Global Changes

This book offers an authoritative analysis of the challenges that have arisen as a result of modern technologies. It covers several environmental problems, such as climate change, overexploitation of natural resources, loss of natural habitats, pollution and human population growth, and discusses practical scenarios for sustainable human dwelling of our planet. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the first part introduces "global changes", describing how they are happening in reality, and the challenges arising from them. The second part introduces methodological approaches borrowed from various disciplines, such as engineering, management science, philosophy and theology, which can help deal with the contemporary challenges resulting from global changes.

Lastly, the third part discusses some of the themes presented in the light of novel concepts, such as the Anthropocene, and includes interesting proposals and ideas about how human beings could dwell the Earth in this new age. Offering a comprehensive theoretical reflection on the relation between technology, environment and human beings, it also provides a practice-oriented guide for researchers and decision-makers working on a new ethical paradigm of acting in the Anthropocene.

Auteur

Luca Valera is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and Director of the Center for Bioethics at the same University. He has received his Ph.D. in Bioethics from the Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Italy. His areas of interest include: Environmental Ethics, Philosophy of Technology, Bioethics, and Applied Ethics. Juan Carlos Castilla is an Emeritus Professor and Full Professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He received his Ph.D. and D. Sc. in Marine Biology from the North Wales University (UK). He has received many awards, such as the Chile National Award on Applied Sciences and Technology (2010). He is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. His areas of research cover Experimental Ecology, Socio-ecology, Management and Sustainability of Artisan Marine Resources, Marine Conservation, Common Use Resources, and Socio-Environmental Ethics.

Contenu

Introduction.- What's New about Global Changes? Rethinking Technology, Environment, and Society. An Overview.- New Environments. Rethinking Ethics in an Era of Technological Changes.- New Praxis. Releasement in a Technological World.- New Technologies. Rethinking Ethics and the Environment.- New Politics. Sovereignty, Representation, and the Nonhuman.- New Wastes. Nature is not an Unlimited Station.- Contemporary Challenges.- Ethics and Geoengineering: An Overview.- Two Conceptions of Embracing Ecological Change in Ecosystem Man-agement and Species Conservation: Accommodation and Intervention.- Groundwater as a Common Pool Resource: Modelling, Management and the Complicity Ethic in a Non-Collective World.- Sustainability and the Future of the Commons. An Epistemological Examination.- Global Social Change: Human Ecology from an Eco-ethical Perspective.