Toward eco-justice for all - Environmental Harm: An Eco-justice Perspective - page 137

In their extreme versions, the weighing of certain elements within
the particular approaches skew the moral compass in certain directions:
for example, toward an environmental justice that is socially exclusive
to specific oppressed human communities and downplays or ignores
ecological and species interests; an ecological justice that prioritises
places over people and sacrifices specific community interests for the
sake of conservation ideals; and a species justice that hold the rights
of animals over those of human need and the requirements of specific
environments. Competing conceptions of justice are associated with
conflicts and debates that are beginning to feature ever more greatly
in our everyday affairs. This chapter attempts to grapple with these
tensions by illuminating key dilemmas and identifying possible pathways
for their resolution.
Contentious concepts: eco-justice
This section reviews eco-philosophies such as anthropocentrism,
biocentrism and ecocentrism and their relationship to justice-based
approaches such as environmental justice, ecological justice and species
justice. The section then raises a series of questions and dilemmas that
illustrate once again the conundrums associated with the need to weigh
up diverse interests and needs.
Different conceptions of environmental harm can be evaluated on
the basis of different perspectives on the nature-human nexus. Diverse
perspectives conceive of the relationship between humans and the
environment in different ways, which have major implications when it
comes to defining and responding to instances of environmental harm.
Key considerations include how each perspective:
• conceives of social and ecological problems
• depicts the role of humans in the production of the problems
• views prevention, regulation and law enforcement in relation to
these problems.
Consider, for example, how different eco-philosophies (or philosophies
of the relationship between nature and humans) might approach the
practice of clearfelling of old-growth forest (Halsey and White, 1998).
An anthropocentric perspective views old-growth forests instrumentally,
as a means to satisfy the demands of human beings. Economically, the
philosophy views forests as exploitable for their commercial potential
and that the production methods used are those which incur the
least cost to producers - such as clearfelling. The aim of legislation