Ethical Adaptation to Climate Change: Human Virtues of the Future
360
Ethical Adaptation to Climate Change: Human Virtues of the Future
360eBook
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Overview
Predictions about global climate change have produced both stark scenarios of environmental catastrophe and purportedly pragmatic ideas about adaptation. This book takes a different perspective, exploring the idea that the challenge of adapting to global climate change is fundamentally an ethical one, that it is not simply a matter of adapting our infrastructures and economies to mitigate damage but rather of adapting ourselves to realities of a new global climate. The challenge is to restore our conception of humanity—to understand human flourishing in new ways—in an age in which humanity shapes the basic conditions of the global environment. In the face of what we have unintentionally done to Earth's ecology, who shall we become?
The contributors examine ways that new realities will require us to revisit and adjust the practice of ecological restoration; the place of ecology in our conception of justice; the form and substance of traditional virtues and vices; and the organizations, scale, and underlying metaphors of important institutions. Topics discussed include historical fidelity in ecological restoration; the application of capability theory to ecology; the questionable ethics of geoengineering; and the cognitive transformation required if we are to “think like a planet.”
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780262300780 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | MIT Press |
| Publication date: | 03/09/2012 |
| Series: | The MIT Press |
| Sold by: | Penguin Random House Publisher Services |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 360 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
Jeremy Bendik-Keymer is Elmer G. Beamer-Hubert H. Schneider Professor in Ethics and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Case Western Reserve University. He is the author of The Ecological Life: Discovering Citizenship and a Sense of Humanity.
Ronald Sandler is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Northeastern University.
Eric Higgs is Director of the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria, Canada. He is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Society for Ecological Restoration.
Andrew Light is Director of the Center for Global Ethics at George Mason University and Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.
Dale Jamieson is Director of Environmental Studies, Professor of Environmental Studies and Philosophy, and Affiliated Professor of Law at New York University.
Allen Thompson is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Oregon State University.
Jeremy Bendik-Keymer is Elmer G. Beamer-Hubert H. Schneider Professor in Ethics and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Case Western Reserve University. He is the author of The Ecological Life: Discovering Citizenship and a Sense of Humanity.
Steven Vogel is Professor of Philosophy at Denison University and the author of Against Nature: The Concept of Nature in Critical Theory.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Adapting Humanity Allen Thompson Jeremy Bendik-Keymer 1
I Adapting Restoration to Climate Change 25
1 Nature Restoration as a Paradigm for the Human Relationship with Nature Ned Hettinger 27
2 Environmental Virtues and the Aims of Restoration William M. Throop 47
3 Global Warming and Virtues of Ecological Restoration Ronald Sandler 63
4 History, Novelty, and Virtue in Ecological Restoration Eric Higgs 81
II Integrating Ecology into the Virtue of Justice 103
5 The Death of Restoration? Andrew Light 105
6 Animal Flourishing and Capabilities in an Era of Global Change Jozef Keulartz Jac. A. A. Swart 123
7 Environment as Meta-capability: Why a Dignified Human Life Requires a Stable Climate System Breena Holland 145
8 Justice, Ecological Integrity, and Climate Change David Schlosberg 165
III Adjusting Character to a Changing Environment 185
9 Ethics, Public Policy, and Global Warming Dale Jamieson 187
10 The Virtue of Responsibility for the Global Climate Allen Thompson 203
11 Rethinking Greed Jason Kawall 223
12 Are We the Scum of the Earth? Climate Change, Geoengineering, and Humanity's Challenge Stephen M. Gardiner 241
IV Reorganizing Institutions to Enable Human Virtue 261
13 The Sixth Mass Extinction Is Caused by Us Jeremy Bendik-Keymer 263
14 Human Values and Institutional Responses to Climate Change Kenneth Shockley 281
15 Alienation and the Commons Steven Vogel 299
16 Thinking like a Planet Paul D. Hirsch Bryan G. Norton 317
About the Contributors 335
Index 337
What People are Saying About This
Any thought that adaptation means somehow 'giving in' to climate change is banished by this book. The stellar cast assembled here takes us beyond mere coping strategies to a full-blown account of human flourishing. Here, the insights of ecology and the demands of justice are bound together by the increasingly influential idea of virtue, and the grounding of all this in institutional redesign makes this one of the most original climate change books of recent times.
Adapt or perish! This is the best of the anthologies arguing that humans ought to adapt to climate change, which they can no longer entirely prevent. At best they can only partially restore what has already been lost. There is sad truth: biodiversity that cannot adapt, or be adapted, is in jeopardy. But here is good news: a vision of human flourishing in a brave new world.
Adapt or perish! This is the best of the anthologies arguing that humans ought to adapt to climate change, which they can no longer entirely prevent. At best they can only partially restore what has already been lost. There is sad truth: biodiversity that cannot adapt, or be adapted, is in jeopardy. But here is good news: a vision of human flourishing in a brave new world.
—Holmes Rolston, III, University Distinguished Professor and Professor of Philosophy, Colorado State University
Any thought that adaptation means somehow 'giving in' to climate change is banished by this book. The stellar cast assembled here takes us beyond mere coping strategies to a full-blown account of human flourishing. Here, the insights of ecology and the demands of justice are bound together by the increasingly influential idea of virtue, and the grounding of all this in institutional redesign makes this one of the most original climate change books of recent times.
—Andrew Dobson, Professor of Politics, Keele University, UKDrawing on work that ranges from the best resources of classical philosophy to the latest environmental science, this book argues that we need to rethink our sense of ourselves and our characters to take account of the institutional and global nature of the problems to be addressed. The result is not only an original and thought-provoking volume, but a hopeful and realistic blueprint for environmental action.
—Susan Neiman, Director, Einstein ForumAdapt or perish! This is the best of the anthologies arguing that humans ought to adapt to climate change, which they can no longer entirely prevent. At best they can only partially restore what has already been lost. There is sad truth: biodiversity that cannot adapt, or be adapted, is in jeopardy. But here is good news: a vision of human flourishing in a brave new world.
—Holmes Rolston, III, University Distinguished Professor and Professor of Philosophy, Colorado State UniversityDrawing on work that ranges from the best resources of classical philosophy to the latest environmental science, this book argues that we need to rethink our sense of ourselves and our characters to take account of the institutional and global nature of the problems to be addressed. The result is not only an original and thought-provoking volume, but a hopeful and realistic blueprint for environmental action.