Philosophy and Climate

The Project

This research stream brings together scholars from multiple disciplines to discuss ethical and scientific questions, problems and solutions relating to the climate crisis. The project consists of two substreams:

Climate Ethics

This project discusses ethical questions relating to climate justice, climate mitigation and technologies, climate accounting, and population ethics, among other things. For instance:

• How can the disparity between global climate impact and uneven responsibilities be squared with the ideal of climate justice?
• How are climate policies and priorities inflected by questions of distance (space and time)?
• How should institutions and policies reflect global and intergenerational justice?
• How should climate finance reflect the interests and rights of developing countries?
• What are the ethical concerns around carbon mitigation pathways and their various associated timescales and costs?
• How to navigate the ethical tensions regarding mitigation vs carbon dioxide removal vs geoengineering?
• What are the normative foundations of greenhouse gas accounting practices?
• What duties do we have towards future people, and what considerations of justice hold between different generations? 

Philosophy and Climate Science (PhiCliSci)

This project discusses ethical, epistemic, and political questions at the intersection of philosophy and climate science. For instance:

• What is the epistemic significance of understanding in and for climate science?
• What are the epistemic strengths and limitations of climate modelling?
• Which responsibilities does climate science have regarding environmental outcomes for future generations and the natural world?
• Which responsibilities does climate science have to cooperate with and learn from local (especially indigenous) communities’ insights into local effects of climate change?
• What lessons can be drawn from feminist, non-western, and specifically indigenous philosophies of science to understanding the epistemic-ethical challenges climate science and scientists face?
• What challenges arise for communicating facts about global warming given different forms of uncertainties (specifically in climate modelling) affecting research in climate science?
• What challenges exist for climate science in establishing a relationship of trust vis-à-vis a global public beyond the usual undermining attempts by “merchants of doubt”?

People

• Mara van der Lugt (University of St Andrews), Project Leader
• Graeme MacGilchrist (Earth & Environmental Sciences)
• Alice Murphy (Philosophy)
• Derek Ball (Philosophy)
• Rory Kent (Philosophy)
• James Rae (Earth & Environmental Sciences)
• Stephen Gardiner (St Andrews and University of Washington)
• Derek Ball (Philosophy)
• James Rae (University of St Andrews)
• Derek Ball (University of St Andrews)
• Katharina Bernhard (Philosophy)
• Andrea Burke (Earth & Environmental Sciences)
• Michael Byrne (Earth & Environmental Sciences)
• Lydia Cole (School of Geography & Sustainable Development)
• Miguel de la Cal Moreno (Philosophy)
• Simon Lee (Earth & Environmental Sciences)

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