The research conducted for this thesis explores the link between environmental ethics and household landscaping practices. The central issue of any concept of sustainability is the incommensurability of various elements that define approaches, which is why it is treated here as a politicoethical process of subjective valuation. The ethics of sustainability were delineated according to major currents in environmental ethics, as well as briefly illustrated in the context of a broad discussion of climate change and resource availability, with some examples of strategies at different institutional levels. An online survey of 87 participants provided responses about local landscaping practices, environmental concerns, environmental ethics, and landscaping aesthetics at the household level. Quantitative analyses of the data yielded significant, but lowstrength correlations between environmentally sustainable landscaping practices and environmental ethics. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Die meisten Menschen denken, dass Klimawandel und Nachhaltigkeit wichtige Herausforderungen darstellen. Allerdings legen zu wenige Weltbürger mit hohem treibhausgasproduzierenden Verhalten nicht in ausreichendem Maße auch ein treibhausgasverringerndes Verhalten an den Tag, um den Anstieg von Treibhausgasen und anderen Umweltproblemen aufzufangen. Warum ist das so? Strukturelle Barrieren, wie. z. B. eine klimaschädliche Infrastruktur, sind ein Teil der Antwort, aber auch psychologische Barrieren verhindern ein Verhalten, das Mitigation, Anpassung und ein nachhaltiges Umweltmanagement ermöglicht. Aber wer kann die psychologischen und ethischen Barrieren entfernen, um ein umweltfreundliches Verhalten zu etablieren? Die aktuellen Institutionen dieser Welt haben es nicht geschafft, die Bedrohung durch den Klimawandel adäquat zu adressieren. Keiner der Politiker war bisher dazu bereit, das kurzfristige ökonomische Wohl seines Landes zu opfern, auch wenn sie gleichzeitig einsehen, dass Nachhaltigkeit auf lange Sicht unabdingbar ist. Die Umweltkrise ist nicht einfach nur ein technologisches Problem (wie es von einigen Industrieländern definiert wird). Probleme entstehen auch nicht, weil unsere Technologie nicht genügend Nahrungsressourcen zur Verfügung stellen kann und auch nicht, weil wir nicht in der Lage sind, fortschrittlichere Technologien zu erfinden, um den Giftmüll, den wir produzieren, herauszufiltern. Das Wesen der modernen Umweltkrise dreht sich um die moderne Zivilisation und die Werte, die ihr zugrunde liegen. „Unsere ökologische Krise ist das zwangsläufige Ergebnis des Mangels an Sensibilität der modernen Wirtschaft gegenüber der Verletzlichkeit und der Grenzen der Natur, des verrückten Machtkampfes der modernen Politik, des weltweiten Verhaltens der Völker, Glück mit materieller Befriedigung gleichzusetzen, und deren überwältigenden Akzeptanz einer mechanischen und dualistischen Sichtweise der Natur.“ / Most people think Climate Change and sustainability are important problems, but too few global citizens engaged in high-greenhouse-gas-emitting behaviour are engaged in sufficient mitigating behaviour to stem the increasing flow of greenhouse gases and other environmental problems. Why is that? Structural barriers such as a climate-averse infrastructure are part of the answer, but psychological barriers also impede behavioural choices that would facilitate mitigation, adaptation and environmental sustainability. But who can remove the psychological and ethical barriers to pro-environmental actions? The world''s present institutions have failed to address adequately the threat of Climate Change. No politician has been willing to sacrifice the short-term economic welfare of his or her country, even while agreeing that sustainability is essential in the long term. The environmental crisis is not simply an issue of technology (as defined by some developed countries). It is neither because our technology cannot provide enough resources for us to consume, nor because we cannot invent more advanced technology to refine the toxic wastes we produce that environmental problems arise. The essence of the modern environmental crisis is about modern civilization and its underlying values. “Our ecological crisis is the inevitable outcome of the modern economy’s insensitivity to the vulnerability and limits of nature, the mad power struggle of modern politics, modern people’s universally equating happiness with material satisfaction, and their overwhelming acceptance of a mechanical and dualist view of nature.”

