On Wednesday 19 June, CONCEPT is delighted to be hosting a seminar inviting Professor Stephen M. Gardiner (University of Washington) to deliver a talk entitled 'The Peculiar Ethics of Climate Engineering'.
This will take place in B63, Law and Social Sciences Building between 6.30pm and 8.30pm, with a drinks reception to follow - and is free for all to attend!
If you have any questions regarding the event, please contact Saul Crombie.
Abstract:
As efforts to address global climate change directly, through sharp reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, continue to stall, some scientists argue that we must prepare for grand technological interventions into the climate system (‘geoengineering’), including by commencing small-scale field testing. Geoengineering raises a large number of ethical issues (e.g., concerns about welfare, rights, justice, and political legitimacy). However, early policy framings often marginalize such issues, and so avoid important questions of justification. Since it is widely held that climate engineering has become a serious option mainly because of political inertia, there are also important contextual issues, especially around the paradoxical question, “What should we do, ethically speaking, given that we have not done, and will continue not to do, what we should be doing?”