Environmental Ethics

Dr. Norman Wirzba gave a very interesting and surprisingly well attended (especially for a Friday) lecture here last week entitled, "Gratitude as the Basis for Environmental Ethics". His argument took a very similar tack to Leopold's Land Ethic, basically that the more we know the ecosystem the more we in turn are grateful for the service it provides and thus the more we protect it. Or as Leopold said (roughly stated) obligation arises from education which in turn produces rules. Still very human-centric but very interesting, as I said, and anyone who lists Wendell Berry as a reference can't be all that bad.