La publication de l’encyclique Laudato Si’ a contribué à la médiatisation du processus de « conversion » de l’Église catholique à l’écologie. Par l’analyse de ce mouvement dans le contexte français, nous entendons isoler les effets structurels de l’intégration du référent écologiste sur une institution religieuse. Trois niveaux d’analyse sont ici adoptés : un niveau philosophique qui traite du discours papal sur l’écologie, un niveau individuel qui s’intéresse à l’identité des militants, et un niveau institutionnel qui évalue la portée du mouvement catholique en faveur de l’écologie. À chacun de ces échelons, l’Église catholique adopte une posture d’accommodement, en mettant l’accent sur la nécessité d’une spiritualisation des enjeux écologistes, qui valorise la relation au détriment de l’individualisme. Légitimé par le Vatican, le mouvement catholique écologiste s’organise ainsi autour d’initiatives locales sous le contrôle bienveillant et souple d’une minorité épiscopale. Cette autonomie acquise par les militants n’affaiblit cependant pas la hiérarchie, certains acteurs trouvant un avantage à perpétrer l’image d’une institution susceptible de répondre aux incertitudes engendrées par nos sociétés. La « conversion » de l’Église à l’écologie génère donc un double mouvement d’individualisation de l’engagement militant et d’implication institutionnelle dans les controverses écologistes. Ce mouvement contraire favorise, assurément, l’institutionnalisation de l’écologie. Mais cette « conversion » ne sera effective que si l’Église s’inscrit dans une quête de cohérence, où le maintien d’une ligne politique sera aussi décisif que la valorisation d’une spiritualité écologiste. / The publication of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ contributed to the exposure of the Catholic Church’s “conversion” to ecology. By analysing this emerging movement in the French context, we want to single out the structural effects of the assimilation of environmental concern by a religious institution. Three levels of analysis will be followed: a philosophical, an individual and an institutional one. The first step will evaluate the papal line on ecology, the second will focus on the identity of Catholic ecologist activists, and the third one will assess the scope of the Church’s ecological movement. On each of these aspects, the Catholic Church reach a compromise with postmodern society, emphasizing the need for a spiritualization of ecological stakes, which values relationship at the expense of individualism. Legitimized by the Vatican, the Catholic ecological movement is organized around local initiatives under the soft control of the episcopate. However, this autonomy acquired by the activists doesn’t weaken the hierarchy of the Church, since militants find an advantage in preserving the image of an institution capable of responding to the uncertainties caused by our societies. The Church “conversion” to ecology thus generates an individualization of militant commitment along with institutional involvement in environmental controversies. These contrary motions certainly promote the institutionalization of environmental concern. Nevertheless, this “conversion” will only be effective if the Church is incorporated within the framework of a quest for greater consistency, where policy making will be as important as the value of spirituality.

The purpose of this annotated bibliography is to guide middle school and high school students into critical thinking about environmental issues. Through keen observation of their bioregion and through an integration of interdisciplinary literature which focuses on Oregon writers, students will be challenged to think, write, and discuss current issues effecting local natural resources. The bibliography was designed to incorporate integrated learning, collaborative activities, and handson investigation. The students' community becomes a learning laboratory, a place in which to identify, a place to value, and a place to contribute through active participation in restoration of resources and through other positive activities. Learning to respect diverse and complex viewpoints on environmental issues will help develop good evaluative skills. As responsible, participating members of their community, students can be encouraged to lead the way, providing good role models both to families and to younger students. The diverse literary collection will provide access to a broad range of voices about the land and Oregon, in particular. These become invitations for students to write about their place, their home. Writing empowers students to make connections between experience, thought, and word. Students writing, thinking, and reseeing their community as a place to value and protect is the goal of Time to Listen. / Graduation date: 1995

An exercise in applied Christian ecotheology, this thesis focuses on a community of Lutheran church bodies (ELCA) in North Central Pennsylvania as they grappled with natural gas hydraulic fracturing in the summer of 2012. In the paper, I employ a combination of theological, environmental, historical, and ethnographic research methodologies to ground my analysis of how this synod of Lutherans to date has approached the fracking boom. My primary research question is: How might the Upper Susquehanna Synod of the ELCA--as a representative body of 131 Lutheran churches that are steeped in tradition--use its history, community involvement, theology, and church structure to address an ecological quandary like fracking? I answer this question in four sections, with each chapter focusing on a different thematic sub-question. Though I borrow techniques from the social sciences, I have written this thesis as a narrative, in order to draw the reader into this fascinating community. Instead of separating my literature review from my ethnographic data, I blend the two together in each chapter, weaving together quotes from synod members with secondary source material. Embedded throughout the report are also maps that I have produced using a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technique to give the story a spatial dimension. Additionally, I use photographs of the synod counties to enhance the reader’s understanding of the region’s ecological and cultural landscapes.

