Ethics for a Finite World: An Essay Concerning a Sustainable Future
by Herschel Elliot
Published by Fulcrum Publishing: Speaker's Corner Books
Click on book
cover to order
at Amazon.com
Reviewed by Connie Anderson
In the foreword, Richard D. Lamm, former governor of Colorado, says, and I paraphrase here: The great earthshaking controversies in our history...have been initiated by people who were characterized as heretic for challenging the straight jacket of orthodoxy. New ideas come particularly hard in public policy.
On the inside over the author wrote, "We need a new basis for ethical behavior, lest we suffer the wrath of Mother Nature." He takes on traditional environmental ethics like the balance between human activity and the environment.
Written before Hurricane Katrina and Rita, Elliot writes that our first ethical obligation should be to maintain the endurance and resistance of the Earth's ecosystem. Then, after the environment is secured, we need to turn our attention to human population.
This book has heavy, mind-boggling content that makes us realize we have only one Earth and each of us should be doing our part in saving it and its people.
Today the now-retired author, formerly a professor, lives simply and treads lightly on the earth. He wants us to do the same.
The Speaker's Corner Books is a provocative new series designed to get us to talk about public policy topics. Different experts have written:
Think for Yourself: An Essay on Cutting Through the Babble, the Bias and the Hype by Steve Hindes
The Enduring Wilderness: Protecting Our Natural Heritage through the Wilderness Act by Doug Scott
Parting Shots from My Brittle Bow: Reflections on American Politics and Life by Eugene J. McCarthy.
The Brave New world of Health Care by Richard D. Lamm
God and Caesar in American: An Essay on Politics and Religion by Gary Hart
For information on these other books, www.fulcrum-books.com
Armchair Interviews says this book is about morals and ethics, both the culturally big picture and individually (yours and mine). The book would be a great public or church discussion group topic.