University of Oxford
, The Queen's College
DPhil, 1993
College Station, Texas, United States
Areas of Specialization
Applied Ethics
Areas of Interest
Applied Ethics
Normative Ethics
  •  61
    Should we help wild animals suffering negative impacts from climate change?
    In Svenja Springer & Herwig Grimm (eds.), Professionals in food chains, Wageningen Academic Publishers. pp. 35-40. 2018.
    Should we help wild animals suffering negative impacts from anthropogenic climate change? It follows from diverse ethical positions that we should, although this idea troubles defenders of wildness value. One already existing climate threat to wild animals, especially in the Arctic, is the disruption of food chains. I take polar bears as my example here: Should we help starving polar bears? If so, how? A recent scientific paper suggests that as bears’ food access worsens due to a changing climat…Read more
  •  55
    Colonization, urbanization, and animals
    Philosophy and Geography 6 (1). 2003.
    Urbanization and development of green spaces is continuing worldwide. Such development frequently engulfs the habitats of native animals, with a variety of effects on their existence, location and ways of living. This paper attempts to theorize about some of these effects, drawing on aspects of Foucault's discussions of power and using a metaphor of human colonization, where colonization is understood as an "ongoing process of dispossession, negotiation, transformation, and resistance." It argue…Read more
  •  52
    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 b…Read more
  •  49
    Environmental Ethics and Process Thinking (edited book)
    Clarendon Press. 1998.
    In this study, Clare Palmer challenges the belief that the process thinking of writers like A.N. Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne has offered an unambiguously positive contribution to environmental ethics. She compares process ethics to a variety of other forms of environmental ethics, as well as deep ecology, and reveals a number of difficulties associated with process thinking about the environment.
  •  49
    Value Conflicts in Feral Cat Management: Trap-Neuter-Return or Trap-Euthanize
    In Michael C. Appleby, Daniel M. Weary & Peter Sandøe (eds.), Dilemmas in Animal Welfare, Cabi International. pp. 148-168. 2014.
    This chapter explores the key values at stake in feral cat management, focusing on the debate over whether to use trap-neuter-return or trap-euthanize as management tools for cat populations. The chapter provides empirical background on unowned cats, sketches widely used arguments in favour of reducing cat populations and considers how these arguments relate to important and widely held values including the value of lives, subjective experiences and species. The chapter promotes critical underst…Read more
  •  48
    Colonization, urbanization, and animals
    Philosophy and Geography 6 (1): 47-58. 2003.
    Urbanization and development of green spaces is continuing worldwide. Such development frequently engulfs the habitats of native animals, with a variety of effects on their existence, location and ways of living. This paper attempts to theorize about some of these effects, drawing on aspects of Foucault's discussions of power and using a metaphor of human colonization, where colonization is understood as an "ongoing process of dispossession, negotiation, transformation, and resistance." It argue…Read more
  •  47
    Should We Move the Whitebark Pine? Assisted Migration, Ethics and Global Environmental Change
    with Brendon M. H. Larson
    Environmental Values 23 (6): 641-662. 2014.
    Some species face extinction if they are unable to keep pace with climate change. Yet proposals to assist threatened species’ poleward or uphill migration (‘assisted migration’) have caused significant controversy among conservationists, not least because assisted migration seems to threaten some values, even as it protects others. To date, however, analysis of ethical and value questions about assisted migration has largely remained abstract, removed from the ultimately pragmatic decision about…Read more
  •  44
    Beyond Castration and Culling: Should We Use Non-surgical, Pharmacological Methods to Control the Sexual Behavior and Reproduction of Animals?
    with Hanne Gervi Pedersen and Peter Sandøe
    Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 31 (2): 197-218. 2018.
    This paper explores ethical issues raised by the application of non-surgical, pharmaceutical fertility control to manage reproductive behaviors in domesticated and wild animal species. We focus on methods that interfere with the effects of GnRH, making animals infertile and significantly suppressing sexual behavior in both sexes. The paper is anchored by considering ethical issues raised by four diverse cases: the use of pharmaceutical fertility control in male slaughter pigs, domesticated stall…Read more
  •  43
    Stewardship
    In Ian Ball, Margaret Goodall, Clare Palmer & John Reader (eds.), The Earth Beneath, Spck. pp. 67-87. 1992.
  •  38
    Response to “Vulnerability, Dependence, and Special Obligations to Domesticated Animals” by Elijah Weber
    Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 28 (4): 695-703. 2015.
    This paper responds to Elijah Weber’s “Vulnerability, Dependence, and Special Obligations to Domesticated Animals: A Reply to Palmer”. Weber’s paper develops significant objections to the account of special obligations I developed in my book Animal Ethics in Context, in particular concerning our obligations to companion animals. In this book, I made wide-ranging claims about how we may acquire special obligations to animals, including being a beneficiary of an institution that creates vulnerable…Read more
  •  38
    In his book Wild Animal Ethics, Kyle Johannsen argues that our duties of beneficence to help suffering wild animals require significant interventions into wild nature. In particular, he claims that the majority of wild animals lead miserable lives and that naturalness, or wildness, is not an intrinsically valuable property. In these comments, I question both these claims. First, I argue that a lot more evidence is needed than Johannsen provides to support the claim that most wild animal lives ar…Read more
  •  35
    Philosophical Dialogues (review)
    Environmental Ethics 24 (1): 103-104. 2002.
