philosophical dimensions of climate change (PDCC)
An Introduction to the Philosophical Dimensions of Climate Change (PDCC)
To date, the philosophy of climate change has centered on the ethics of climate change. This focus excludes the potential to address the metaphysical, epistemological, aesthetic, and theological implications of this environmental problem.
There has been work done on the politics of climate change, including the commentary of Andrew Dessler on his blog "Science and Politics of Global Climate Change" to Luterbacher and Sprinz's 2001 book, "International Relations and Global Climate Change" (MIT Press), however, little if any work has been done on the political philosophy of climate change.
Within ethics, the philosophical discussion has occurred primarily through the use of the language of justice. In an article on ClimateEthics.org, Donald Brown discusses de-ontological, eco- and bio-centric, and relationship ethics, his work principally uses justice ethics to critique utilitarian forms that focus exclusively on the use of cost-benefit analyses. Dale Jamieson has done some work on Aristotelian virtue ethics, but feminist critiques that expound the use of care ethics, for example, have not been integrated into the dialogue.
Within the exclusive focus on the justice framework, only one of the three theories of justice is referenced to address climate change. Predominantly, the discourse is in terms of distributive justice, though recognition and procedural justice are implicitly appealed to.
The Center for the Study of Interdisciplinarity aims to expand the philosophy of climate change by exploring the missed opportunities such an exclusive and restrictively narrow discourse provides.
People working in the field of PDCC
- Don Brown Donald Brown works primarily in the ethics as justice paradigm and critiques the utilitarianism of economic cost-benefit analyses approaches to the climate change.
- Steve Gardiner Steve Gardiner primarily focuses on intergenerational justice ethics and has a thorough paper on the precautionary principle. His personal page on the University of Washington website has links to many of his works.
- Dale Jamieson Dale Jamieson uses procedural justice, argues that "Utilitarians should adopt virtue ethics for the best utilitarian outcome, describes his latest book as defending a "thoroughgoing Darwinian naturalism, and argued that there is a no anthropocentric "significance in learning to live with nature."
- Roger Pielke Roger Pielke is scientist who tackles the interaction of scientists and policymakers and focuses on mitigation and adaptation strategies to mitigate climate change. He is a major contributor to the Prometheus blog, which explores science policy issues including climate change.
- Mickey Glantz Mickey Glantz is a scientist who raises the "social" as well as political issues surrounding climate change. He argues against climate change skeptics. His website, climate affairs identifies 5 areas of climate change discussions: climate science (variability, fluctuations, change, extremes and seasonality), climate impacts (on ecosystems and on societies ), climate policy and law (domestic and international), climate politics (how societies get their laws), and climate economics/climate ethics and equity (intergenerational equity, discounting the future, and environmental justice).
- Genevieve Maricle Genevieve Maricle works with the group Science Policy Assessment and Research on Climate (SPARC) which is part of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research. Their second strategic goal focuses on the politics of knowledge production and dispersion regarding climate change. Their research reads as follows, "As part of its NSF project, Science Policy Assessment and Research on Climate, the Center convened a workshop to compare and assess science policy decision making across the NOAA Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessment (RISA) programs. Center staff are developing tools for improving linkages between carbon cycle science and management decisions that may involve considerations of carbon cycle science, based on the relations between evolving scientific and technological opportunity, political reality, and demandside capability. The Climate Services Clearinghouse database includes information on thousands of climate services. The database allows users to locate a specific service, explore all services that meet a particular set of criteria (ie regional, weekly, prognostic, precipitation services), or browse all services through several categories."
- Nancy Tuana Nancy Tuana is director of the Rock Ethics Institute at Penn State which is working on the ethics of climate change. Its website offers an outstanding resource for the philosophical dimensions of climate change including links on every facet of the issue and an extensive bibliography.