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How does Environmental ethics challenge our conventional thinking

How Environmental Ethics Challenges Conventional Thinking

Explain: Expanding the moral community

Expanding the Moral Community

Explain: Conventional ethics typically centers moral concern on humans. Environm...

From Human-Centered Morality to Wider Moral Communities

Explain: Rethinking intrinsic vs. instrumental value

Rethinking Intrinsic vs. Instrumental Value

Explain: Modern economic and everyday reasoning treats nature mainly as a resour...

Intrinsic vs. Instrumental Value: Why Nature Might Matter for Its Own Sake

Explain: Changing concepts of rights and duties

Changing Concepts of Rights and Duties

Explain: If ecosystems or species have moral standing, then duties extend beyond...

Moral Standing for Ecosystems and Species — What It Means for Duties and Law

Explain: Questioning human superiority and dominion

Questioning Human Superiority and Dominion

Explain: Many cultural and religious traditions grant humans special authority o...

From Dominion to Stewardship — How Environmental Ethics Reframes Human Authority...

Explain: Integrating long-term and global perspectives

Integrating long-term and global perspectives

Explain: Conventional thinking often prioritizes short-term human interests. Env...

Why Environmental Ethics Forces Us to Think Beyond the Present

Explain: Demanding interdisciplinary and systemic thinking

Demanding Interdisciplinary and Systemic Thinking in Environmental Ethics

Explain: Environmental problems are complex, involving ecology, economics, cultu...

Why Environmental Ethics Requires Systems-Level Thinking

Explain: Challenging liberal individualism

How Environmental Ethics Challenges Liberal Individualism

Explain: Western moral theory often privileges individual rights and choices. En...

Why Environmental Ethics May Limit Individual Rights for Collective Ecological G...

Explain: Reframing development and progress

Reframing Development and Progress

Explain: Economic growth and technological fixes are often seen as unqualified g...

Rethinking “Progress”: Why Economic Growth and Technological Fixes Are Not Alway...

Let's talk about artificial intelligence

Environmental Ethics and Artificial Intelligence — Challenging Conventional Thin...

Explain: Expanding moral considerability

Expanding Moral Considerability — What It Means and Why It Matters

Explain: Environmental ethics questions anthropocentrism (human-centered ethics)...

What It Means to Question Anthropocentrism in Environmental Ethics

Explain: Applied to AI, this invites two lines of inquiry:

Two Ethical Questions at the Intersection of AI and Environmental Ethics

Explain: Should we consider AI systems themselves as moral patients or agents (i...

Are AI Systems Moral Patients or Agents?

Explain: How do we weigh nonhuman natural entities against AI interests when the...

Weighing Nonhuman Natural Entities Against AI Interests

Explain: Reference: Plumwood, Val. The concept of a cultural critique of anthrop...

Val Plumwood and the Cultural Critique of Anthropocentrism — A Brief Explanation

Explain: Should we consider AI systems themselves as moral patients or agents (i...

Are AI Systems Moral Patients or Moral Agents?

Explain: How do we weigh nonhuman natural entities against AI interests when the...

Weighing Nonhuman Nature against AI Interests — Frameworks and Principles

Explain: Reconfiguring responsibility and causation

Reconfiguring Responsibility and Causation — What Environmental Ethics Teaches A...

Explain: Environmental ethics emphasizes distributed, long-term, and system-leve...

Distributed, Long-Term, and System-Level Responsibility in Environmental Ethics ...

Explain: For AI, that means moving beyond individual developers/users to corpora...

Why AI’s Environmental Harms Call for Collective, Systemic Responsibility

Explain: Implication: AI ethics must include environmental lifecycle analysis, n...

Why AI Ethics Needs Environmental Lifecycle Analysis — A Brief Explanation

Explain: Reference: Doorn, Neelke. “Responsibility and environmental harms” (on ...

Doorn’s “Responsibility and Environmental Harms” — A concise explanation

Explain: Valuing the nonhuman and ecosystems in design choices

Valuing the Nonhuman and Ecosystems in AI Design Choices

Explain: Environmental ethics encourages intrinsic value for ecosystems, leading...

