This article introduces an intuitive conservation dilemma called the Canyon Dilemma: Is it possible to condemn the mining of the Grand Canyon, even by a poor generation, while also permitting this generation’s mining of an unremarkable small canyon? It then argues that not one of several prominent theories of environmental justice, including various forms of egalitarianism, welfarism, deep-ecological theories, communitarianism and free-market environmentalism, can navigate this dilemma. The article concludes by highlighting the dilemma-navigating potential of the equal-claims idea – the idea that the natural world is something to which every human being, present and future, has an equal, substantive claim.

本文介绍了一个直观的保护困境，称为峡谷困境：是否有可能谴责大峡谷的开采，即使是贫穷的一代，同时也允许这一代人开采一个不起眼的小峡谷？然后，它论证了几种著名的环境正义理论，包括各种形式的平等主义、福利主义、深层生态理论、社群主义和自由市场环境主义，都无法解决这一难题。文章最后强调了平等主张理念的困境导航潜力——即自然世界是现在和未来的每个人都拥有平等、实质性主张的东西。