An Ethics of Connection: Social-nature in Canada's Boreal Forest

Baldwin, W.A.

doi:10.1080/1366879042000332970

An Ethics of Connection: Social-nature in Canada's Boreal Forest

Baldwin, W.A.

Authors

Professor Andrew Baldwin w.a.baldwin@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

Much has been made in recent years concerning the ecological significance of the global boreal forest. In Canada, a highly coordinated political campaign is under way to halt the industrial pressures—mining, forestry, energy development—that threaten to undermine the ecological contributions made by the Canadian boreal forest. In this short commentary, however, it is argued that the current politicization of the boreal forest cannot be thought of solely as an innocent act of environmental protection, but must also be thought of in terms of the colonial context from which its geography first emerged. Doing so raises problems for a conventional environmental subjectivity based on a sharp distinction between nature and culture. The author seeks to address this tension by advocating an environmental ethics that is based on a responsibility for the other.

Citation

Baldwin, W. (2004). An Ethics of Connection: Social-nature in Canada's Boreal Forest. Ethics, place & environment, 7(3), 185-194. https://doi.org/10.1080/1366879042000332970

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Jan 1, 2004
Deposit Date	Feb 12, 2010
Journal	Ethics, Place and Environment
Print ISSN	1366-879X
Electronic ISSN	1469-6703
Publisher	Routledge
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	7
Issue	3
Pages	185-194
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1080/1366879042000332970