Conservation and the Common Good

From the moral foundations of the previous chapter we may now consider first, whether conservation may be regarded as a moral question; and if it is, second, if it may be justified as part of the common good. The plan is first to explain the meaning of conservation; second to explore the kind of well-being or quality of life of particular relevance to conservation; third, to examine and expose some of the loose applications of morality to conservation which lack moral connections; fourth, to consider aspects of conservation which relate to distributive justice; fifth, in relation to conservation, to consider in turn the justification of a global morality, the moral responsibility of present generations to posterity and the morality of animal interests.