Gaia Connections: An Introduction to Ecology, Ecoethics, and Economics

Gaia Connections addresses several arenas of concern as humankind faces an escalating ecological and moral crisis in this new millennium. Beginning with an overview of the history of philosophy and the importance of traditional thinking on modern-day ethical reflection, the book then looks at the development of theories of justice, the problems of equity in global human relations, the inability of existing economic systems to resolve our human and environmental dilemmas, the unnatural connections now obtaining between genuine human need and the technological drift of science, the new genetics and reproductive technologies, and the nature of modern war. The study concludes with some historical perspectives on American environmental history and the urgent need for change in our ecoethical, social, and value systems. The principal focal areas of the original edition are continued: the actual state of the global environment today, the imperative for the development of sustainable economic and resource systems, the movement within much of science toward an almost universal biological determinism, and the need for a reaffirmation of an ethical value system which places the needs of people before the needs of property and profits. The revised edition not only updates these data and the concerns of the original book but also visits a number of new issues: the movement for environmental justice, the connections between global poverty and the now almost universal allegiance to a new world market and free trade system, the progress and the dilemmas of molecular biology and genetic engineering, and the growing disarray within the global systems of political economy.