Reason in a Dark Time Why the Struggle Against Climate Change Failed -- and What It Means for Our Future

Dale Jamieson teaches Environmental Studies, Philosophy, and Law at New York University, and was formerly affiliated with the National Center for Atmospheric Research. He is the author of Ethics and the Environment: An Introduction, and Morality's Progress: Essays on Humans, Other Animals, and the Rest of Nature.

1. Introduction

2. The Nature of the Problem
2.1 The Development of Climate Science
2.2 Climate Change as a Public Issue
2.3 The Age of Climate Diplomacy
2.4 Concluding Remarks

3. Obstacles to Action
3.1 Scientific Ignorance
3.2 Politicizing Science
3.3 Facts and Values
3.4 The Science/Policy Interface
3.5 Organized Denial
3.6 Partisanship
3.7 Political Institutions
3.8 The Hardest Problem
3.9 Concluding Remarks

4. The Limits of Economics
4.1 Economics and Climate Change
4.2 The Stern Review and Its Critics
4.3 Discounting
4.4 Further Problems
4.5 State of the Discussion
4.6 Concluding Remarks

5. The Frontiers of Ethics
5.1 The Domain of Concern
5.2 Responsibility and Harm
5.3 Fault Liability
5.4 Human Rights and Domination
5.5 Differences That Matter
5.6 Revising Morality
5.7 Concluding Remarks

6. Living With Climate Change
6.1 Life in the Anthropocene
6.2 It Doesn't Matter What I Do
6.3 It's Not the Meat It's the Motion
6.4 Ethics for the Anthropocene
6.5 Respect For Nature
6.6 Global Justice
6.7 Concluding Remarks

7. Politics, Policy, and the Road Ahead
7.1 The Rectification of Names
7.2 Adaptation: The Neglected Option?
7.3 Why Abatement and Mitigation Still Matter
7.4 The Category Formerly Known as Geoengineering
7.5 The Way Forward
7.6 Concluding Remarks