Public visions of the human/nature relationship and their implications for environmental ethics

Environmental Ethics

Volumn 33, Issue 1, 2011, Pages 25-44

  De Groot, Mirjam ^a   Drenthen, Martin ^a   De Groot, Wouter T ^a  

^a RADBOUD UNIVERSITY NIJMEGEN   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84869112481     PISSN: 01634275     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.5840/enviroethics20113314     Document Type: Article

References (63)

1. Lynn White, Jr., "The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis," Science 155 (1967): 1203-07.
2. Karen J. Warren and Jim Cheney, "Ecological Feminism and Ecosystem Ecology," Hypatia 6 (1991): 179-97;
3. Warwick Fox, Toward a Transpersonal Ecology: Developing New Foundations for Environmentalism (New York: State University of New York Press, 1995).
4. Gunnar Grendstad and Dag Wollebaek, "Greener Still? An Empirical Examination of Eckersley's Ecocentric Approach," Environmental Values 30 (1998): 653-75;
5. Suzanne C. Gagnon Thompson and Michelle A. Barton, "Ecocentric and Anthropocentric Attitudes toward the Environment," Journal of Environmental Psychology 14 (1994): 149-57;
6. Örjan Widegren, "The New Environmental Paradigm and Personal Norms," Environmental Values 30 (1998): 75-100.
7. Willett M. Kempton, James S. Boster, and Jennifer A. Hartley, Environmental Values in American Culture (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995).
8. Uta Berghöfer, Ricardo Rozzi, and Kurt Jax, "Local versus Global Knowledge: Diverse Perspectives on Nature in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve," Environmental Ethics 30 (2008): 273-94.
9. Riley E. Dunlap and Kent D. Van Liere, "The 'New Environmental Paradigm,'" Journal of Environmental Education 9 (1978): 10-9;
10. Riley E. Dunlap, Kent D. Van Liere, Angela G. Mertig, and Robert E. Jones, "Measuring Endorsement of the New Ecological Paradigm: A Revised NEP Scale," Journal of Social Issues 56 (2000): 425-42.
11. Dunlap et al., "Measuring Endorsement of the New Ecological Paradigm," p. 427.
12. Wesley P. Schultz, "The Structure of Environmental Concern: Concern for Self, Other People, and the Biosphere," Journal of Environmental Psychology 21 (2001): 331.
13. Mirjam de Groot, "Humans and Nature: Public Visions and Their Interrelationship" (Ph.d. diss., Radboud University, Nijmegen, 2010).
14. F. Stephen Mayer and Cynthia McPherson Frantz, "The Connectedness to Nature Scale: A Measure of Individuals' Feeling in Community with Nature," Journal of Environmental Psychology 24 (2004): 503.
15. Agnieszka D. Hunka, Wouter T. de Groot, and Adam Biela, "Visions of Nature in Eastern Europe: A Polish Example," Environmental Values (18 (2009): 429-52);
16. Mirjam de Groot and Wouter T. de Groot, "'Room for River' Measures and Public Visions in the Netherlands: A Survey on River Perceptions among Riverside Residents," Water Resources Research 45 (2009);
17. Wouter T. de Groot and Riyan J. G. van den Born, "Visions of Nature and Landscape Type Preferences: An Exploration in the Netherlands," Landscape and Urban Planning 63 (2003): 127-38;
18. Riyan J. G. van den Born, "Implicit Philosophy: Images of the People-Nature Relationship in the Dutch Population," in Riyan J. G. van den Born, Rob H. J. Lenders, and Wouter T. de Groot, eds., Visions of Nature: A Scientific Exploration of People's Implicit Philosophies (Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2006), pp. 61-84.
19. Other studies that (partly) cover the subject of human/nature relationship and that were subject to consideration while developing the HaN scale are Arjen E. Buijs, "Lay People's Images of Nature: Frameworks of Values, Beliefs and Value Orientations" Society and Natural Resources 22 (2009): 417-32;
20. Pernille Kaltoft, "Values about Nature in Organic Farming Practice and Knowledge," Sociologia Ruralis 39 (1999): 39-53.;
21. Stephen R. Kellert, "Perceptions of Animals in America," in R. J. Hoage, ed., Perceptions of Animals in American Culture (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989), pp. 5-24;
22. Henny J. van der Windt, Jac. A. A. Swart, and Jozef Keulartz, "Nature and Landscape Planning: Exploring the Dynamics of Valuation, the Case of the Netherlands," Landscape and Urban Planning 79 (2007): 218-46;
23. Ben A. Minteer and Robert E. Manning, "Pragmatism in Environmental Ethics: Democracy, Pluralism, and the Management of Nature," Environmental Ethics 21 (1999): 191-208.
24. White, "The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis.
25. John Passmore, Man's Responsibility for Nature: Ecological Problems and Western Traditions (London: Duckworth, 1974), p. 13.
26. Ian G. Barbour, Technology, Environment, and Human Values (New York: Praeger, 1980), p. 20.
27. Sara Ebenreck, "A Partnership Farmland Ethic," Environmental Ethics 5 (1983): 33-45
28. Jim Cheney, "The Neo-Stoicism of Radical Environmentalism," Environmental Ethics 11 (1989): 293-325.
29. Wouter T. de Groot, Environmental Science Theory (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1992), p. 583 (https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/dspace/bitstream/1887/11548/1/ 11-511-207.pdf).
30. Ben A. Minteer, "Biocentric Farming? Liberty Hyde Bailey and Environmental Ethics," Environmental Ethics 30 (2008): 341-60.
31. For a summary of Dutch classifications, see Riyan J. G. van den Born, "Implicit Philosophy: Images of the People-Nature Relationship in the Dutch Population," in Van den Born et al., Visions of Nature, pp. 61-84.
