Ethics for Environmental Policy develops a set of life-centered decision principles and virtues, and provides guidance in using these principles in public policy decision-making and in the practices central to good planetary citizenship.

It begins with a review of how the relationship between humans and non-human nature has been conceived in various cultural traditions throughout the centuries, and examines elements of an attitudinal orientation grounded in four environmental virtues: respect, responsibility, humility, and gratitude. Subsequent chapters examine central issues in environmental and animal ethics, and how these issues have been framed by leading writers. Positions on the moral standing of future generations and of non-human biotic entities are taken up, with attention given to contemporary debates in conservation biology, public policy discussions centered on wildlife preservation, and the sustainable use of natural resources

The concluding chapter in Ethics for Environmental Policy articulates four environmental principles, together with a model for applying these principles in decision making. To facilitate use of the model in a classroom setting, an appendix provides a detailed case study, and questionnaires and forms for developing model inputs and evaluating computed policy-relevant indices.