Abstract
Environmental problems are a legion, and of radically differing kinds. Yet the notion of a unified environmental crisis persists. Such unification has a solid basis, firstly because all areas of the world are interwoven into a global system of extraction, production, trade and consumption. Secondly, diverse environmental problems interact in many ways. However, too often this slips into problematic totalization, ignoring the important local socio-ecological specificities. The search for environmental master metrics, the attempt to find common units of measurement for diverse environmental impacts, is a consequential example of this. A path must be found between problematic master metrics that lack contextual understanding and can lead to perverse outcomes, and addressing environmental problems in a piecemeal fashion that overlooks a systemic view. One set of tools can never suffice when we are dealing with the complex and multifarious field of environmental issues.
Funding source: Kone Foundation
Funding source: Academy of Finland
Award Identifier / Grant number: 312623/312663
Acknowledgments
My heartfelt gratitude to my dear friends and colleagues Yrjö Haila and Tere Vadén.
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Research funding: This work was supported by Kone Foundation and the Academy of Finland [312623/312663].
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Environmental Ethics–Sats Special Issue
- The Appeal of Environmental Master Metrics
- Moomins and Complicity with Matter: Tove Jansson’s Moominpappa at Sea as an Intervention in Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things by Jane Bennett
- Weird Environmental Ethics: The Virtue of Wonder and the Rise of Eco-Anxiety
- Who Should Have Children? (Us?) When Should We Have Children? (Now?)
- Justificatory Moral Pluralism in Climate Change
- Concepts of Biodiversity, Pluralism, and Pragmatism: The Case of Walnut Forest Conservation in Central Asia
- Towards Anthropocentric Deep Ecology: Utilizing Esotericism within Ecophilosophy