University of Maine professor of philosophy Mike Howard has a chapter in a new book entitled Ethics And Global Environmental Policy.
In November 2009, Mike gave a well-attended talk at the Memorial Union on the U Maine campus entitled Environmental Justice: Sharing the Burdens of Climate Change. Video of that talk has been available HERE.
In this post I am including from the archives an mp3 audio version of the talk and providing THIS LINK (.doc format) to Mike’s original text that was the basis for the talk & newly published chapter. Also, slides used in the talk are of this date still accessible HERE (pdf).
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Regardless of the cause the one point that most people miss when talking about climate is that we have to be prepared for change. It is pure human fantasy to assume that the Earth today is some sort of steady state system that is supposed to remain exactly as it is. Ocean levels will change and coastlines along with it. Rain belts will shift (North Africa used to be the bread basket of the Roman Empire before the Sahara ate it) and glaciers will flow and retreat. Nearly all the ideas in the climate debate are built on the false supposition that the climate that supports the current geopolitical state is the norm. Let’s quit trying to find someone to blame and figure out how to deal with change that will come regardless of whose fault it is.
Mike’s talk and book chapter are about the ethics of responding (being “prepared”) for climate change. The statement “Nearly all the ideas in the climate debate are built on the false supposition that the climate that supports the current geopolitical state is the norm” seems to me to be false itself.