32. De Groot and De Groot, "'Room for River' Measures and Public Visions
33. Riyan J. G. van den Born, "Rethinking Nature: Visions of Nature of a Dutch Public," Environmental Values 17 (2008): 83-110.
34. In the subclassification of mastery in De Groot, Environmental Science Theory, pp. 481-83, the least radical master is called the caretaker. The inclusion of item 8 in mastery gives this image a caretaker hue.
35. De Groot, Environmental Science Theory, pp. 481-83.
36. Van den Born, "Implicit Philosophy," pp. 61-84;
37. Kempton et al., Environmental Values in American Culture.
38. This number corresponds to previous studies. In Norway 83 percent and in Sweden 78 percent of the general public adhered to a statement on intrinsic value, Grendstad and Wollebaek, "Greener Still?
39. Widegren, "The New Environmental Paradigm and Personal Norms"). In the U.S. 80 percent of a student group adhered to intrinsic value (Thompson and Barton, "Ecocentric and Anthropocentric Attitudes toward the Environment").
40. Mayer and Frantz, "The Connectedness to Nature Scale." 33
41. All correlations are statistically significant to a p<0.05 level. For a somewhat similar analysis, based on a survey in the Netherlands, see De Groot and De Groot, "'Room for River' Measures and Public Visions in the Netherlands.
42. This is African. See, for instance, Natascha Zwaal, Narratives for Nature, Storytelling as a Vehicle for Improving the Intercultural Dialogue on Environmental Conservation in Cameroon (Leiden: Leiden University, 2003), p. 325
43. Monique Borgerhoff Mulder and Peter Coppolillo, Conservation: Linking Ecology, Economics and Culture (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004).
44. Arne Naess: "The Shallow and the Deep, Long-Range Ecology Movement," Inquiry 16 (1973): 11
45. "It is clear, though, that vast numbers of people of all countries, and even a considerable number of people in power, accept as valid the wider norms and values of the Deep Ecology movement." In a keynote lecture ("Intrinsic Value: Will the Defenders of Nature Please Rise?" given at conference of International Society on Conservation Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Harbor, May 1985), Naess claimed to have conducted an empirical study on ordinary people's normative views on nature that confirms the results of our survey. According to Naess, "a great majority" of interviewees reported feeling a moral obligation to the natural world, held that some natural entities other than human beings had "rights," and claimed that one could speak meaningfully about the inherent value of nature. Cited in Benjamin Howe, "The History of Arne Naess' Environmental Philosophy and Its Reception" (diss., Catholic University of Leuven, 2008), pp. 95-97.
46. Howe argues that the statements in the deep ecology platform are meant to solely reflect shared articulations of fundamental ideas and convictions, not shared underlying concepts or ideologies. Thus, Naess neither believed that such a shift was necessary nor that philosophy could lead to such a paradigm shift. Cf. Howe, "The History of Arne Naess's Environmental Philosophy and Its Reception." 37
47. Mirjam De Groot and Riyan J. G. van den Born, "Humans, Nature and God: Exploring Images of Their Interrelationships in Victoria, Canada," World Views: Environment, Culture, Religion 11 (2007): 324-51
48. Van den Born, "Rethinking Nature.
49. Minteer, "Biocentric Farming?
50. Robert Frodeman, "Philosophy Unbound: Environmental Ethics at the End of the Earth," Environmental Ethics 30 (2008): 313-24.
51. De Groot, Environmental Science Theory, p. 495.
52. Claudio Campagna and Teresita Fernández, "A Comparative Analysis of the Vision and Mission Statements of International Environmental Organisations," Environmental Values 16 (2007): 369-98
53. W. F. Butler and T. G. Acott, "An Inquiry Concerning the Acceptance of Intrinsic Value Theories of Nature," Environmental Values 16 (2007): 149-68.
54. John Nolt, "The Move from Good to Ought," Environmental Ethics 28 (2006): 355-74.
55. Frodeman, "Philosophy Unbound.
56. Andrew Light and Eric Katz, eds., Environmental Pragmatism (New York: Routledge, 1996).
57. E.g., Robert Mugerauer: Interpreting Environments. Tradition, Deconstruction, Hermeneutics (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995)
58. John Van Buren, "Critical Environmental Hermeneutics," Environmental Ethics 17 (1995): 259-75;
59. Martin Drenthen, "The Paradox of Environmental Ethics: Nietzsche's View of Nature and the Wild," Environmental Ethics 21 (1999): 163-75
60. Forrest Clingerman, "Beyond the Flowers and the Stones: 'Emplacement' and the Modeling of Nature," Philosophy in the Contemporary World 11, no. 2 (2004): 17-24.
61. E.g., Hargrove's argument that we should teach the historical context of environmental values within particular societies so that they can be promoted without translation into weak economic terms. Cf. Eugene Hargrove, Foundations of Environmental Ethics (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1989), pp. 206-15.
62. Cf. Alisdair MacIntyre, After Virtue (London: Duckworth, 1985).
63. For a hermeneutical attempt to utilize movies to explicate and articulate the existing moral meanings at work in our relation with wildness, see Martin Drenthen, "Fatal Attraction: Wildness in Contemporary Film," Environmental Ethics 31 (2009): 297-315.