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The Ethical Implications of Climate Disruption
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Time: 2:00-5:00 pm
Location: Rapaporte Treasure Hall, Goldfarb Library
Who bears the responsibility for climate change? What would motivate and inspire people to make actual changes in their lives? Come hear a variety of disciplinary perspectives on climate change, its ethical and educational challenges, and strategies for reducing its causes and ameliorating its consequences.
Introduction by Saleem Ali, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont and Adjunct Professor at Brown, and author of Treasures of the Earth: Need, Greed, and a Sustainable Future.
Original film by Charlie Radin of Brandeis communitiy members discussing their thoughts, feelings, and dilemmas about climate change.
Responses by Michael Appell of the International Business School; Bernadette Brooten of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Classics; Cristina Espinosa of the Sustainable International Development Program in the Heller School; and Tory Fair of Fine Arts.
Please see http://www.brandeis.edu/ethics/events/changingclimate.html for brief essays by this panel sharing their perspectives on climate change.
This event is hosted by the EthicsCenter with organizers Charlie Chester of Environmental Studies and Irving Epstein of the Chemistry Department. It is free and open to the public. For more information, email ethics@brandeis.edu
adminwp @ March 17, 2010
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A New Installment of the Ethics Center’s "Ethical Inquiry" series
This installment of "Ethical Inquiry" explores the opportunities and obligations of individuals and institutions to positively impact the environment. It is authored by Prof. Kate Moran (PHIL) and Chris Howard, a student in the Master of Arts in Philosophy program. Addtionally, the Ethics Center is partaking in a variety of activities this semester to raise awareness about climate change.
To read the full Ethical Inquiry, click here.
admin @ February 7, 2010
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What Scott Brown means for climate change legislation.
As Republican confetti finally comes back to earth after Scott Brown’s dramatic special election victory, Democrats continue to mourn the death of the short lived super-majority. The formidable power of the filibuster gained from the one-seat-swing represents a potentially crippling blow to a number of Democratic agenda items; the most salient in the nation’s collective mind being the health care system over-haul. There are, however, a number of other hotly contested pieces of legislation that could also fall to empowered Republican obstructionism. The Boxer-Kerry bill in the Senate is among those to face a hostile political climate this year; and while its passage was never assured even with the help of sixty Democratic seats, the newest Republican senator will only create more friction for the bill in its current state.
It is clear from Brown’s campaign commitments that he is decidedly against health care reform, but his position on domestic climate change legislation is less obvious. The Senator-elect has voiced his doubts over man’s role in climate change, but does support the development of various alternative energy sources. The potential for legislation that addresses the country’s reliance on hydrocarbon intensive fuels does not die when Brown is sworn into his new office, but the integrity of any carbon pricing system, in the short term, will.
Brown opposes the cap and trade system at the heart of the Boxer-Kerry bill, and would undoubtedly oppose any other program of a similar nature (where a higher price for carbon is passed on to the greater public). This does not rule out the possibility of implementing a green house gas regulation scheme. It does, however, make organizing a binding program to limit emissions far more difficult in the short term. For those attempting to tackle climate change legislation in the House and the Senate, cap and trade is the foundation on which they have built their collapsing house of cards. A new approach will require significantly restructured forms of legislation from both bodies, or risk becoming just another fragmented and ineffective government program.
More on page 21
admin @ January 27, 2010
