toward teaching environmental ethics: exploring problems in the language of evolving social values

abstract

i explore the problems created by the natural and social science approaches to values in higher education, arguing that over time they will render moral language unintelligible. i illustrate these problems with an examination of the value implications of the yukon wolf conservation and management plan. i suggest a way in which value education at the primary and secondary school levels could help prepare adults of the future for a kind of policy making that promotes the values stipulated in environmental law. i use the concept of environmental citizenship pioneered by environment canada coupled with training in traditional values in the context of a variety of fields in the arts, humanities, and the sciences.