Handbook of the Philosophy of Climate Change

Gianfranco Pellegrino is an Associate Professor at the Political Science Department of LUISS Guido Carli University of Rome. He wrote on climate change, environmental ethics and political theory. He is one of the editors of Canned Heat, Ethics and Politics of Climate Change, Routledge, 2014. His main research interests are environmental ethics, political theory and history of philosophy. Marcello Di Paola is a researcher at the philosophy department of The University of Vienna, a research and teaching fellow at the departments of political science and business and management at Luiss University in Rome, and a Lecturer in environmental studies at Loyola University of Chicago Rome Center. He is the author of "Ethics and Politics of the Built Environment" (Springer 2017), One of the Editors of "Plant Ethics: Concepts and Applications" (Routledge 2018), and the author or Co-Author of various other books and articles in both Italian and English. His main research interests are in sustainability studies, applied ethics and political philosophy.

The handbook will be divided into sections, each with its own introduction, with driving questions leading to chapters on topics such as those listed below.







General Introduction



1) Climate Change, Science and Philosophy: What's the best scientific account of climate and climate change? What's the best account of climate change causation? What's the best instruments to predict future climate changes? Section editor: Wendy Parker







* Introduction



* Philosophical Issues of Climate Science: What are the main philosophical grounds and questions underlying climate sciences such as meteorology, paleo-climatology, chaos



physics, Earth sciences, ecology?



* Philosophical Issues regarding the Anthropogenic Drivers of Climate Change: What's the



best scientific reconstruction of the human and social causes of past, present and future climate changes?



* Philosophical Issues about Climate Change Causation: What are the main philosophical



issues concerning the various scientific accounts of climate change causation?



* Accounting for Past and Future Climate Changes: What are the main philosophical issues



concerning the usage of data about past climate changes in interpreting present changes and predicting future ones? What are the main philosophical issues concerning long-term predictions of future climate changes? How are different future scenarios to be selected and justified? What are the epistemological grounds of the usage of probabilistic scenarios?







2) Climate Change, Social Sciences and Philosophy: What's the best reconstruction of the impacts of climate changes on present societies? What's the best account of the harms deriving from climate change? What are the tools that various social sciences can provide to the study of the societal impacts of climate change? Section editor: Marco Grasso







* Introduction



* A Philosophical Account of 'Dangerous Anthropogenic Climate Change': What's the best definition of 'Dangerous Anthropogenic Climate Change'? What are the philosophical



grounds of such a definition?



* Denial and Communication of Climate Change: What's the source and ground of climate



change skepticism? What's the best pattern to communicate climate change?



* Philosophical Issues about Climate Harms: How should harms deriving from climate change



be understood and measured? Is causation of climate harms different from causation of climate change?



* Societal Impacts of Climate Change: What's the best account of the impacts of climate



change on past, present and future societies?



* The Economics of Climate Change: What are the impacts of climate change, and especially



mitigation and adaptation, on economics and the economy, that is on the study and the state of economic relations across the world?



* Climate Change and Legal Theory: Does mitigation and adaptation policies change the



current workings and some basic conceptions of law? How is international law and the legal theory describing it affected by the enforcement of inter-state agreements aimed at imposing emissions cut?



* Climate Change and Sociology: Does climate change's impacts on society require new



sociological tools? Is sociology affected by deep environmental issues such as climate change?



* Climate Change and Political Science: What are the best account of mitigation and



adaptation policies? Is climate politics a new theoretical object, requiring new styles of analysis for political scientists?







3) Climate Change, Humanities and Philosophy: What are the tools that humanistic studies can provide to a fuller understanding of the human dimensions of climate change? How does climate change and climate science alter or influence central topics in the humanities? What's the influence and relevance of climate change and climate science on humanities? Section editor: Ursula Heise







* Introduction



* Climate Change and Fiction: What are the main representations of climate change in contemporary fiction?