The subject-matter of the following essay is to investigate the relationship between what is commonly called Deep Ecology or Biocentric Philosophy, as articulated by the co-founder of the Deep Ecology Movement, Arne Naess, and later proponents of the biocentric school of environmentalist thought. I contrast Naess’ concept of Self-realization as founded in his Ecosophy T to the ideas of american conservationist and co-founder of the radical green movement Earth First! Dave Foreman, and to the controversial finnish environmentalist and ecofascist Pentti Linkola’s ideological agenda of population-reduction respectively. According to some critics of the movement, especially the social ecologist Murray Bookchin and French liberal philosopher Luc Ferry, the Deep Ecology ideology is essentially misanthropic and totalitarian in structure. A central idea among deep ecologists is that ecosystems and natural entities have intrinsic value in themselves, even outside a human social context. This idea is thought of among deep ecologists to create a philosophically sound basis for counteracting the environmental global crisis. Both Bookchin and Ferry argue that this idea reduces the role of human reason and ethics in a fundamental way, especially in relation to questions concerning population-growth control. My aim is to show that the original intention of Arne Naess in his philosophy (Ekosofi T) does not resemble either Ferrys focus of critique, neither the controversial statements made by Dave Foreman and Earth First! nor Linkolas population-control agenda.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 90 pages. / Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: This thesis examines the connections between Arne Naess's Deep Ecology and Martin Heidegger's Phenomenology. The latter provides a philosophical basis for the former. Martin Heidegger's critique of traditional metaphysics and his call for an "event" ontology that is deeper than the traditional substance ontology opens a philosophical space in which a different conception of what it is to be emerges. Heidegger's view of humans also provides a basis for the wider and deeper conception of self Arne Naess seeks: one that gets rid of the presupposition that human beings are isolated subjects embedded in a framework of objects distinct from them. Both Heidegger and Naess illustrate how the substance-ontological dogma affects human culture, encouraging humans to live as if they were divorced from their environmental surroundings. / ABSTRACT: When humans live according to an atomistic conception of themselves as independent from their context, alienation results, not only from each other, and not only of humans from the surrounding environment, but from themselves as well. This thesis focuses on Heidegger's employment of the conception of poiesis or self-bringing-forth as clarifying the "root" of such ecosystemic processes as growth, maturation, reproduction, and death. Thus, Heidegger's call to phenomenology -- "to the things themselves" -- is a call away from the objectifying dichotomies through which substance ontology articulates the world into isolated components. / ABSTRACT: It is the purpose of this thesis to demonstrate not only the connections between the later Heidegger and Naess, but also to argue in favor of their claims that traditional philosophical perspectives regarding humans, the environment, and ethics need to be re-appropriated in a new way in order to avoid further ecological degradation and provide for the health and well being of the future generations that will inevitably inherit the effects of our present actions. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Šiame magistro baigiamajame darbe autorė analizuoja informacijos apie aplinką viešumo bei prieinamumo teisinius, praktinius bei etinius aspektus. Šio darbo tikslas yra atskleisti visuomenės narių nuomonę apie gerai reglamentuotą informacijos apie aplinką skleidimą bei gavimą. Tyrimas pradedamas teisiniu aspektu. Pabrėžiamos įstatymais reglamentuojamos teisės į informaciją apie aplinką. Atskleidžiami visuomenės narių ypatumai dėl teisės kreiptis į valstybės institucijas gauti informaciją bei valstybės institucijų pareigas skleisti ir viešinti informaciją, ne tik kurios reikalauja visuomenė, bet ir iniciatyviai. Antrajame skyriuje nagrinėjamas informacijos apie aplinką viešumo bei prieinamumo aspektas. Atskleidžiama viešumo bei prieinamumo turinių (esmių) problematika, analizuojamos prieinamiausios visuomenei informacijos priemonės. Trečias šio magistro baigiamojo darbo skyrius yra skirtas ekologinei etikai. Supažindinama su pagrindinėmis dabartinės ekologinės etikos vertybėmis, atskleidžiamos šių vertybių esminis indėlis žmogaus pasąmonei. Ketvirtasis skyrius skirtas visuomenės narių nuomonės apie informacijos apie aplinką viešumą bei prieinamumą analizei: atskleidžiamos pagrindinės problemos dėl informacijos apie aplinką, pateikiamos prieinamiausios žmonėms informavimo priemonės, įvertinamas informacijos viešumas, remiantis respondentų pasisakymais, analizuojamos aplinkosauginės vertybės bei pabrėžiamos pagrindinės problemos, lemiančios tų vertybių užmiršimą... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / In this master thesis the author analysis the environmental information publicity and accessibility by legal, practical and ethical aspects. The aim is to reveal the members of the public opinions about the well – regulated environmental information dissemination and acquisition. Initiations legal aspect. Emphasis is placed on the law governed the right to information about the environment. Members of the public disclosure of the characteristics of access to public authorities access to information and obligations of public authorities to disseminate and publicize information that is not only required by the public, but also proactively. The second chapter examines the information about the environment publicity and accessibility. Disclosed in publicity and availability of content (substantially) the problem, analyze the most affordable media to the public. The third master's final work of this section is intended for environmental ethics. Introducing the major current environmental ethical values. These values are revealed substantial contribution to the human subconscious. The fourth section is dedicated to members of the public opinion on environmental information transparency and accessibility analysis: there are the key problems of environmental information, the most affordable media for people, and public access to information based on the views expressed by respondents, analysis of environmental values and focused on the main issues determining the values of... [to full text]

The modern world is experiencing a spiritual and moral crisis. Associated with this, Christian spirituality and ethics have become separated in the life of the individual Christian and the community of the church. The Christian understanding of human beings and the integrated nature of spirituality and ethics provides a solution to this crisis. Christian spirituality and morality both originate in the character and purposes of God as revealed in the biblical record. The value and effects of the. integral relationship between spirituality and morality can be traced throughout scripture and the history of the church. The. encounter and relationship with God, in Jesus Christ and through the presence and power of God's Spirit, transforms the disciple of Christ, which means that spirituality is the basic framework and motivation for morality. Integrated spiritual and moral formation creates moral character and moral communities which enable believers to act with love and justice.

