Course manual 2018/2019

Course content

Climate change has been called a ‘perfect moral storm’, since it involves the convergence of a set of global, intergenerational and theoretical problems. In this course, we will zoom in on various of the ethical problems posed by climate change.

When we burn fossil fuels today this will primarily affect future generations. Although most people hold the moral intuition that we have duties towards those who are as yet unborn, it proves to be remarkably problematic to provide a theoretical foundation for such intuitions. We will discuss how various moral theories break down in the intergenerational context. Among other topics, we will discuss Parfit’s ‘non-identity problem’, different interpretations of utilitarianism, and the relation between care for future generations and our need for self-transcendence. Moreover, we will discuss moral questions regarding the dealing with scientific uncertainty and the precautionary principle.
Climate change will not only affect humans, but non-human nature as well. Do we have duties towards other sentient species? Or do we even have duties towards all life forms? What is the characteristic that makes life morally considerable? We will discuss the ideas of Peter Singer, Tom Regan, Kenneth Goodpaster, Paul Taylor and others.
Climate change poses a social dilemma on a global scale. What are our individual duties to reduce our impacts? What are our collective duties? When we agree that we ought to reduce our climate emissions, what then is a fair allocation of responsibilities and costs between the various countries? Are countries responsible for past emissions, i.e. do they have a carbon debt? We will discuss Hardin’s Tragedy of the Commons and various views on intra-generational justice, by for example Simon Caney, Darrel Moellendorf and Henry Shue.
There are various options to mitigate climate change or reduce its impacts. Some of these options raise particular moral issues, such as geo-engineering and population policy. The moral debates regarding such options will be discussed.

Study materials

Literature

Articles available on Canvas (see 'Files')

Objectives

The ability to recognize, describe and explain various debates central to climate change and environmental ethics.
The ability to critically assess the premises underlying the different positions in these debates, and offer a logical and argumentative foundation for one’s own position in a paper.
Awareness how one’s own theoretical opinions and moral intuitions in specific cases may conflict.
The ability to offer a clear and concise description of an article by means of a short oral presentation and formulate questions for discussion.

Teaching methods

Lecture
Self-study
Seminar
Working independently on e.g. a project or thesis

Learning activities

Activity	Hours
Tentamen	4
Werkcollege	48
Self study	284
Total	336	(12 EC x 28 uur)

Attendance

The programme does not have requirements concerning attendance (OER-B).

Additional requirements for this course:

Since active participation of the students is required for the discussions, only two meetings may be missed.

Assessment

Item and weight	Details
Final grade
40% Exam
20% Oral presentation
40% Written paper