* Climate Change, Literary Studies and Ecocriticism: How are contemporary literary studies



affected by the existential perspective of living under a changing climate? How did climate science and discussions of climate change influence the rising of ecocriticism?



* Climate Change and Aesthetics: How does climate change changes the aesthetic appreciation of environment and environmental items by human beings? Does climate change require a renovated aesthetics?



* Climate Change and the Philosophy and History of Art: How does climate change affect our



views of the distinction between art and nature and the philosophy of art? Is it still possible to distinguish nature and art in a world deeply affected by anthropogenic climate change?



* Climate Change and Cultural Anthropology: What are the relations between different notions of, and attitudes to, climate change and human cultures? Is cultural anthropology able to account for them?



* Climate Change and History; How does climate change impact on historical studies? Must



the traditional human history turn into Earth history? Must ecology became a historical discipline? Must it become environmental history?



* Climate Change and Cultural Geography: What are the consequences of the discussion about climate change and climate harms for the humanistic part of geography as a scientific discipline? Does climate change require new geographical ontologies?



* Climate Change and Theology: What's the theological significance of the impact of climate



change on human and animal life? Should theology consider the destiny of Earth and humankind as God's creatures in a climate-change-dominated world? Can theology get rid of anthropocentric presuppositions?



* Climate Change and Communication Studies: Are communication studies changed by the long debate between the so-called 'warmists' and 'skeptics'? How is the analysis and the management of communication, and the nature of communication studies, to be understood in a climate change world?



* Climate Change and Semiotics: What's the working of the language used in describing,



discussing and communicating climate change, and what are its implications for the disciplines studying human languages and their uses (such as semiotics and philosophy of language)?



* Climate Change, Post-Humanism and Critical Animal Studies: Is climate change a premise for a new anthropocentrism? Or is it a starting point to boost the current trend towards a non-anthropocentric, non-sentientist approach to the non-human natural world? Is climate change an opportunity to give a post-humanist account of human beings and non-human beings?







4) Climate Change and Ethics: What are the main ethical issues connected with climate change impacts? What is the best ethical theory to deal with them? Section editor: Rob Lawlor







* Introduction



* Responsibility for Climate Harms: What is the notion of 'responsibility' relevant in climate change settings? Are individuals responsible for the harms deriving from climate change?



Or is responsibility for climate harms collective, or historical?



* Climate Change and Consequentialism: Is a consequentialist normative theory the best



account of climate ethics?



* Climate Change and Deontology: Is a deontological normative theory the best account of climate ethics?



* Climate Change and the Virtues: How can the concept of 'virtue' be embedded in the ethics



of climate change?



* Climate Change and Justice: What are the demands of distributive or corrective justice in



climate change settings?



* Mitigation Duties: What are the mitigation duties of individuals and/or collectives?



* Adaptation Duties: What are the adaptation duties of individuals and/or collectives?



* Climate Change and Beneficence: What are the demands of beneficence in climate change settings?



* Climate Change and Population Ethics: What are the duties of present generations with



regard to the impacts of climate change on future generations?



* Climate Change and Environmental Ethics: What are the environmental ethics issues



connected to climate change? What is the best philosophical understanding of the nexus of climate ethics, animal ethics, and the ethics of conservation? What is the best philosophical understanding of the nexus of climate ethics, plant ethics, and the ethics of conservation? Which version of environmental ethics is most fitting to climate change settings?



* Climate Change and Business Ethics: What are the business ethics issues connected to



climate change? How are the actions of global agents like energy multinationals to be evaluated when it comes to climate change? Is the theory of externalities a good adviser for climate policies and regulations? Can the issue of climate change be adequately understood without a thorough analysis of modern and contemporary capitalism?



* Climate Change and the Ethics of Technology: How is the role of technology to be



conceptualized in climate change settings? What are the possible climatic implications of emerging technologies like the blockchain? How are climate adaptive technologies like food biotechnologies to be evaluated and best implemented?



