Welcome to the Anthropocene video

Although it’s a couple of years old, this video, made by Owen Gaffney at the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), about climate and environmental change is still very relevant – take a look. “Welcome to the Anthropocene” is a film about the state of the planet, which opened the UN’s Rio+20 summit on sustainable development in June …

Harm and Climate Change, Part II

Some of the people affected by climate change (see the IPCC report) are yet to be born. These people will not first experience a planet and way of life unaffected by climate change, only to see that verdant utopia snatched away. Rather, they will only ever experience a degraded planet and way of life. In …

Harm and Climate Change, Part 1

The recent report about atmospheric C02 levels reaching the symbolic level of 400 parts per million calls attention to some of the issues dealt with in the Philosophy Department’s Environmental Ethics module. Suppose you are engaged in an activity that causes significant harm to others. It forces them out of their homes, raises the cost …