Buddhist Ecological Protection of Space

Daniel Capper

doi:10.5771/9781666922417

Summary

This seminal monograph provides the essential guidance that we need to act as responsible ecological citizens while we expand our reach beyond Earth. The emergence of numerous national space programs along with several potent commercial presences prompts our attention to urgent environmental issues like what to do with the large mass of debris that orbits Earth, potential best practices for mining our moon, how to appropriately search for microscopic life, or whether to alter the ecology of Mars to suit humans better. This book not only examines the science and morals behind these potential ecological pitfall scenarios beyond Earth, it also provides groundbreaking policy responses founded upon ethics. These effective solutions come from a critical reframing for scientific settings of the unique moral voices of diverse Buddhists from the American ethnographic field, who together delineate sophisticated yet practical values for traveling through our solar system. Along the way, Buddhists fascinatingly supply robust environmental lessons for Earth, too. As much a work of astrobiology as it is one of religious studies, this book should appeal to anyone who is interested in space travel, our human environment in large scale, or spiritual ecology.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2022
ISBN-Print: 978-1-6669-2240-0
ISBN-Online: 978-1-6669-2241-7
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 156
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. Foreword No access
3. Acknowledgments No access
1. Environmental Tensions in Our Solar System No access
2. The Environmental Nonseparation of Earth and Space No access
3. The Meaning of Environmental Justice No access
4. A Buddhist Approach No access
5. Buddhist Ethics in Context No access
6. Buddhism and Science No access
7. Secularized Space Ethical Contributions No access
8. American Buddhist Studies in Context No access
9. Plan of the Book No access
10. Conclusion No access
1. Orbiting Junkyard No access
2. Leave Heritage Alone No access
3. Environmental Justice Challenges No access
4. American Buddhist Requests for Responsibility No access
5. Interconnection and Nonharm No access
6. Some Space Debris Policies No access
7. Conclusion No access
1. Erasing the Person in the Moon with Mining No access
2. Preserving History and Culture No access
3. Space Age Culture No access
4. Buddhist Nature Reserves No access
5. Aldo Leopold’s Baseline Ecologies No access
6. Multizoned for Many Uses No access
7. Far Side Reserves No access
8. A Vertical Axis Sparks South Pole Mining No access
9. Spectacular Natural Spots Threatened No access
10. Impetus from American Buddhists No access
11. Mining with Limits No access
12. Space Policies for the Moon’s Peculiar Virtues No access
13. Conclusion No access
1. Searching for Solar System Life No access
2. Justice for Mars No access
3. Scriptural Foundations No access
4. American Buddhist Bioethics No access
5. Collecting for Science No access
6. A Tripartite Ethic for Finding Life No access
7. Conclusion No access
1. Renovating the Climate of Mars No access
2. On Not Renovating Ecologies No access
3. Some Buddhist Textual Resources on Renovating Mars’s Ecology No access
4. Innovative Voices from the Field No access
5. Lessons for Earth from Mars No access
6. Conclusion No access
1. Ethical Contributions No access
2. Religion and Science No access
1. 1. Buddhism and Space Exploration No access
Appendix B No access Pages 113 - 116
1. Preface No access
2. Introduction No access
3. Chapter 1 No access
4. Chapter 2 No access
5. Chapter 3 No access
6. Chapter 4 No access
7. Conclusion No access
8. Appendix A No access
Bibliography No access Pages 135 - 148
Index No access Pages 149 - 154
About the Author No access Pages 155 - 156