* Climate Change and the Ethics of Food and Agriculture: What are the agricultural premises



and implications of global climate change? Can our present food systems guarantee food security in the face of climate change and, if so, at what costs? Can food production and distribution be changed in ways that favor mitigation and/or adaptation? Should we all be vegetarians on climatic grounds? What are the promises of new forms of agriculture, from agro-ecology to data-driven precision agriculture?



* The Ethics of Geoengineering: Is geoengineering an ethically sound path to deal with



climate harms? Is artificial management of solar radiation morally permissible?







5) Climate Change and Political Philosophy: What are the main political issues connected with climate change? What is the best political theory to deal with them? Section editor: Aaron Maltais







* Introduction



* Climate Change and Democracy: What are the issues to be dealt with in order to provide a democratic legitimation of climate change politics? May we democratically enforce



mitigation and adaptation policies?



* Climate Change and Liberalism: Are mitigation and adaptation policies compatible with a



liberal regime? What are the issues to be dealt with in order to provide a fair climate change politics?



* Climate Change and Rights: What is the connection between climate change and human,



social and group rights? Is climate change an issue of rights? Is a right-based politics the best account for climate politics?



* Climate Change and Multiculturalism: What is the impact of climate politics - and



specifically mitigation and adaptation policies - on cultural minorities? Is a multiculturalist regime compatible with mitigation and adaptation policies?



* Climate Change and Feminism: What is the impact of climate change on women? Are mitigation and adaptation policies disproportionately burdensome for women?



* Climate Change and Post-Colonialism: What is the connection between climate change



mitigation/adaptation and the rectification of colonial wrongs or domination? What's the shape of a post-colonial climate politics?



* Climate Change and Social Movements: What is the connection between climate change



politics and the rise of global social movements? Is a global environmental conscience helpful to climate change politics?



* Climate Change and the Politics of Capitalism: What is the connection between climate



change mitigation/adaptation and the welfare State and the political regulation of capitalist economy?



* Climate Change and International Relations: What is the connection between climate change



mitigation/adaptation and the analysis of international relations? What is the best philosophical account of world politics in so far as climate change politics is concerned?



* Enforcement, Feasibility, Negotiations, and International Agreements: Climate politics in



non-ideal settings: What are the issues concerning the enforcement of climate change mitigation/adaptation in our actual world? Which feasibility constraints should be met by an international agreement on climate change?



* Climate Change and Urban Landscapes: Does climate change mitigation/adaptation impact



on the state and development of urban areas? Does climate change prevention require a new philosophy of urban landscapes? Are transnational city networks a more promising form of global agency than competing nation states? Is the building of sea-steading cities a viable adaptation strategy, who would be allowed in and on what grounds, and what jurisdictional regimes would apply to such cities?



* Climate Change and Gardens: How, and with what consequences, are urban, peri-urban, and



non-urban garden areas affected by climate change? Can gardening, within and outside cities, be part of mitigation and adaptation policies?



* Climate Change and Migration: Is climate change a trigger of migration? What are the



political issues concerning climate-related migrations?



* Climate Change and Existential Risks: Is climate change a threat to human survival? Is an



approach to climate change focused on long-term and far existential risks viable?







6) Climate Change and the Anthropocene: What's the environmental and historical context in which climate change happens? Is the notion of 'Anthropocene' relevant to an understanding of the philosophy of climate change? Section editor: Clive Hamilton







* Introduction



* Anthropocene as a Concept: What's the relevant definition and notion of 'Anthropocene'? Is it (or should it be) a purely geological concept, or does it (should it) also havewider



connotations?



* Narratives of the Anthropocene: What's the best general account, the best wide narrative, of



Anthropocene?



* Reactions to the Anthropocene: What's the most plausible normative attitude to



Anthropocene? Is Anthropocene a new, good opportunity to manage the planet, or is it a bad predicament to avert?



* The Anthropocene and Climate Change: Is climate change best understood as one among



the many features marking the Anthropocene? Or is the Anthropocene best thought of as "the time of (anthropogenic) climate change"?







General Conclusion