Intrinsic Value for Ecosystems and Its Design Implications for AI

Explain: For AI this suggests: prioritize low-energy models, favor on-device com...

Practical Meaning of Environmentally-Conscious Design Choices for AI

Explain: Practical implication: AI benchmarks should include environmental exter...

Why AI Benchmarks Must Include Environmental Externalities

Explain: Reference: Bostrom & Yudkowsky on AI ethics generally; plus calls for s...

Clarifying the References — Bostrom & Yudkowsky and Strubell et al. (2019)

Explain: Temporal and intergenerational justice

Temporal and Intergenerational Justice — What It Means and Why It Matters

Explain: Environmental ethics foregrounds duties to future generations. AI devel...

Why Environmental Ethics Means Taking AI’s Long-Term Consequences Seriously

Explain: This presses for precautionary design principles, stewardship, and poli...

What "Precautionary Design, Stewardship, and Protective Policies" Means

Explain: Reference: Parfit, Derek — on future generations and population ethics.

Parfit on Future Generations and Population Ethics — a concise explanation

Explain: Challenging notions of progress and growth

How Environmental Ethics Challenges Notions of Progress and Growth

Explain: Environmental critique questions the uncritical valorization of technol...

Why Environmental Critique Challenges the Uncritical Praise of Technological Pro...

Explain: Applied to AI, we must ask whether every increase in capability justifi...

Rethinking Progress — Why AI’s Gains Must Be Measured Beyond Performance

Explain: Reference: Herman Daly on steady-state economics; environmental critiqu...

Herman Daly, Steady-State Economics, and Critiques of Technological Determinism ...

Explain: Pluralistic, place-sensitive ethics

Pluralistic, Place‑Sensitive Ethics — What It Means and Why It Matters for AI

Explain: Environmental ethics often emphasizes context, place, and indigenous kn...

Why Environmental Ethics Values Context, Place, and Indigenous Knowledges

Explain: AI development and deployment should therefore be sensitive to local ec...

Why AI Must Respect Local Ecological and Cultural Contexts

Explain: Implication: participatory design, co-governance, and rights-based appr...

Why Participatory Design, Co-Governance, and Rights-Based Approaches Matter for ...

Explain: Reference: Indigenous environmental ethics literature; work on particip...

Indigenous Environmental Ethics and Participatory AI Governance — Explanation an...

Explain: Moral humility and epistemic limits

Moral Humility and Epistemic Limits — What They Mean for AI and the Environment

Explain: Environmental ethics highlights complexity, emergent systems, and the l...

Why Environmental Ethics Calls for Humility and Precaution

Explain: This applies to AI interventions in socio-ecological systems: avoid ove...

Why AI Interventions in Socio‑Ecological Systems Require Humility, Impact Assess...

Explain: Reference: Principles of the precautionary principle in environmental p...

The Precautionary Principle — Meaning, Basis, and Practical Uses

Explain: Broaden AI ethics to include ecological impacts, nonhuman stakeholders,...

What It Means to Broaden AI Ethics to Ecological Impacts, Nonhuman Stakeholders,...

Explain: Incorporate lifecycle environmental accounting into AI design, metrics,...

What "Incorporate lifecycle environmental accounting into AI" Means — Explained

Explain: Adopt participatory governance that includes ecological experts, indige...

Why and How to Adopt Participatory Governance for AI That Affects Environments

Explain: Embrace precaution, humility, and alternative measures of progress that...

What “Embrace precaution, humility, and alternative measures of progress that va...

Explain: Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature (critique of anthropoc...

Val Plumwood’s Critique of Anthropocentrism in Feminism and the Mastery of Natur...

Explain: Strubell, Ganesh, & McCallum, “Energy and Policy Considerations for Dee...

What Strubell, Ganesh, & McCallum (2019) Found — A Plain Explanation

Explain: Parfit, Derek, Reasons and Persons (intergenerational ethics).

Parfit’s Reasons and Persons — Key Ideas on Intergenerational Ethics (Explained)

Explain: Daly, Herman, Steady-State Economics.

Herman Daly’s Steady‑State Economics — a concise explanation