Environmental justice and biospheric egalitarianism: reflecting on a normative-philosophical view of human-nature relationship

Abstract

The recent shift towards the interdisciplinary study of the human

The victims of unsustainability: a challenge to sustainable development goals

“…In some instances, environmental justice includes ecological justice or biospheric egalitarianism, which refers to justice between human and non-human species (Kopnina 2014). It is the former type of justice that SDG's are mostly concerned with.…”

Of big hegemonies and little tigers: Ecocentrism and environmental justice

“…I seek to ecocentrically qualify the notion of environmental justice, emphasizing the ideological persistence of anthropocentrism, which also permeates and limits our very ideas of ethics, equality, and justice (Crist & Kopnina, 2014;Kopnina, 2012cKopnina, , 2013dKopnina, , 2014bKopnina, , 2014cKopnina, , 2014dShoreman-Ouimet & Kopnina, 2015). Environmental justice concerns, as commonly conceived (e.g., Gleeson & Low, 1999), seek to socially and economically redress the inequitable distribution of environmental burdens (e.g., pollution, climate change) and benefits (e.g., natural resources, ecosystem services) both within and between nations (e.g., Gleeson & Low, 1999;Saha, 2010;Kopnina, 2014g). Within this "social"' conception of environmental justice, the concept of environmental racism, for example, refers to the placement of low-income or minority communities in proximity of environmentally hazardous or degraded environments (Saha, 2010).…”

Nobody Likes Dichotomies (But Sometimes You Need Them)

“…The defining characteristic of 'colonisation' in general, along with the increase of social inequalities, is the ever-greater instrumentalism in human engagements with nonhuman inhabitants (Strang 2016). This entails the self-proclaimed right to undermine another species' very existence and the evolutionary unfolding in the noble quest for social justice (Kopnina 2012a(Kopnina , 2012b(Kopnina , 2014aCafaro and Primack 2014), in effect condoning 'nonhuman genocide' (Crist 2012, 140). Accusations that conservationists are 'out of control' to save the near-extinct species (Büscher 2015) testifies to a robust anthropocentric bias, and a refusal to acknowledge the legal repercussions of ecocide (Higgins 2010).…”

“…Sometimes, environmental justice includes ecological justice or 'rights of nature', which refers to the justice between species (Kopnina 2014a). The advocates of the 'rights to nature' approach support different groups' entitlements to the benefits derived from natural resources and ecosystem services (e.g.…”

“…Supporters of the 'rights of nature' perspective (e.g. Cafaro and Primack 2014;Kopnina 2012aKopnina , 2014aKopnina , 2016aKopnina , 2016b point out that the refusal to acknowledge the objectivity of wilderness is a denial 'that we are residents on a planet where there is nature that transcends humans, and that various organisms pursue their own lives independently of our culture' (Rolston 1997, 40). Supporters of conservation point out the multiple instances of nonhuman displacement and ecocide, or killing of millions of non-humans for meat or other uses, or destruction of or loss of ecosystem (Higgins 2010), and call for the recognition of ecological justice (e.g.…”