Environmental ethics in Antarctica

• Published in: Environmental Ethics
• Main Authors: Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author, Environmental Philosophy, Inc., publisher
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Colorado State University. Libraries 2007
• Subjects: environmental ethics; Antarctic Sanctuary; wilderness model; Antarctica; Antarctic; South Pole; Antarc*; South pole
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10217/36769; https://doi.org/10.5840/enviroethics200224226

Includes bibliographical references. The concerns of environmental ethics on other continents fail in Antarctica, which is without sustainable development, or ecosystems for a "land ethic," or even familiar terrestrial fauna and flora. An Antarctic regime, developing politically, has been developing an ethics, underrunning the politics, remarkably exemplified in the Madrid Protocol, protecting "the intrinsic value of Antarctica." Without inhabitants, claims of sovereignty are problematic. Antarctica is a continent for scientists and, more recently, tourists. Both focus on wild nature. Life is driven to extremes; these extremes can intensify an ethic. Antarctica as common heritage transforms into wilderness, sanctuary, wonderland. An appropriate ethics for the seventh continent differs radically from that for the other six.