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Climate Change: A Moral Crisis
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Kathleen Dean Moore, Department of Philosophy, Oregon
State University
"Do we have a moral obligation to the future, to leave a world as rich in
possibilities as our own?" Dr. Moore‒philosopher, ethicist, essayist,
and co-editor of Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril
‒offers a compelling array of answers given by fellow citizens.
(7 minutes, April 2010)
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longer |
Art and Science: Time Lapse Proof of Extreme Ice Loss
James Balog
Excellent short Ted Talk by photographer James Balog, who speaks here of the
importance of combining science with art, and who shows and comments on some
of his jaw-dropping time-lapse footage of retreating glaciers in several parts
of the world, with vivid illustrations of the scale of these changes.
(20 minutes, 2009)
Climate Change and the Literary Imagination: Poetry *
Linda Bierds, Department of English,
University of Washington
(25 minutes, November 2008)
Climate Change and the Literary Imagination: Creative Nonfiction *
Marybeth Holleman, Anchorage, Alaska
(25 minutes, November 2008)
Cool Art in the Hot Zone‒Artists Respond to Climate Change *
Lynne Hull, Fort Collins, CO environmental artist
(45 minutes, February 2009)
Early Spring: An Ecologist and Her Children Wake to a Warming World *
Amy Seidl
(23 minutes, April 2009)
Going Green: True Tales from Gleaners, Scavengers, and Dumpster Divers *
Laura Pritchett
(19 minutes, April 2009)
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books |
Forty Signs of Rain; Fifty Degrees Below; and Sixty Days
and Counting
Kim Stanley Robinson, Bantam, 2004, 2005, 2007
This "science in the capital" trilogy of near-future novels combines several
elements common to current fiction on the subject, including characters who
are scientists, extreme weather events consistent with but exaggerating
expected climatic changes, post-disaster imagining, and realistic portrayals
of human reactions and behavior. Set in and near Washington, D.C. (especially
the National Science Foundation headquarters, Rock Creek Park, and the White
House), these novels' events and themes include flooding, freezing, sea-level
rise, geo- and bio-engineering, politics, hyper-secret conspiracies, Tibetan
Buddhism, scientific rationality, and a love story. (Fifty Degrees Below may
be the best of the three.) Entertaining and well-written popular fiction by a
highly-regarded science-fiction novelist.
Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in
Peril
Kathleen Dean Moore & Michael P. Nelson, editors. Trinity
University Press, 2010, 464 pp.
This compelling collection offers some 80 short essays by theologians,
religious leaders, philosophers, naturalists, scientists, elected officials,
business leaders, activists, and writers, each addressing the critical
question, "Do we have a moral obligation to future generations, to leave them
a world as rich in life and possibility as the world we inherited?" Making a
wide range of ethical arguments, in voices from many standpoints and many
places, including all the continents except Antarctica, these thinkers all
answer yes, explain why they believe this, and suggest steps we can
take‒in words that are eloquent, pointed, clear, and often beautiful.
Click here for more
information on the book.
Weather Report: Art and Climate Change
Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, 2007
Curated by Lucy R. Lippard
Essays by art critic Lucy Lippard, reporter Andrew Revkin, and curator
Stephanie Smith introduce this exhibition catalog. Works by a varied and
accomplished suite of artists consider such topics as consumption (Chris
Jordan, Bobbe Besold), pressures on species (Lynne Hull, Brian Collier), the
nature of ice and wind (Xavier Cortada, Patrick Marold), life in cold places
(Subhankar Banerjee), comic agitprop (the Yes Men), local conditions and risks
(Jane McMahon, Mary Miss), and imagining a better world (Patricia Johanson,
Kristine Smock).
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articles & essays |
The Climate Change Novel: A Faulty Simulator of Environmental Politics
Adam Trexler, Policy Innovations, November 2011
A thought-provoking discussion of what recent novels about climate change can
contribute to our thinking about various policy options for dealing with this
issue, with a handful of examples drawn from Trexler's extensive reading in
more than 200 novels on the topic. He notes that novels typically explore the
"interrelated personal, aesthetic, social, and political choices people make
as they react to changes in the climate around them" and concludes that "we
need new ways of envisioning political alliances, blending technocratic and
utopian aspects of policy." Policy Innovations is a publication of the
Carnegie Council Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.
Our Moral Footprint
Vaclav Havel, New York Times, Sept. 27, 2007
This short op-ed essay is an eloquent and succinct argument for considering
the moral dimensions of climate change. Havel is a playwright and essayist who
served as the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the
Czech Republic.
