Water Ethics: A Values Approach to Solving the Water Crisis

✍ Scribed by David Groenfeldt

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 249
• Series: Earthscan Water Text
• Edition: 2
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Fully revised and updated, this second edition of Water Ethics continues to consolidate water ethics as a key dimension of water-related decisions.

The book introduces the idea that ethics are an intrinsic dimension of any water policy, program, or practice, and that understanding what ethics are being acted out in water policies is fundamental to an understanding of water resource management. Alongside updated references and the introduction of discussion questions and recommended further reading, this new edition discusses in depth three significant developments since the publication of the first edition in 2013. The first is the growing awareness of the climate crisis as an existential threat, and associated concern about adaptive strategies for sustainable water management and ways of using water management for climate mitigation (e.g., practically through agricultural soil management and conceptually through ethics awareness). Second, there has been increased clarity among the religious community, Indigenous leaders, and progressive academics that ethics needs to become an arena for application and action (e.g., the Vatican encyclical Laudato Si, protests at Standing Rock and Flint, Michigan, in the US, and climate demonstrations worldwide). Thirdly, there have been new normative water standards ranging from "water stewardship" (industry initiative), water charters (Berlin) and the on-going initiative to develop a global water ethics charter.

Drawing on case studies from countries including Australia, India, the Philippines, South Africa, and the United States, this textbook is essential reading for students of environmental ethics and water governance and management.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of illustrations
Preface
1. Introduction to water ethics
Ethics and values
Ethics about what? Ethical categories
Five categories of water ethics
A brief history of water ethics
Related concepts
What is responsible use of water?
Water scarcity
Conclusions
Notes
Further reading
2. Managing rivers
A brief history of rivers
The ethics of dams
Flood control
River ethics
Conclusions
Notes
Further reading
3. Ethics of agricultural water use
Thinking about agriculture
The ethics of irrigation development
Multifunctional agriculture
Agroecology: Towards an ethical agriculture
Conclusions
Notes
Further reading
4. Ethics in urban and domestic water use
Ethics of rural water
Multiplier effects
Conclusions: Water and sanitation as ethical opportunities
Notes
Further reading
Suggested viewing
5. Water for industry: What is ethical use?
Level 2: Business engagement within the watershed
Level 3: Advocating for new water norms and policies
Extractive industries and water ethics
Conclusions
Notes
Further reading
6. The ethics of water governance
Integrated water resources management (IWRM)
Values in water governance
Global water governance
Domains of water governance
Conclusions
Notes
Further reading
7. Indigenous water ethics
Ontologies of water
Tools for bridging divergent water cultures
Conclusions: Water ethics and cultural diversity
Notes
Further reading
8. Charting a new water ethics
The consensus on global water values
Towards a global water ethic
Towards a new field of water ethics
Conclusions
Notes
Further reading
Bibliography
Index