South American Environmental Ethics

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South American Environmental Ethics

• Lorin Skinner
• International Studies
• Emily Anderson
• Interior Design/Photography

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Environmental Issues

• Global climate change is threatening the worlds
  biodiversity
• Rapid decrease in glacier volume
• Human health problems
• Skin cancer
• Ecological consequences
• Reduction of plankton
• Damage to plants
• Exotic invasive species threatening the South
  American ecosystem.
• Mining is threatening the cultural and biological
  diversity.
• Rapid changes in freshwater, marine, and
  terrestrial diversity
• Driving communities from ancestral territories,
  destroying their habitats
• Causes pollution harming the health of living
  beings
• Environmental philosophers fight social and
  environmental concerns to create a more
  sustainable ecosystem.

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Rodolfo Kusch

• From Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• Professor of Philosophy at the University of
  Buenos Aires.
• Coined the term geoculture.
• Researched the Inca legacy and how it persisted
  in 20th century peasant communities in Bolivia
  and northwest Argentina.
• Inspired and motivated to discover and renew the
  cultural identity of the Americas.

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Enrique Dussel

• Born in Mendoza, Argentina but became a Mexican
  citizen and resided in Mexico.
• Professor of Philosophy at Autonomous
  Metropolitan University in Mexico.
• Studied liberation philosophy.
• Developed the notion of transmodernity.
• Wanted to overcome Eurocentricism.

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Walter Mignolo

• Professor at Duke University.
• Wrote The Idea of Latin America.
• Developed ideas of border thinking, border
  epistemology, and pluritopic hermeneutics.
• Emphasize local histories and pluriversal
  epistemologies.
• Transcend globalization and looking at the
  eurocentric perspective.

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Arturo Escobar

• Developed a geopolitical perspective on
  globalization, culture, women, environment, and
  place.
• For a stable economy, he believes in the
  involvement of fundamental cultural elements
  i.e. mythical and symbolic traditions ways of
  hunting or fishing, etc.
• Calls for a postdevolpment era, emphasizing local
  economies instead of consumerist lifestyles.

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Leonardo Boff

• Wrote Ecology and Liberation A New Paradigm in
  1995.
• He proposes a holistic, ecosocial approach to
  environmental ethics unlike Arturo Escobar.
• Incorporate interests of the poor people.
• Since he was once a Roman Catholic priest, it
  influences his ideas on liberation theology.
• Demands overcoming anthropocentrism and
  ethnopocentrism.
• He highlights the importance of revering the
  masculine and feminine, echoing the philosophy of
  leading South American ecofeminists and
  liberation theologians.

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Ricardo Rozzi

• Born in Santiago, Chile.
• He is an ecologist and philosopher teaching at
  the University of North Texas ((hes our
  professor)).
• Worked with indigenous communities in southern
  South America.
• Integrated ecological sciences and environmental
  philosophy.
• Developed frameworks to understand the
  differences and similarities between contemporary
  scientific knowledge and indigenous ecological
  knowledge.
• Wishes to prevent the burden of global
  epistemological models and promote the expression
  of diverse knowledge by local communities.

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Augusto Angel-Maya

• Professor at the National University of Columbia.
• Among philosophers from IDEA.
• Criticizes rationalist tradition that separates
  humans from nature.
• Wants to understand the connection of the world
  and nature, and man and the gods.
• He believes that environmental problems go hand
  in hand with cultural practices.
• Thinks transformations in the ecosystem begin to
  change with the emergence of human beings in
  nature.

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Influences on Environmental Philosophy in South
America

• UNEPs support has helped the environmental
  academic programs in South America alongside
  individual scholars.
• UNESCO created the MAB to propose a means to
  improve the relationship of people and their
  environment
• Held several conferences to improve the problems
  of environmental ethics
• Since the 1990s, South American scholars have
  begun to translate and discuss the Anglo-Saxon
  environmental philosophers research.

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TADAH!

• And now you know