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Research into the best forms of conservation management or climate intervention is critically important, but carries its own risks of impacts. Unless research requires a legal permit, evaluation of whether the benefits of such research outweigh risks is left to research ethics processes. We ask whether the ethics processes governing outdoor research in Australia ensure that potential environmental impacts are addressed adequately. We examine how environmental considerations are incorporated into Australia's research ethics governance framework 25 years after the Australian Science, Technology and Engineering Council issued national guidelines for the ethical conduct of environmental research. These guidelines have not been incorporated into national research ethics frameworks or institutional processes. Current ethics codes apply only partially to environmental research and no research institution has developed its own processes or body for considering the environmental impacts of research. The national guidelines are partially reflected in protected area permitting requirements, but these lack explicit mechanisms for ethical deliberation. We conclude that the national guidelines remain relevant today. We stop short of recommending new formal ethics requirements, but encourage researchers and research institutions to consider how the deliberative procedures and substantive principles reflected in the ASTEC Guidelines might be relevant to their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many long-enduring coastal cultures, there are stories – sometimes mythologized – about times when pieces of land became separated from mainlands by submergence, a process that created islands where none existed before. Using examples from northwest Europe and Australia, this paper argues that many such stories recall times, often millennia ago, when sea level in the aftermath of the Last Glaciation (last ice age) was rising and transforming coastal landscapes and their human uses in exactly the ways these stories describe. The possibility that these may have arisen from eyewitness accounts of these transformative processes, hitherto thought to be understandable only by scientific (palaeoenvironmental) reconstructions, should encourage more systematic investigations of such stories by scientists. It also suggests that science has traditionally underestimated the capacity of oral (pre-literate) cultures to acquire, encode and sustain their observations of memorable events with a high degree of replication fidelity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban planning plays a crucial role in rethinking the relationships between cities and ecosystems. Environmental ethics can provide a framework for rethinking these relationships. However, the integration of urban planning and environmental ethics in the literature has not been extensive. Their integration is crucial because city planning is influenced by the ethical perspectives of decision-makers. This article uses a case study methodology to explore whether and how environmental ethics informs urban planning. Urban planners from four Australian councils were interviewed. Thematic analysis of these in-depth interviews as well as of relevant planning documents for each council was conducted. The article focuses on the key finding that the perceptions of urban planners and planning processes were mainly driven by an anthropocentric rather than a non-anthropocentric environmental ethic. The article concludes by offering recommendations and a guide as to how these topics can be researched in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article takes up Agozino's call for love. Yet this call is not a straightforward one. In response, I press for an appreciation of love which avoids collapsing love into 'protection', engaging instead with the Aboriginal World View described by Kombumerri and Wakka Wakka woman and scholar, Mary Graham, as a form of conduct, reflection and a practice in listening. Through two quite distinct stories offered by young people in their encounters with Australia's criminal justice system, I explore the ethics of listening and respectful relations in social and institutional settings. While the first story reveals the denial of colonial violence accompanying protectionist policies for the 'care' of Indigenous communities, the second story shows how such patterns of denial underpin western 'justice' systems, including for settler peoples. Responding to Agozino's call requires that we examine the ethical act of listening and reflect on the repercussions of the failure to listen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I discuss a number of ethical issues surrounding the USA-commissioned Belmont report (NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN SUBJECTS OF BIOMEDICAL AND BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH, 1979), using as one of the spurs for my discussion a case of post qualitative research with ten (Black) children aged 14-15 in a school in South Africa. I asked the children to form groups to reflect together on the possible relevance for South Africa of certain scenarios in relation to climate change that had been constructed during research in Australia. The "scenario exercise" was intended to stimulate the participants' active learning together in relation to their engagement with the scenarios. It was also intended to be consciously "performative" in that the words used in the presented scenarios would admittedly have some impact on the children's (joint) considerations, for which I took some responsibility. With reference to this research, and at the same time engaging with ongoing ethical debates related to the purpose of social scientific inquiry, I offer ethical deliberations which entail a radical revision of the ethical guidelines of the Belmont report (which inform many institutional ethical review boards across the globe) to incorporate a performative understanding of social research. While I concentrate on addressing ethical issues concerning research interaction with children/young people, I suggest that my deliberations have implications for participatory research with adults too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Murray-Darling Basin, in southeastern Australia, comprises 14 per cent of Australia's geography. This paper examines some of the historical and contemporary discourses that have been deployed in the last 120 years in managing the complex challenges of the