{"title":"Artificial Intelligence Needs Environmental Ethics","authors":"S. Baum, A. Owe","doi":"10.1080/21550085.2022.2076538","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21550085.2022.2076538","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The growing importance of artificial intelligence (AI) has prompted work on the ethical issues raised by AI technology. We argue that environmental ethicists can make important contributions to AI ethics, and that doing so would be a worthy activity for environmental ethicists. Environmental ethicists can highlight the environmental dimensions of AI, such as its energy footprint and its potential application for environmental protection. Additionally, environmental ethicists can assess the ethics of novel situations that could be enabled by AI, such as computer-based artificial life and artificial ecosystems.","PeriodicalId":45955,"journal":{"name":"Ethics Policy & Environment","volume":"11 1","pages":"139 - 143"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88720324","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Deflating the De-Extinction Debates: Domination and Artifactuality are Not the Problem","authors":"T. Reydon","doi":"10.1080/21550085.2022.2071551","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21550085.2022.2071551","url":null,"abstract":"In his article, Considering de-extinction , Katz (2022) mounts a two-pronged criticism of de-extinction efforts as elements of environmental policy. First, Katz argues that there is no positive case for de-extinction. He points out that many arguments that have been given in support of de-extinction have in fact already been shown deficient in the contexts of other, long-standing debates in environmental philosophy. The case for de-extinction, Katz argues, thus largely rests on zombie arguments that ‘should have been killed, buried, and forgotten long ago’ (Katz, 2022, p. 1). He then goes on to make a case against de-extinction efforts, focusing on the artifactuality of their products and their basis in views of human domination over nature. He argues, among other things, that making de-extinction part of environmental policy manifests ‘the most extreme worldview of management and control’ (Katz, 2022, p. 18; emphasis added) and promotes ‘a paradigm of domination’ of humanity over nature ‘in which nature is considered to be completely subordinate to human goals and desires’ (Katz, 2022, p. 18; emphasis added). Pursuing de-extinction, Katz claims, ‘will lead to an impoverished natural world, a world that is almost exclusively artifactual , a world that is the product of human design’ (Katz, 2022, p. 18; emphasis added). While agreeing with the ‘zombie argument’ step of Katz’s criticism, I disagree with the second step. In this commentary, I will argue that, given the scientific and technological limits of de-extinction, de-extinction does not entail a danger of ending up with ‘a world that is totally artifactual, devoid of the truly natural’ (Katz, 2022, p. 21). Also, I believe de-extinction efforts do not express a of human domination over nature at least not more than widely accepted practices such as conventional breeding and other accepted agricultural practices, or There be good be of the","PeriodicalId":45955,"journal":{"name":"Ethics Policy & Environment","volume":"54 1","pages":"113 - 115"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85370992","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Causal History, Environmental Art, and Biotechnologically Assisted Restoration","authors":"D. Turner","doi":"10.1080/21550085.2022.2071557","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21550085.2022.2071557","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Eric Katz’s insight about the relationship between causal history and value only generates a principled critique of de-extinction when conjoined with the diminishment claim, or the claim that human involvement in something’s causal history diminishes its value. The diminishment claim is a form of negative anthropocentrism. In addition to thinking about de-extinction as a form of ecological restoration, we could think of it as a form of environmental artwork. This reframing highlights the implausibility of the diminishment claim.","PeriodicalId":45955,"journal":{"name":"Ethics Policy & Environment","volume":"6 1","pages":"125 - 128"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86228457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Considering De-Extinction: Zombie Arguments and the Walking (And Flying and Swimming) Dead","authors":"Eric Katz","doi":"10.1080/21550085.2022.2071550","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21550085.2022.2071550","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT De-extinction raises anew ontological and epistemological problems that have engaged environmental philosophers for decades. This essay re-examines these issues to provide a fuller understanding—and a critique—of de-extinction. One of my claims is that de-extinction as a philosophical problem merely recycles old issues and debates in the field (hence, “zombie” arguments). De-extinction is a project that arises out of the assertion of human domination of the natural world. Thus the acceptance of de-extinction as an environmental policy is an expression of a human-nature relationship that disvalues the natural world and subjugates nature completely to the interests of humanity.","PeriodicalId":45955,"journal":{"name":"Ethics Policy & Environment","volume":"64 1","pages":"81 - 103"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85691821","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Authenticity and Autonomy in De-Extinction","authors":"C. Lean","doi":"10.1080/21550085.2022.2071553","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21550085.2022.2071553","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Eric Katz in Zombie Arguments defends the thesis authenticity is indispensable to conservation. I agree. However, I argue authenticity appears in degrees and can be reclaimed by populations through their continuing evolutionary responses to the world. This means that interventions that diminish the value of a population through reducing their authenticity can be permitted in limited cases. When our actions retain the remaining authentic features in a threatened population we should allow such a diminishment as authenticity can bereclaimed in time.","PeriodicalId":45955,"journal":{"name":"Ethics Policy & Environment","volume":"17 1","pages":"116 - 120"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75507394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How Worried Should I be About Zombies?","authors":"Christopher