Western environmental ethics and the rights of nature. Contributions and limits for socio-environmental ethics in Latin America

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to contribute to the formulation of ethical-political perspectives that reconcile social equity criteria with the expansion of moral consideration for non-human living beings. This compromise has been difficult between Western environmental analysts and actors because they respond to theoretical and methodological perspectives that generally affirm forms of intrinsic value of nature without concern for social equity or, on the contrary, defend social rights based on premises that maintain anthropocentric roots. A brief presentation of various approaches in the field of environmental ethics and environmental justice is made, including the Latin American perspective on the rights of nature. The aim is to point out contributions and omissions for the above-mentioned debate. With this in mind, it is affirmed that a socio-environmental ethics that conciliates humans and not humans must be intercultural.