Newsletter

Autumn 2003

Book Note
By Peter Bakken

Ethics for a Small Planet: A Communications Handbook on the Ethical and Theological Reasons for Protecting Biodiversity.
Madison, Wis.: The Biodiversity Project, 2002.

For decades, environmental professionals and advocates have worked to move the American public to safeguard the diversity of Earth’s life forms and ecological communities. More and more they are realizing that scientific, legal and economic arguments, by themselves, can’t do the job.

Many also realize that such arguments can’t express their own deepest values and motivations. At the same time, churches and religious groups have become more publicly involved in protecting the beauty and integrity of our planet.

These factors are leading some conservationists to see persons and communities of faith as potential allies, rather than as obstacles or enemies. They are beginning to see that Americans’ deeply rooted religious beliefs and values, rightly understood, support the care and keeping of God’s good Creation, not its despoliation.

Ethics for a Small Planet is a “communications handbook” designed to help those who speak on behalf of the Earth’s rich variety of species and ecosystems to understand how ethics and religion relate to biodiversity. It also provides guidance on the “do’s and don’ts” of including moral and religious values in public dialogues about biodiversity issues.

The book includes short essays, reprints of news articles, case studies, a bibliography, a glossary, and a list of resource persons. (One of the articles is on the climate change Forum co-sponsored last year by Au Sable and the John Ray Initiative, and one of the case studies is on Susan Drake Emmerich’s work with a Christian community on Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay). It is attractively designed, with abundant photographs, illustrations, and cartoons, and printed on 100% post consumer, elemental chlorine free recycled paper.

The first section makes a case for talking about ethics, values and biodiversity. The second offers a “crash course” in theological and ethical perspectives on biodiversity, including a chart summarizing “2,000 Years of Western Ideas about Nature in Less than 2,000 Words.” Other sections discuss applying ethical and religious perspectives to the biodiversity crisis, steps toward an ethic for the biosphere, and tips and tools for talking about biodiversity, ethics and faith.

While the book is intended to be a practical primer, not a scholarly text, it is suitable for classroom use. Anyone interested in how faith and ethics relate to the preservation of species and ecosystems will find this a fascinating, informative, thought provoking and useful resource.

Available from: The Biodiversity Project, 214 N. Henry St., Suite 201, Madison WI 53703 (608) 250-9876. $30.00