Basin. Differently to prior Indigenous practices, prevailing environmental discourses in this period have highlighted the disconnect between humans and their environment. Whilst Ecologically Sustainable Development underpins the objects of the Water Act 2007 (Cth), it is evident that, in fact, it is an economic rationalism discourse that has been deployed to regulate environmental outcomes through the marketisation of water rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Businesses within the tourism sector are increasingly engaging in innovative practices and measures to not only sustain growth, but also in response to the changing scale and nature of global environmental change. For some businesses, this has included the development and adoption of eco-innovations. While the tourism literature has considered the issue of business sustainability more broadly, the notion of eco-innovations represents a new area of inquiry with studies yet to fully investigate the adoption of eco-innovations amongst tourism businesses. Given this gap, this study utilises diffusion of innovations theory to explore the diffusion and adoption of eco-innovations by Australian ecotourism businesses, specifically focusing on the role of opinion leaders and change agents in influencing adoption decisions. In-depth interviews were conducted with 17 ecotourism businesses to explore the diffusion process and identify key actors influencing eco-innovation diffusion and adoption. Although the social system is a key aspect of diffusion theory, it was found that the social system plays less of a role with knowledge awareness and persuasion to adopt eco-innovations more likely to be derived from an individual’s internal drivers and environmental ethics, as opposed to external drivers such as opinion leaders and change agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marked by a profound awareness of the gravity of the environmental crisis, Archbishop Stylianos (Harkianakis) of Australia, already in 1990, published an important article on the Orthodox Christian vision on creation and the environment in an article, titled: 'The Sacredness of Creation.' This paper will explore some of the principal teachings of Harkianakis 'creation theology with a view towards highlighting some important insights for Orthodoxy's engagement with environmental ethics. More specifically, this paper will highlight the Archbishop's emphasis on the need for human beings to become partakers/communicants - and not consumers - of the world, namely, its gentle carers, so as to bring the entire created realm into God's final kingdom. In so doing, the paper hopes to bring to the fore that Archbishop's theology of creation merits the ongoing attention of those who are genuinely interested in the right use and ultimate transfiguration of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efforts to promote corporate environmental responsibility (CER) require an understanding of stakeholder attitudes towards enhanced accountability. However, little is known about current attitudes on this subject. This study presents a survey of the attitudes of corporate managers across Australia and India towards 16 key contemporary environmental responsibility issues. The study sought to explore whether respondents from these countries, characterised by differing levels of development, differ in their attitudes towards environmental responsibility (ER). The findings indicate that Indian respondents were stronger in their support, and identified a select few issues to be more important over other environmental factors. Although Australian respondents moderately supported most of the environmental issues, they were not prominent in supporting most environmental issues under question. Results indicated overall positive attitudes towards ER by both the groups of respondents. Significant differences did exist between the 318 respondents on 8 of the 16 questions. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed three distinct environmental factors for Australian respondents and four environmental factors for Indian respondents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethics deals with moral behavior in a professional context; ideally, it leads to a set of governing principles through which the appropriateness of any activity may be determined or assessed. Environmental ethics specifically deals with how humans interact with the biosphere. It is clear, however, that, as a species, we are failing in our duty of environmental stewardship. The encroachment of human activity into the natural environment is inexorable, and almost always deleterious. Any response to mitigate loss of taxa or ecosystems will have economic implications, and these are often considerable. In finding effective solutions, a process soon becomes political. In light of this we must reflect upon the leadership role that biologists have, especially our impact on policy development that pertains to natural resource management. Although our track record is no worse than any other professional group, biologists by way of training usually have a greater understanding of natural processes and must be prepared to articulate these publically. We have an ethical mandate to question decisions, policies and legislation that impact negatively upon biological systems: a mandate guided through logic, grounded in empirical science, and hopefully coupled with a deep understanding of the true value of both the living world and the physical world which sustains it. This paper uses Australian examples to demonstrate the frequent clashes between economics and biology, in anticipation that we should strive to achieve the underlying principles of sustainability, environmental stewardship and resource management in both daily decision-making and in long-term planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the driest inhabited continent, Australia faces pressing issues of water quality and quantity. A recent decade of drought has heightened interest. We surveyed a community on the Hawkesbury-Nepean floodplain, the river that provides most of Sydney's potable water. The survey targeted respondents' perceptions of the source of water in local wetlands, causes of water pollution, their willingness to undertake environmental action to improve water quality, and their preferred source of information to inform remedial action. Residents considered that the environmental health of the local waterways was important, and they stated that they were willing to change their habits