Unit name | Global Justice and Climate Change |
---|---|
Unit code | PHIL30120 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | H/6 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Dr. Blomfield |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
none |
Co-requisites |
none |
School/department | Department of Philosophy |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
What does climate change have to do with justice? In this unit we will look at various questions of justice that are raised by climate change, and examine how political philosophers have attempted to answer them. Topics to be considered will include responsibility for climate change, duties regarding future generations, the problem of distributing the burdens of climate change, individual and collective obligations, rights to natural resources, and the ethics of geoengineering. Looking at how theories of justice have been used to address a novel real-world problem, students will also consider whether this process of application can tell us anything about those theories.
Unit Aims:
On successful completion of this unit, students will:
One-hour weekly lectures, one-hour weekly seminars
Climate Ethics: Essential Readings. Edited by Stephen M. Gardiner, Simon Caney, Dale Jamieson, & Henry Shue. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Caney, Simon. 2006. ‘Cosmopolitan Justice, Rights and Global Climate Change’. Canadian Journal of Law & Jurisprudence 19 (2): 255-78.
Cripps, Elizabeth. 2013. Climate Change and the Moral Agent. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gardiner, Stephen. 2011. A Perfect Moral Storm: The Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press.