience as this work ground on to its
completion.
Lisa H. Newton
Summary
Since the advent of environmental philosophy--sentimentally dated to the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent
Spring in 1962 and actually in existence since the first Earth Day in 1970--we have wanted to join the swift-flowing
pragmatic and political streams of environmentalism with the broad river of ethical theory, especially in its "applied"
mode. My previous work, in both ethics and environmental philosophy, positions me well to attempt such a confluence.
I would not be working alone: The courses that such a joining would take have been emerging in the literature (especially
in the pages of the journal Environmental Ethics) for several years. Michael Boylan's invitation to me to contribute
a work on Environmental Sustainability to his Basic Ethics in Action series broke through the hard shell of my
laziness and set me to work on bringing the streams together.
I believe that this volume is the first attempt at tracing the two streams to their juncture and mapping the
course of the river from that point forward. I am grateful to Michael Boylan for goading me into action on the
subject, very grateful to Rocky Mountain Institute for permission to quote at length from their publication, Natural
Capitalism, and infinitely grateful to my family and colleagues for their patience as this work ground on to its
completion.
Table of Contents
1. Morality: Environmental Ethics as Virtue.
2. Technology: Living Lightly Up on the Earth.
3. Stewardship: The Responsible Person.
