Walker, J 2020, More Heat than Life: The Tangled Roots of Ecology, Energy, and Economics, Springer Nature Singapore, SIngapore.
View/Download from: Publisher's site
View description>>
This book traces the interacting histories of the disciplines of ecology and economics: from their common origin in the ancient Greek concept of oikonomia, through their distinct encounters with energy physics, to the current obstruction of neoliberal economics to responses to the ecological and climate crisis of the so-called Anthropocene. Reconstructing their constitution as separate sciences in the era of fossil-fuelled industrial capitalism, the book offers an explanation of how the ecological sciences have moved from a position of critical collision with mainstream economics in the 1970s, to one of collusion with the project of permanent free-market growth, in and through the thermal crisis of the biosphere.
Li, J, Li, Z, Brandis, KJ, Bu, J, Sun, Z, Yu, Q & Ramp, D 2020, 'Tracing geochemical pollutants in stream water and soil from mining activity in an alpine catchment', Chemosphere, vol. 242, pp. 125167-125167.
View/Download from: Publisher's site
View description>>
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd This research developed a method of tracing major water chemical parameters (WCP) and soil heavy metals (HM) to identify the processes of mining pollution in topographically complex landscapes. Ninety-nine spatially distributed water samples were collected to characterise the hydrochemical characteristics of an alpine river in north-west China. Sixty river WCP and fifty-six soil HM samples from areas near mining sites were then used to analyse the mining pollution process. Geographical and mining activity characteristics were derived from topographic and mine site information. The occurrence of sulphates (SO42−) and nitrates (NO3−) in river water were highly correlated (up to 0.70), providing strong evidence of pollution from nearby mining activities. Levels of arsenic and cadmium were high in first and fifth order streams, where mining activities were most concentrated. The modelling results showed that geographical patterns and mining activity account for predicting HM distribution, and WCP can be reasonable predictors to trace soil mining pollution. This research can help improve the accuracy of predicting the mining pollution process.
Riley, S 2020, 'Brighton v Will: The Legal Chasm between Animal Welfare and Animal Suffering', Animals, vol. 10, no. 9, pp. 1497-1497.
View/Download from: Publisher's site
View description>>
Through the mechanism of statutory interpretation, courts can narrow or widen the legal concept of animal cruelty. This was starkly brought to light in the case of Brighton v Will, where the Supreme Court of New South Wales held that stabbing a dog six times with a pitchfork and then killing him with a mallet, did not amount to serious animal cruelty. This finding was the result of the Court’s applying a textual interpretation to the NSW Crimes Act, concluding that the appellant was simply exterminating a pest. Yet, animal law in NSW comprises more than legislation, extending to a raft of plans and strategies which provide background and context for regulation. This article argues that a contextual interpretation would have been more appropriate, leading to enquiries whether the dog was rightfully classified as a pest, as well as whether the law should have considered the manner in which the dog was killed. An equally relevant issue stems from the relationship between animal suffering and animal welfare, a connection which hinges on the ambit of anti-cruelty legislation. The latter permits a range of exceptions and defences that permit justification of cruelty, magnifying the chasm between animal suffering and animal welfare. This chasm is also not diminished by legal interpretations of cruelty that focus on whether killing is justified, while ignoring the method of killing.
Wallach, AD, Batavia, C, Bekoff, M, Alexander, S, Baker, L, Ben‐Ami, D, Boronyak, L, Cardilin, APA, Carmel, Y, Celermajer, D, Coghlan, S, Dahdal, Y, Gomez, JJ, Kaplan, G, Keynan, O, Khalilieh, A, Kopnina, H, Lynn, WS, Narayanan, Y, Riley, S, Santiago‐Ávila, FJ, Yanco, E, Zemanova, MA & Ramp, D 2020, 'Recognizing animal personhood in compassionate conservation', Conservation Biology, vol. 34, no. 5, pp. 1097-1106.
View/Download from: Publisher's site
View description>>
AbstractCompassionate conservation is based on the ethical position that actions taken to protect biodiversity should be guided by compassion for all sentient beings. Critics argue that there are 3 core reasons harming animals is acceptable in conservation programs: the primary purpose of conservation is biodiversity protection; conservation is already compassionate to animals; and conservation should prioritize compassion to humans. We used argument analysis to clarify the values and logics underlying the debate around compassionate conservation. We found that objections to compassionate conservation are expressions of human exceptionalism, the view that humans are of a categorically separate and higher moral status than all other species. In contrast, compassionate conservationists believe that conservation should expand its moral community by recognizing all sentient beings as persons. Personhood, in an ethical sense, implies the individual is owed respect and should not be treated merely as a means to other ends. On scientific and ethical grounds, there are good reasons to extend personhood to sentient animals, particularly in conservation. The moral exclusion or subordination of members of other species legitimates the ongoing manipulation and exploitation of the living worlds, the very reason conservation was needed in the first place. Embracing compassion can help dismantle human exceptionalism, recognize nonhuman personhood, and navigate a more expansive moral space.
Leimbach, T, Kent, J & Walker, J 2020, 'Staying sane in the face of climate change and other dilemmas: A toolkit of emerging ideas to support emotional resilience, mental health and action'.