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

Course structure

Weeknummer	Onderwerpen	Studiestof
36	introduction	IPCC, 2014: Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, Summary for Policymakers www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/syr/AR5_SYR_FINAL_SPM.pdf Gardiner, S. M. (2004). Ethics and global climate change. Ethics, 114(3), 555-600.
37	Future generations I	Sidgwick, H., Methods of Ethics (1874), Seventh edition (1907) published by Macmillan and Company, London, Book IV, Chapter I: The Meaning of Utilitarianism. Narveson, J., 1967. “Utilitarianism and new generations”, Mind 76(301): 62–72 Parfit, D. 1976. "On doing the best for our children", in M. D. Bayles, ed., Ethics and Population (Cambridge: Schenkman), pp. 100-115. First paragraph (‘Arriving at the Repugnant Conclusion’) of: Arrhenius, Gustaf, Ryberg, Jesper and Tännsjö, Torbjörn, "The Repugnant Conclusion", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/repugnant-conclusion/.
38	Future generations II	Meyer, L. (2003). Past and future: the case for a threshold notion of harm. Rights Culture, and the Law, 143-160. Page, E. (1999). Intergenerational justice and climate change. Political Studies,47(1), 53-66. Additional: Roberts, M. A., "The Nonidentity Problem", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2015 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2015/entries/nonidentity-problem/ Meyer, Lukas, "Intergenerational Justice", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2016/entries/justice-intergenerational/ Feinberg, Joel, ‘Wrongful Life and the Counterfactual Element in Harming’, Social Philosophy and Policy 4(1) (1987), 145–78
39	Future generations III	Heyd, D., 1992. Genethics: Moral Issues in the Creation of People. Berkeley: University of California Press, Chapter 8— Self-Transcendence and Vicarious Immortality, pp. 210-228. Partridge, E. 1980, Observations: Why care about the future? Alternative Futures 3[4]: 77-91.
40	Sentient beings	Singer, Peter (1974) "All Animals Are Equal," Philosophic Exchange 5(1): 103-116. Donaldson, S., & Kymlicka, W. (2011). Chapter 2: Universal Basic Rights for Animals. In: Zoopolis: A political theory of animal rights. Oxford University Press. pp. 19-49. Additional: Aristoteles, Politics, Book I, chapters 5 and 8. Bentham, Jeremy. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, 1789. Chapter XVII, Section 1. Kant I. Duties to Animals and Spirits. In: Kant I, Lectures on Ethics. New York: Harper and Row, 1963: 239–41. Regan, T., The Case for Animal Rights, in: Singer, P. (ed), In Defence of Animals, Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 13-26. Carruthers, P., 1989, Brute Experience. The Journal of Philosophy 86(5): 258-269.
41	Duties towards all life	Goodpaster, K.E., 1978, On Being Moral Considerable, The Journal of Philosophy 75 (6), 308-325 Taylor, P.W., 1981, The Ethics of Respect for Nature, Environmental Ethics 3(3): 197-218.
42	Population ethics	Hardin, Garrett, 1968, The Tragedy of the Commons, Science 162:1243-1248. Hardin, G., 1974, Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor. Psychology Today 8(4): 38-43. Casal, P. and A. Williams (2004) 'Equality of Resources and Procreative Justice' in J. Burley eds., Dworkin and His Critics. Oxford: Blackwell, pp.150-169. Additional: Gardiner, S. M. (2001). The real tragedy of the commons. Philosophy & Public Affairs, 30(4), 387-416. Young, T. (2001). Overconsumption and procreation: are they morally equivalent?. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 18(2), 183-192.
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44	Cultural theory	Lecture without reading
45	Uncertainty and precaution	Gardiner, S. M. (2006). A core precautionary principle. Journal of Political Philosophy, 14(1), 33-60. Moellendorf, D., 2014, Risks, uncertainties and precaution, in Moellendorf, D. (2014). The moral challenge of dangerous climate change: Values, poverty, and policy. Cambridge University Press.
46	climate economics and the history of climate policy	Lecture without reading
47	International burden sharing I	Shue, H. (1999). Global environment and international inequality. International affairs, 75(3), 531-545. Singer, P., 2002, One Atmosphere, in: One World, Yale University Press, London, pp. 14-50. Baer, P., et al. "Equal per capita emission rights: The key to a viable climate change policy." Science 289 (2000): 2287. (http://www.ecoequity.org/docs/science.pdf) http://science.sciencemag.org/content/289/5488/2287.full Baer, P. (2013). The greenhouse development rights framework for global burden sharing: reflection on principles and prospects. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 4(1), 61-71.
48	Historical responsibility	Posner, E. and Sunstein, C., 2007. Climate change justice. Georgetown Law Journal 96: 1565–1612. Caney, S. (2006b). Environmental degradation, reparations, and the moral significance of history. Journal of social philosophy, 37(3), 464-482. Caney, S. (2010). Climate change, human rights, and moral thresholds. Climate ethics: Essential readings, 163-177. Additional reading: Neumayer, E. (2000). In defence of historical accountability for greenhouse gas emissions. Ecological economics, 33(2), 185-192. Moellendorf, D. (2012). Climate change and global justice. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 3(2), 131-143.
49	Individual responsibility	Sinnott-Armstrong, W. (2005) It’s not my fault: global warming and individual moral obligations, in: W. Sinnott-Armstrong & R.B. Howarth (Eds) Perspectives on climate change: Science, economics, politics and ethics, advances in the economics of environmental resources, Vol. 4, pp. 285–307 (Amsterdam: Elsevier). Broome, J., Private morality in: Broome, J. (2012). Climate Matters: Ethics in a Warming World (Norton Global Ethics Series). WW Norton & Company, 73-96.
50	Geo-engineering	Elliot, Robert. "Faking nature." Inquiry 25.1 (1982): 81-93. Preston, C.J., 2011, Re-Thinking the Unthinkable: Environmental Ethics and the Presumptive Argument Against Geoengineering, Environmental Values 20(4): 457-479 Additional reading: Gardiner, S. M. (2010). Is ‘arming the future’ with geoengineering really the lesser evil? Some doubts about the ethics of intentionally manipulating the climate system. Climate ethics: essential readings, 284-314.
51	discussion paper proposals
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Owner	Master Earth Sciences
Coordinator	prof. dr. Marc Davidson
Part of

Climate Change and Environmental Ethics