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Bezig met laden... Reason in a Dark Time: Why the Struggle Against Climate Change Failed -- and What It Means for Our Futuredoor Dale Jamieson
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 Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. 1   KelMunger | Jun 5, 2014 |  geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
From the 1992 Rio Earth Summit to the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Conference there was a concerted international effort to stop climate change. Yet greenhouse gas emissions increased, atmospheric concentrations grew, and global warming became an observable fact of life. In this book, the author explains what climate change is, why we have failed to stop it, and why it still matters what we do. Centered in philosophy, the volume also treats the scientific, historical, economic, and political dimensions of climate change. Our failure to prevent or even to respond significantly to climate change, the author argues, reflects the impoverishment of our systems of practical reason, the paralysis of our politics, and the limits of our cognitive and affective capacities. The climate change that is underway is remaking the world in such a way that familiar comforts, places, and ways of life will disappear in years or decades rather than centuries. Climate change also threatens our sense of meaning, since it is difficult to believe that our individual actions matter. The challenges that climate change presents go beyond the resources of common sense morality; it can be hard to view such everyday acts as driving and flying as presenting moral problems. Yet there is much that we can do to slow climate change, to adapt to it and restore a sense of agency while living meaningful lives in a changing world.--From publisher's website. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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 Google Books — Bezig met laden...GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)363.738Social sciences Social problems and services; associations Other social problems and services Environmental problems Environmental problems PollutantsLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde: (4.2)
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Reason in a Dark Time: Why the Struggle Against Climate Change Failed and What It Means for Our Future by Dale Jamieson (Oxford University Press, $29.95).
Dale Jamieson, a professor of environmental studies and philosophy at NYU, has written a comprehensive analysis of exactly why and how the arguments about the need for action to mitigate the effects of human-induced climate changed failed so catastrophically—and one need look no further than recent front page headlines about the rapidly-collapsing Antarctic ice sheet to recognize that it failed—still has a great deal to offer our understanding of the relationship between science and public policy.
That is, in fact, Reason in a Dark Time's raison d’être.
First, he provides an overview of how exactly climate science evolved, and how the problem of climate change was initially addressed. This is a comprehensive historical sketch. Then, as a philosopher, he examines the obstacles—from those inherent in “the tragedy of the commons” to just plain outright greed—that prevented widespread acceptance of the established science, as well as any effort to change economic and industrial behavior (let alone the personal behavior involved in things like dependence on cars).
But more importantly, he looks at how American society in particular understands (or rather, doesn’t understand) and responds to science. These insights, accompanied by his philosophical discussion of human rights and climate change (including a chapter titled “Ethics for the Anthropocene”) offer a way going forward.
Because even though climate change cannot be stopped, this isn’t over. There are still the issues of adapting to and—as Jamieson notes—making efforts to alter the impact of climate change through geoengineering. We still have some major ethical decisions to make, and understanding how our rational minds have failed us thus far may allow us to make headway during the next phase of this slow-moving, inter-generational crisis.
Jamieson’s book is neither too optimistic nor too pessimistic; it is, above all, rational and reasonable (which are not always the same things). That makes it required reading for those of us who understand that climate change is real and human engagement in dealing with it is not optional.
Kel Munger on Lit/Rant: http://litrant.tumblr.com/post/86493227175/still-time-to-learn-something-reason-... (