Environmental Ethics & Justice

Environmental Ethics & Justice

Finding equitable and just approaches to environmental challenges for human and non-human stakeholders is fundamental for sustainable development. Such approaches require an understanding of moral relationships with, and ethical and normative obligations to, both the natural world and other humans.

At SFS, investigation of environmental ethics and justice is undertaken in collaboration with community partners. This collaboration, along with the SFS model of place-based research Centers, allows for the long-term datasets and cultural awareness that are necessary to fully explore ethics and environmental justice issues.



The Amazon is an amazing location to examine the ways in which environmental geography influences how power is gained, legitimized, exercised, and resisted. Students study the concept of environmental justice within the Amazonian region in terms of the particularities of place, culture, and history. We discuss the value of biodiversity, both intrinsic and extrinsic, and consider the environmental ethics of defining these values.


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