Clare Alexandra Palmer

This paper explores the idea of 'respect for nature' in the Earth Charter. It maintains that the Earth Charter proposes a broadly holistic environmental ethic where, in situations of conflict, species are given ethical priority over the lives of individual sentient organisms. The paper considers policy implications of this perspective, looking by means of example at the current European environmental policy dispute about the ruddy and white-headed duck. Questions about the value of species and biological diversity this raises are explored. The paper concludes that the principle of valuing individual animal lives should be given more prominence in Earth Charter principles.

It is widely argued that companion cats should be confined indoors for their own good. In the United States, the majority of cats are routinely confined. This chapter examines the grounds for the argument that confinement is best for cats, considering different concepts of cat welfare, and how what we know about the lives of indoor-only and free-roaming outdoor cats intersects with these different ideas of welfare. The authors argue that although there may be particular cases where confinement is good for cats, it is not clear that routine confinement is in their interests. From a broader ethical perspective, when concerns about wildlife and human interests are taken into account, there may be more cases where cat confinement is ethically justifiable. However, this still would not support the routine confinement of all companion cats.