Environmental Values Environmental Values
Environmental Values 2(1993): 137-157. doi: 10.3197/096327193776679945
While citizens often use non-instrumental arguments to support environmental protection, most governmental policies are justified by instrumental arguments. This paper explores some of the reasons. We interviewed senior policy advisors to four European governments active in global climate change negotiations and the UNCED (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development) process. In response to our questions, a majority of these advisors articulated deeply held personal environmental values. They told us that they normally keep these values separate from their professional environmental policy activities. We interpret these findings within the context of the literature on environmental ethics and values. We suggest that environmental policy could be improved if widely held environmental values were articulated, validated, and admitted into the process of policy analysis and deliberation.
KEYWORDS: environment, ethics, values, policy, intrinsic value
REFERENCES to other articles in Environmental Values:
Moral Pluralism and the Environment. Andrew Brennan
Green Economics. David Pearce
CITATIONS in other Environmental Values articles:
The Boulder and the Sphere: Subjectivity and Implicit Values in Biology. Peter Alpert
Operationalising Strong Sustainability: Definitions, Methodologies and Outcomes. Begüm Özkaynak, Pat Devine and Dan Rigby
Shifting Forest Value Orientations in the United States, 1980-2001: A Computer Content Analysis. David N. Bengston, Trevor J. Webb and David P. Fan
Nature Connoisseurship. Allan Greenbaum
Editorial. Clive L. Spash
An Inquiry Concerning the Acceptance of Intrinsic Value Theories of Nature. W.F. Butler and T.G. Acott
How Much is that Ecosystem in the Window? The One with the Bio-diverse Trail. Clive L. Spash
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