Apologies for cross-posting

A reminder about the seminar this Thursday on Climate Change, Collective Action and Individual Priorities with Dr. Elizabeth Cripps at the University of Westminster. All are very welcome and refreshments will be provided.

University of Westminster

Governance and Sustainability Seminar

Climate Change, Collective Action and Individual Priorities
Dr. Elizabeth Cripps, University of Edinburgh

Thursday 10th March 2011 5pm – 6.30pm
Westminster Forum, 5th Floor, 32-38 Wells Street, London W1T 3UW.

All welcome, no booking required

This paper argues that at least some climate duties should be assigned as part of a collective global-level attempt to mitigate climate change and given priority by states, individuals and other collective entities. That is: rather than pushed continually down national and individual agendas, they should be taken as a framework of constraints within which other duties can be assigned, challenges met, and projects pursued.

This expands the familiar idea, formulated by Hobbes in terms of collective self-interest, Hume in terms of achievement of artificial virtues, and Nagel in terms of enabling simultaneous pursuit of impersonal and personal values, of the state as a framework through which certain collective ends can be secured whilst leaving space for individuals to pursue personal ends and relationships.

The claim is not that climate duties are “more important” than more local moral ties, or than the scope to pursue the projects and relationships we need to flourish as individuals. Rather, the argument for priority combines a point about practical effectiveness with a two-fold moral claim: that climate change mitigation is something we (as a global elite) owe the victims of climate change and that, correlatively, each of us depends on the collective level achievement of these ends to avoid moral taint. As an individual in the absence of such collective action, I am in a tragic dilemma: I have no option available to me which will not leave me morally marred.

For further information contact Amanda Machin at [log in to unmask]

See more about events at the Governance and Sustainability Research Programme website www.westminster.ac.uk/governance+sustainability


Future Climate Change and Responsibility Seminars
Westminster Forum, 5th Floor, 32-38 Wells Street, London W1T 3UW


Thursday 31st March 5pm – 6.30pm
Personal Carbon Trading
Tina Fawcett, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford
All welcome, no booking required

Thursday 14th April 12pm – 1pm
Global Climate Ethics
Professor Paul Harris, Hong Kong Institute of Education
If you would like to attend this seminar please email [log in to unmask]

For further information about seminars contact Amanda Machin at [log in to unmask]

See more about events at the Governance and Sustainability Research Programme website
www.westminster.ac.uk/governance+sustainability