Environmental ethics on Antarctic ice

Abstract

An environmental philosopher gets disoriented in Antarctica, an uninhabited continent, wilderness in deep freeze. Antarctica is peripheral to the main focus of environmental ethics, sustaining life on Earth. Yet Antarctica could set the pace for thinking about the common heritage of humankind. We must stay busy at work on the other six continents, but we ought to set this seventh continent aside. Don't nationalize it. Don't internationalize it. Naturalize it.