for environmental improvement. We observed that the first step to environmental stewardship was widespread (although strongest in women) but understanding of issues and the reality of moving from rhetoric to action was less well developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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While environmental legislation in Australia regulates tourism development, it is less effective in operational areas because of the dependency of tourism on environmental resources that are not managed by operators, and the small but incremental nature of operational impacts. The absence of functional environmental standards for tourism means that little guidance exists: a problem compounded by variability in the diversity of operation types and receiving environments, as well as the accessibility of information by a non-technical audience. While legislation and economic considerations may provide impetus to adopt environmental practices, it is proposed that an environmental philosophy is necessary for tourism businesses to seek out and maintain alternative sustainable modes of operation. Review of the environmental audit process used by a Queensland resort suggests commitment to continual improvement in environmental performance is attributable to individual and corporate ethics. While the case is an ecotourism operation, the literature indicates that these factors have relevance to tourism generally. Although client satisfaction and return on investment objectives are constraints, environmental auditing can provide impetus for practical expression of environmental objectives. Facilitation of ethically-motivated voluntary action may be more effective in achieving tourism's environmental objectives than codifying standards in static legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on issues related to science and ethics in Australia. Considerations of environmental ethics; Focus on animal management practices; Implications of environmental ethics issue for science education.

In this article, we explore generally the extent to which. individuals apply values and ethical principles in a consistent way across different environmental ethical issues. In the first study, it was shown that the context in which one's values are assessed is important. Specifically, values assessed in the typical abstract way, as guiding principles in one's life, showed a different pattern of association with factors of environmental dilemmas than did values assessed with regard to their use as guiding principles for the environment. In the second study, respondents, who were experienced in making water allocation decisions, were asked to rank the importance of 16 ethical considerations as they applied to five different, current water allocation problems in Australia. The results showed that the importance ratings of the ethical considerations were similar for all the water allocation case studies. The results were discussed in terms of the effects of context on values/ethical criteria and environmental dilemmas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, exploratory approach to the development of an environmental accountability framework for application in the Australian Commonwealth public sector three interrelated strands of literature are examined. First, the notion of accountability is considered and the key institutional "stakeholders" in the Commonwealth public sector are identified; second, literature related to recent transformations in the public sector is synthesized; and third, the burgeoning literature on environmental accounting and reporting is reviewed and linked to the concept of environmental accountability. In the process of developing the characteristics of an environmental accountability system for the Commonwealth public sector, the article draws on this literature and explores the interrelationships between three characteristics of environmental performance at the federal level in the Australian public sector. The aim of the "environmental performance accountability framework" is for the various stakeholders to understand the actions of Commonwealth public sector organizations, and consequences of those actions, for ecological systems; to become familiar with the trends and changes in trends in public sector environmental performance; and to place stakeholders in a position to promote change when performance is not acceptable.

Background: Authors of various backgrounds are preoccupied with the meaning of environmental ethics, which refers to specific values, norms, attitudes, and practices with respect to all beings and elements of nature. Many international organizations have adopted important documents proclaiming the ethical obligation to protect the environment in all professional activities. At the national level, professional associations should include and develop this obligation in their codes of conduct. This study aimed to analyze and compare elements of environmental protection included in codes of conduct for pharmacists, to find ways to integrate environmental ethics into their activities., Methods: Seven codes of conduct for pharmacists were analyzed using the comparative method and methods of legal interpretation. Based on acknowledged values and principles of environmental ethics, a framework model for developing environmental protection in pharmacists' activities was created via an iterative process of reflection and discussion., Results: Explicit provisions for environmental ethics were found in codes in force in three countries and in a Romanian project. These provisions refer, in general, to an ethical duty of environmental protection in pharmacists' activities. Regarding the other codes, the study could only interpret stipulations of public health ethics to deduce an ethical environmental obligation. Considering the need for developing such provisions, an ethical framework was proposed as a model for professional associations of pharmacists., Conclusions: The studied codes demonstrate a preoccupation of the professional associations with environmental protection in pharmacists' activities, with different degrees of interest in developing environmental ethics. To this end, the codes of conduct for pharmacists should include environmental values, principles, and ethics guidelines. Those guidelines should indicate the ethical attitude in relation to the environment for each activity. Further research is needed to stimulate, shape, and develop an environmental ethical behavior in pharmacists' practice.