Leopold and Callicott claim, that environmental ethics should have no direct moral concern for any individual constituent of the biotic community

Anthropocentric vs Non-Anthropocentric Environmental Ethics

The fundamental issue in environmental ethics is whether there can be a non-anthropocentric environmental ethic -- that is a basis for right and wrong action concerning the environment which is not grounded solely in human concerns. This is the issue of the theoretical foundations of environmental ethics. Obviously, the main dispute is between those who claim that ethics can only ever have an anthropocentric basis (though many go on to claim that this will be sufficient for taking account of our environmental concerns), and those who claim that not only can there be, but there must be,...