Environmental Stewardship, Moral Psychology, and Gardens

Abstract

Vast and pervasive environmental problems such as climate change and bi-odiversity loss call every individual to active stewardship. Their magnitudeand causal and strategic structures, however, pose powerful challenges to our moral psychology. Stewardship may feel overburdening, and appear hopeless.This may lead to widespread moral and political disengagement. This article proposes a resolve to garden practices as a way out of that danger, and de-scribes the ways in which it will motivate individuals to so act as to coordinate on behavioural patterns that will signicantly alleviate grave, but seemingly distant and intractable environmental quandaries.