The urgency of sustanible development is world-over issue. This essay focuses on the relations of enviromental ethics in the context of the Swedish upper secondary school and the subject of geography, by analysing different educational texts. The purpose of this essay is to reveal and identify discourses of enviromental ethics in curriculum documents; Lgr 11 and the plan- and the coursedocuments for the subject of geography, in educational publisher’s textbooks and in sponsored texts related to the subject of geography and finally to discuss potential consequences this might implicate for education. For this have the methodology of Norman Fairclough´s critical discourse theory, CDA, as well as a matrix of environmental ethics, based upon Mikael Stenmarks classifications of enviromental ethics, been used. In the Cirriculum, Lgr 11 and documents for the subject of Geography, and in the educational textbooks from “Liber” and “Gleerups”, are the environmental ethics of intergenerational anthropocentrism the dominant. The analysis of the sponsored texts and the educational textbook from “Natur och Kultur” indicated a mixture of anthropocentric traditionell environmental and anthropocentric intergenerational enviromental ethics. None of the analysed texts shows any clear non-anthropocentric features. And to conclude; we have seen that the consequences of uncritically select and follow, independent “type” of educational texts, is not a garant for fulfilling the intentions of curriculum. / Föreliggande uppsats syfte är att identifiera och därmed åskådliggöra miljöetiska diskurser i styrdokument, förlagsläroböcker och sponsrade läromedel i en gymnasie- och ämnesgeogra­fisk kontext, och diskutera dess eventuella pedagogiska konsekvenser. Uppsatsens frågeställ­ningar är: Vilka miljöetiker kan synliggöras i läroplanen Lgr 11 och i ämnesplans- liksom kursbeskrivningarna för geografi? Vilka miljöetiker kan synliggöras i dels förlagsproduce­rade läroböcker och dels i sponsrade läromedel med geografianknytning, och vilka eventuella pedagogiska konsekvenser kan detta ge upphov till? Analysen utgår från Norman Faircloughs tredimensionella kritiska diskursanalys, CDA, och Mikael Stenmarks miljöetiska kategoriserar. I arbetet likställs Mikael Stenmarks kategoriseringar av olika miljöetiker som motsvarande miljöetiska diskurser. Styrdokumenten uppvisar kopplingar till en ämnesakademisk tradition och till det intergene­rationellt miljöetiskt färgade begreppet hållbar utveckling. De tre förlagsproducerade geogra­filäroböckerna tycks följa samma intergenerationella antropocentriska grundhållning. Detta är dock mer tydligt hos de två nyare Lgr 11-anpassade läroböckerna från Liber och Gleerups än den från Natur och kultur. För samtliga analyserade texter på styrdokumentsnivån och de förlags­producerade läroböckerna kan biocentriska och ekocentriska tendenser sägas vara uteslutna med några enstaka undantag. Sammantaget följer detta resultaten från tidigare studier inom samma ämnesområde väl. I de sponsrade texterna från Utbudet framträder en mer heterogen miljöetik, där både en traditionell miljöetik och intergenerationell gör sig närvarande. Här tycks även någon form av miljövänlighetsdiskurs skymta fram, vilken eventuellt kan knytas till en större reklam- och försäljningsdiskurs. De pedagogiska konsekvenserna rör främst de risker som hör till ett ensidigt och okritiskt för­hållningssätt till och användande av läromedel, vilka kan leda till att läroplaners intentioner går förlorade. I föreliggande arbete kan detta ses i frånvaron av de icke-människocentrerade miljöetikerna i de undersökta läromedelstexterna. Vikten av olika etiska perspektiv är något som både Lgr 11 och geografiämnets styrdokument påtalar vikten av. Dessa och liknade frågor torde bli allt viktigare i utbildningssammanhang inte minst i takt med att allt fler producerar numera genom Internet lättåtkomliga läromedel. Sedan kan ju alltid frågor kring om det i dagsläget alls existerar läromedel som verkligen lyfter etiska perspektiv utanför den antropocentriska, och vilka konsekvenser detta kan innebära ställas?