  •  33
    CLARE PALMER | : This paper argues that there is no simple rift between animal liberation and environmental ethics in terms of strategies for environmental conservation. The situation is much more complicated, with multiple fault lines that can divide both environmental ethicists from one another and animal ethicists from one another—but that can also create unexpected convergences between these two groups. First, the paper gives an account of the alleged rift between animal liberation and envir…Read more
  •  28
    Influential parts of the veterinary profession, and notably the American Veterinary Medicine Association, are promoting the routine neutering of cats and dogs that will not be used for breeding purposes. However, this view is not universally held, even among representatives of the veterinary profession. In particular, some veterinary associations in Europe defend the view that when reproduction is not an issue, then neutering, particularly of dogs, should be decided on a case-by-case basis. How…Read more
  •  26
    Que vient faire un article sur Foucault, le pouvoir et les relations entre l’homme et l’animal, dans une revue consacrée à des problématiques environnementales, a fortiori lorsque, en fait d’animaux, il est surtout question, comme on le verra, d’animaux domestiques? Une telle étude n’est-elle pas insuffisamment « environnementale »? Sans doute l’est-elle si, par « environnement », l’on entend quelque...
  •  25
    Encouraging Self-Reflection by Veterinary Clinicians: Ethics on the Clinic Floor
    with Sandra A. Corr and Peter Sandøe
    American Journal of Bioethics 18 (2): 55-57. 2018.
  •  24
    Some recent conservation proposals – including the Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) EDGE of Existence programme – have focused on the value of protecting species with high evolutionary distinctiveness, a dimension of biodiversity conservation that’s not been much emphasized in conservation practice. In this paper we critically examine this strategy, investigating whether there are good reasons for prioritizing evolutionarily distinctive species, and the phylogenetic diversity to which they c…Read more
  •  23
    Assisted Colonization is No Panacea, but Let's Not Discount it Either
    with Brendon M. H. Larson
    Ethics, Policy and Environment 16 (1): 16-18. 2013.
    Ronald Sandler's ‘Climate change and ecosystem management’ provides a fine summary of reasons to modify our approach to ecosystem management given ‘rapid and uncertain ecological change’. We...
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  •  19
    Landscape and Value in the work of Alfred Wainwright
    Landscape Research 32 (4): 397-421. 2007.
    Alfred Wainwright was arguably the best known British guidebook writer of the20th century, and his work has been highly influential in promoting and directing fell-walking in northern Britain, in particular in the English Lake District. His work has, however, received little critical attention. This paper represents an initial attempt to undertake such a study. We examine Wainwright’s work through the lens of the landscape values and aesthetics that, we suggest,underpins it, and by an exploration…Read more
  •  19
    Human Responsibility for Predation
    Food Ethics 9 (1): 1-9. 2023.
    In Just Fodder, Josh Milburn defends the view that sentient animals have negative rights. Since non-human animals are not moral agents, and can’t themselves violate anyone’s rights, wild predation is normally ethically unproblematic. However, Milburn argues, there are occasions when humans can become morally responsible for an animal’s predation. In cases like these, predation does violate the prey animal’s rights. The difficulty here lies in determining when a human is ‘sufficiently’ morally re…Read more
  •  18
    Can - and should - we make reparation to Nature?
    In William P. Kabasenche, Michael O'Rourke & Matther Slater (eds.), The Environment: Philosophy, Science, Ethics, Mit Press. pp. 201-222. 2012.
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  •  14
    Engineering the Climate: The Ethics of Solar Radiation Management (edited book)
    with Albert Borgmann, Holly Jean Buck, Wylie Carr, Forrest Clingerman, Maialen Galarraga, Benjamin Hale, Marion Hourdequin, Ashley Mercer, Konrad Ott, Ronald Sandler, Patrick Taylor Smith, Bronislaw Szerszynski, and Kyle Powys Whyte
    Lexington Books. 2012.
    Engineering the Climate: The Ethics of Solar Radiation Management is a wide-ranging and expert analysis of the ethics of the intentional management of solar radiation. This book will be a useful tool for policy-makers, a provocation for ethicists, and an eye-opening analysis for both the scientist and the general reader with interest in climate change
  •  12
    I explore how some aspects of Foucoult’s work on power can be applied to human/animal power relations. First, I argue that because animals behave as “beings that react” and can respond in different ways to human actions, in principle at least, Foucoult’s work can offer insights into human/animal power relations. However, many of these relations fall into the category of “domination,” in which animals are unable to respond. Second, I examine different kinds of human power practices, in particular…Read more