Judgements in Equilibrium? An Ethical Analysis of Environmental Impact Assessment

Abstract

The growth of environmental consciousness during the recent decades has led to new ethical challenges. Environmental crises have brought to the fore the seldom acknowledged questions of what duties current generations owe towards future generations and what duties human beings owe towards natural entities. A new subdiscipline - environmental ethics - has emerged that especially focuses on these moral issues. <br> However, the debate within environmental ethics has had rather little effect on policy-making. The aim of this dissertation is to examine what relevance ethics can have for environmental politics. The empirical starting-point is an analysis of which moral beliefs underlie environmental impact assessment in Sweden. The dissertation analyses how these moral beliefs can be supported rationally.