This volume works to connect issues in environmental ethics with the best work in contemporary normative theory. Environmental issues challenge contemporary ethical theorists to account for topics that traditional ethical theories do not address to any significant extent. This book articulates and evaluates consequentialist responses to that challenge. Contributors provide a thorough and well-rounded analysis of the benefits and limitations of the consequentialist perspective in addressing environmental issues. In particular, the contributors use consequentialist theory to address central questions in environmental ethics, such as questions about what kinds of things have value; about decision-making in light of the long-term, intergenerational nature of environmental issues; and about the role that a state's being natural should play in ethical deliberation.

"...this volume?contains several thought-provoking ideas that deserve to be seriously considered by scholars interested in environmental ethics. The level of argumentation is high, and the authors mean exactly what they write." -- Martin Peterson, Eindhoven University of Technology in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews "This collection has a number of strengths. Many contributors focus on ethical theory and consequentialism generally, rather than environmental ethics; thus this book reflects greater attention to broader theoretical issues than some similar anthologies do. Additionally, since much of the work in environmental ethics does not come from a consequentialist perspective, this volume provides a distinct way of thinking about and responding to various issues in that field. Given the relative scarcity of works that address these issues from a consequentialist perspective, and given the high quality of the papers throughout, this book will be a valuable acquisition for academic libraries. Summing Up: Highly recommended." -- M A. Michael, Austin Peay State University, in CHOICE