Long Horizons: An Exploration of Art and Climate Change
Five excellent short essays exploring the possible roles of artists, who "are
frequently at the forefront of cultural change" and who "can help move the
climate change agenda from intellectual understanding to emotional engagement,
and then on to action." Sponsored by the British Council, the UK's
international cultural organization, and Julie's Bicycle, which "is committed
to tackling climate change in the creative industries," these essays are by
writer Jay Griffiths, sculptor Antony Gormley, musician KT Tunstall,
playwright Tim Jackson (who is also a professor of sustainable development),
and geographer/climate scientist Diana Liverman. Also included: an extensive
overview of the UK's cultural policy as it relates
to climate change.
The Moral Climate
Carl Safina, Orion Magazine, summer 2008
A short and powerful essay about what we're really sacrificing when we neglect
to do anything significant to stop climate change. Safina is an ecologist,
marine conservationist, and author of several books, including The View
from Lazy Point: A Natural Year in an Unnatural World, which deals in very
interesting ways with climate change.
The Moral Obligations of Scientists [to Advocate]
John A. Vucetich and Michael P. Nelson, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 2010
In this short commentary, biologist Vucetich and philosopher Nelson summarize
their extensive work on this topic, arguing that "advocacy"‒which they
define
as "promoting, developing, or assessing policy positions"‒is a moral
obligation of good citizens in a democracy, one not removed by scientific
training. With the right library database access (such as Wiley's online
library), you can read their longer, more detailed article, "On Advocacy by
Environmental Scientists: What, Whether, Why, and How" (Conservation Biology,
2009), which carefully examines the arguments often made for and against
scientists advocating.
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websites |
Interfaith Power and Light
This initiative of the Regeneration Project (an "interfaith ministry devoted
to deepening the connection between ecology and faith") is working to mobilize
"a religious response to global warming in congregations through the promotion
of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and conservation." The website
contents range from book descriptions, to sermon-writing resources for clergy (including scriptural passages), to a carbon calculator for congregations, to
links to such other projects as the Evangelical Environmental Network, "a
ministry that seeks to educate, equip, inspire, and mobilize Christians in
their effort to care for God's creation, to be faithful stewards of God's
provision, and to advocate for actions and policies that honor God and protect
the environment."
ClimateChangeEducation.org: Visual Arts
An extensive and very good collection of links to visual arts dealing with
"climate change and global warming solutions," including artists, galleries,
organizations, exhibits, books, and contests. Usefully divided into categories
such as sculpture, painting, photography, fashion, graphic arts, and so on.
The larger site of which this is a part focuses on K-12 education on climate
change and offers additional useful links to such things as movies,
television, and museums.
UNEP Children's Painting Competition on the Environment
Every year since 1991, the United Nations Environment Programme has helped
sponsor an international art contest for children‒with results that are
witty,
moving, and inspiring. In many years the theme has been climate change (see
the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th competitions); other themes have included
deserts and desertification (15th), biodiversity (19th), and green cities
(14th).
Paint for the
Planet offers a small sample and a 3-minute video of some winners, but
it's worth the time to explore the larger website.
Extreme Ice Survey
In his Extreme Ice Survey, photographer James Balog is creating a stunning
array of still, time-lapse, and video images of glaciers around the world.
Enacting the motto "Seeing is Believing," Balog and his team invite visitors
to the project's excellent website to see for themselves both what is
happening to glaciers today and what kinds of beauty they give to our world.
This work brings together the powers of art and of science to illuminate our
situation and urge action.
Cape Farewell Project
Led by artist David Buckland, this London-based project sponsors
creative cultural responses to climate change, taking visual artists,
writers, and young people on expeditions to the arctic and creating art
exhibitions and performances. In their words: "Using creativity to innovate,
we engage artists for their ability to evolve and amplify a creative language,
communicating on a human scale the urgency of the global climate challenge."
Their website offers expedition blogs, images, and more.
The Rock Ethics Institute
This institute, housed at Penn State University, offers useful resources
pertaining to a few key ethical issues, one of them climate change, for an
audience of university teachers, students, and interested citizens.
Initiatives include
ClimateEthics.org,
"a commentary site on climate change science and policymaking by those working
on climate change ethics."
Climate Artists
Increasing numbers of individual artists are also focusing some of
their work on climate change. Projects supported by
The
Canary Project include field studies / art as research, installations and
interventions, public messaging and campaigns, participatory and place-based,
and education / student projects; for instance, one witty project, "Increase
Your Albedo," combines sculpture, performance, and fashion in urging us to
wear white to help cool the planet. In 2010, the first online
Cool Climate Art
Contest aimed to help generate iconic images addressing the impacts of
climate change; its website offers a good selection of submissions, finalists,
and winners from the 1000+ artists who entered from around the world.
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