Philosophy and Climate Change

Climate change is poised to threaten, disrupt, and transform human life, and the social, economic, and political institutions that structure it. Philosophy and Climate Change argues that understanding climate change, and discussing how to address it, should be at the very center of our public conversation. It shows that philosophy can make an enormous contribution to that conversation, but only if both philosophers and non-philosophers understand what it can contribute. The sixteen original articles collected in this volume both illustrate the diverse ways that philosophy can contribute to this conversation, and ways in which thinking about climate change can help to illuminate a range of topics of independent interest to philosophers.

Mark Budolfson, Rutgers University,Tristram McPherson, Ohio State University,David Plunkett, Dartmouth College

Mark Budolfson is Assistant Professor in the Center for Population-Level Bioethics and Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at Rutgers University.


Tristram McPherson is Professor of Philosophy at the Ohio State University.


David Plunkett is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Dartmouth College.

List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Contributors
Abstracts for Chapters
Introduction
Section I. Valuing Climate Change Impacts
1. A Convenient Truth? Climate Change and Quality of Life, Peter Railton
2. Animals and Climate Change, Jeff Sebo
3. Discounting under Risk: Utilitarianism vs. Prioritarianism, Maddalena Ferranna
4. A Philosopher's Guide to Discounting, Kian Mintz-Woo
5. Climate Change Policy Depend Importantly On Population Ethics? Deflationary Responses to the Challenges of Population Ethics for Public Policy, Gustaf Arrhenius, Mark Budolfson, and Dean Spears
Section II. Cognition, Emotions, and Climate Change
6. Way to Go, Me, Chrisoula Andreou
7. The Wages of Fear? Toward Fearing Well About Climate Change, Alison McQueen
8. Climate Change and Cultural Cognition, Dan Greco
Section III. Climate Change and Individual Ethics
9. Climate Change and Individual Obligations: A Dilemma for the Expected Utility Approach, and the Need for an Imperfect View, Julia Nefsky
10. The Puzzle of Inefficacy, Tristram McPherson
11. On individual and shared obligations: in defense of the activist's perspective, Gunnar Bj?rnsson
12. What Harm Does Each of Us Do?, John Broome
Section IV. Climate Change and Politics
13. How Quickly Should the World Reduce Its Greenhouse Gas Emissions? Welfare Economics, the Non-Identity Problem, and the Structure of Intergenerational Justice, Lucas Stanczyk
14. Political Realism, Feasibility Wedges, and Opportunities for Collective Action on Climate Change, Mark Budolfson
15. Pareto Improvements and Feasible Climate Solutions, Katie Steele
16. Climate Change, Liberalism, and the Public/Private Distinction, Dale Jamieson and Marcello Di Paola
Index