Perspectives on Environmental Values

Symposium Description | Agenda | Brochure (PDF)

The Symposium

What aspects of the natural world do people care about, and why? What are the values that people are trying to express, and how can we honor those values? To design wise and effective environmental policies that are supported by the public, we must broaden our approach to understanding what stakeholders actually value when they express their concerns for nature. Traditional valuations such as cost-benefit analyses related to human health effects are important; however, we must also incorporate qualitative and quantitative knowledge that reflects the values touched upon by any potential approach to protecting our environment.

The 2005 Symposium on Perspectives in Environmental Values was intended to deepen participants' understanding of the different ways that people value the natural world, and to stimulate creative thinking about how to factor these values into environmental policymaking. The symposium brought together a respected panel of experts in philosophy, economics, biology, ecology, anthropology and nature writing to share their diverse perspectives on environmental values.

Perspectives in Environmental Values sought to begin an ongoing, multidisciplinary conversation among researchers, policymakers and scholars at Carolina and at other Research Triangle Area organizations to deepen our collective understanding of how different stakeholders approach our natural environment and how to factor this knowledge into environmental policy decisions. This symposium should be of interest to researchers, policymakers and academics in any field related to the study or protection of the environment.

The 2005 Symposium on Perspectives in Environmental Values was held March 4-5, 2005 at the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence in Graham Memorial on the UNC campus in Chapel Hill.

Symposium Chair: Douglas MacLean - member, Carolina Environmental Faculty, UNC Professor of Philosophy, Director, UNC Parr Center for Ethics

Agenda

Friday, March 4
11:30 - 12:00 p.m.	Registration
12:00 - 1:00 p.m.	Box Lunches
1:00 - 1:10 p.m.	Symposium Opening and Welcome: Steve Allred, Executive Associate Provost, UNC-Chapel Hill Doug Crawford-Brown, Director, Carolina Environmental Program Doug MacLean, Director, Parr Center for Ethics
1:10 - 3:00 p.m.	Session 1: Kresge Commons Room William Stott, Research Associate Professor and Director, Albemarle Ecological Field Site, UNC-Chapel Hill, moderator Poet and essayist Alison Deming (Professor of English, University of Arizona) will read from her work, "Getting Beyond Elegy: Literature and Environmental Values" Scott Slovic, Professor of Literature and Environment and Head of the English Department's Graduate Program in Literature and Environment, University of Nevada, Reno - "Emotion, Narrative and Environmental Policy" (Abstract) (Handout)
3:00 - 3:15 p.m.	Afternoon break
3:15 - 4:45 p.m.	Session 2: Kresge Commons Room Mort Webster, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, UNC-Chapel Hill, moderator W. Michael Hanemann, Chancellor's Professor, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, University of California – Berkeley - "In Defense of Economic Valuation of the Natural Environment" (Presentation)
4:45 - 5:00 p.m.	Afternoon break
5:00 - 6:30 p.m.	Session 3: Kresge Commons Room Douglas J. Crawford-Brown, Professor of Environmental Sciences and Engineering and Public Policy, and Director, Carolina Environmental Program, moderator Joan E. Roughgarden, Professor of Biological Sciences and Geophysics, Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University - "Valuing Ecological Services and the Control of Nature" (Abstract)
6:45 p.m.	Dinner, Hyde Hall, UNC campus Introduction of Keynote Speaker: Susan Wolf, Edna J. Koury Professor of Philosophy, UNC-Chapel Hill; Dinner Keynote Address: Mark Sagoff, Senior Research Scholar, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland – College Park - "Why Locke Was Right: Nature Has No Economic Value" (Abstract) (Full Text)
Saturday, March 5
8:00 - 9:00 a.m.	Breakfast buffet
9:00 - 10:30 a.m.	Session 4: Kresge Commons Room H. Geoffrey Brennan, Nannerl O. Keohane Distinguished Visiting Professor at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University, moderator Lisa Heinzerling, Professor of Law, Georgetown University - "Lost in Translation: The Mismatch Between Values and Valuation in Environmental Policy" (Abstract) With comments by Kerry Smith, University Distinguished Professor, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, North Carolina State University
10:30 - 10:45	Morning break
10:45 - 12:15 p.m.	Session 5: Kresge Commons Room Pete Andrews, Thomas Willis Lambeth Distinguished Professor of Public Policy, UNC-Chapel Hill, moderator Paul Slovic, a founder and President of Decision Research - "Valuing Environmental Services: A Constructive Approach" (Abstract) (Presentation)
12:15 - 1:00 p.m.	Box Lunches
1:00 - 2:30 p.m.	Session 6: Kresge Commons Room Thomas E. Hill, Jr., Kenan Professor of Philosophy, UNC-Chapel Hill, moderator Doug MacLean, Professor of Philosophy, Director of Parr Center for Ethics and Chair of the 2005 UNC Environmental Symposium, UNC-Chapel Hill - "Values Don't Exist: How to Think About Things That Matter"
2:30 p.m.	Symposium closes