1st Edition

Global Ethics on Climate Change The Planetary Crisis and Philosophical Alternatives

Edited By Martin Schonfeld Copyright 2013
    144 Pages
    by Routledge

    144 Pages
    by Routledge

    The volatility of climate change is increasing. It is bad news, and many climatologists, policy analysts and environmental groups regard the West as the largest contributor to the problems caused by climate change. This book raises questions concerning the systemic and cultural reasons for Western countries’ unwillingness to bear full responsibility for their carbon emissions. Is the Western paradigm failing? Can other cultures offer solutions? Are there alternatives for designing a better future?

    Just as the roots of the problem of climate change are cultural, the solution must be too. The contributors to Global Ethics on Climate Change explore cultural alternatives. This differs from conventional climate ethics, which tends to address the crisis with utilitarian, legalistic, and analytic tools. The authors in this volume doubt whether such paradigm patches will work. It may be time to think outside the box and consider non-Western insights about the good life, indigenous wisdom on being-in-the-world, and new ideas for civil evolution. This book is an examination of candidates for a Plan B.

    This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Global Ethics.

    1. Plan B: Global Ethics on Climate Change Martin Schönfeld, University of South Florida, USA 

    2. Climate and the American Maladaptation Mike Thompson, University of North Texas, USA

    3. Moral Progress and Canada’s Climate Failure Byron Williston, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada

    4. Climate Change and Philosophy in Latin America Ernesto O. Hernández, University of South Florida, USA

    5. Japan’s Early Philosophy of Climate Bruce B. Janz, University of Central Florida, USA

    6. Climate Change and the Ecological Intelligence of Confucius Shih-Yu Kuo, Academica Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

    7. A Daoist Response to Climate Change Chen Xia, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China & Martin Schönfeld Univ of South Florida

    8. Climate and the Consumption of Farmed Animal Products Jan Decker, University of Newcastle, UK

    9. African Philosophy and Climate Change Workineh Kelbessa, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia 

    10. Inuit Values and Arctic Perspectives on Climate Change Timothy Leduc, York University, Canada

    Biography

    Martin Schönfeld is a former Kant scholar and historian of the European Enlightenment.  He teaches at the University of South Florida and conducts philosophy workshops in Taiwan.  He organized the first international philosophy conference on climate (2006) and edits the Climate Philosophy Newsletter.  He writes on climate, the American Disenlightenment, and civil evolution.