Preston","doi":"10.1080/21550085.2022.2071556","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21550085.2022.2071556","url":null,"abstract":"Eric Katz says the arguments for deextinction are depressingly familiar . . . and he’s right! The creation – or recreation – of ‘necrofauna,’ he says, ‘recycles old issues and debates in the field’ (p. 2). Many of the debates are ones in which Katz has played a prominent role. The same positions he has deployed against restoration and against geoengineering remain viable in the case of deextinction. ‘Arguments that already exist in the field of environmental philosophy can,’ he says, ‘ . . . serve as foundational criticisms of the process’ (p. 2). The question I wish to entertain is whether the fact there are zombies in the room is enough. Even if Katz is right about the haunt of familiar arguments and tropes, does this settle the question of how best to argue against deextinction? The question particularly interests me because it applies as much to some of what I have written against these types of technology as it does to Katz.","PeriodicalId":45955,"journal":{"name":"Ethics Policy & Environment","volume":"73 1","pages":"129 - 131"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90317609","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"More Than Zombies: Considering the Animal Subject in De-Extinction","authors":"Heather Browning, W. Veit","doi":"10.1080/21550085.2022.2071552","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21550085.2022.2071552","url":null,"abstract":"Katz (2022) provides a range of arguments drawn from the environmental philosophy literature to criticize the conceptualisation and practice of de-extinction. The discussion is almost completely devoted to the ontological and epistemological issues, with the intention of avoiding the usual ethical questions that arise in the conversation surrounding de-extinction, including the welfare of de-extinct animals. However, while this may be well-motivated, the points raised are often inextricably entwined with matters of value, used to draw conclusions regarding the ethical permissibility of the practice, and hence make such a separation difficult if not impossible. In particular, Katz emphasizes the relationship between humans and nature, distinguishing between collective citizenship with other animals in nature vs. the domination and control of nature, meaning his arguments all return to ethics. Here we will argue that Katz is in error to exclude the interests of the animals themselves.","PeriodicalId":45955,"journal":{"name":"Ethics Policy & Environment","volume":"40 1","pages":"121 - 124"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78244393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
R. Sandler, E. D. Stabell, Ryan Baylon, Cora Lundgren, Philine Weisbeek, Benjamin Yelle, Markus Zaba
{"title":"Eric Katz on ”De-Extinction”: Ontology, Value and Normativity","authors":"R. Sandler, E. D. Stabell, Ryan Baylon, Cora Lundgren, Philine Weisbeek, Benjamin Yelle, Markus Zaba","doi":"10.1080/21550085.2022.2071554","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21550085.2022.2071554","url":null,"abstract":"Eric Katz (1992) influentially argued that ecological restoration involves the ‘big lie’ that a successful restoration re-establishes or re-creates all of what was lost through human degradation, and that because of this we should be wary of restoration as a conservation practice and in conservation policy. In ‘Considering De-Extinction’ he makes the analogous argument against ‘de-extinction’ (Katz, 2022). Central to his critique is a claim about the relationship between ontology and value, as well as an inference about the normative significance of that relationship for policy and practice. In this response we argue that Katz is correct that there is a connection between ontology and value that supports (to some extent) his critique of ‘de-extinction’ as a preservationist activity, but it does not apply to all cases of creating genetic likenesses of individuals from extinct species (hereafter CGL) for conservation purposes. There can be cases where CGL is well justified from a conservation perspective. We begin with a reconstruction of the relevant portions of Katz’s argument.","PeriodicalId":45955,"journal":{"name":"Ethics Policy & Environment","volume":"7 1","pages":"104 - 108"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77952030","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Why Katz is Wrong: A Lab-Created Creature Can Still Have an Ancient Evolutionary History","authors":"D. Campbell","doi":"10.1080/21550085.2022.2071555","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21550085.2022.2071555","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Katz denies that organisms created in a lab as part of a de-extinction attempt will be authentic members of the extinct species, on the basis that they will lack the original species’ defining biological and evolutionary history. Against Katz, I note that an evolutionary lineage is conferred on an organism though its inheriting genes from forebears already possessed of such a lineage, and that de-extinction amounts to a delayed, human-assisted reproductive process, in which genes are inherited from forebears long dead. My conclusion is that de-extinct organisms can perfectly well have an ancient evolutionary history, contrary to Katz’s assumption.","PeriodicalId":45955,"journal":{"name":"Ethics Policy & Environment","volume":"13 1","pages":"109 - 112"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74973771","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Consumption-Based Emissions Accounting and Historical Emissions","authors":"O. Torpman","doi":"10.1080/21550085.2022.2058296","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21550085.2022.2058296","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper argues that, unlike the production-based emissions accounting (on which emissions are attributed to producers of goods and services), the consumption-based emissions accounting (on which emissions are attributed to consumers of these goods and services) can solve the problem of historical emissions. This problem concerns the question of how to assign remedial responsibility for emissions that were made by people who are now dead. Since historical emissions are embedded in the goods consumed by present consumers, and since present consumers can (unlike past producers) do something about their emissions, a consumption-based accounting can contribute to solving the climate crisis.","PeriodicalId":45955,"journal":{"name":"Ethics Policy & Environment","volume":"16 1","pages":"354 - 366"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84074989","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}