MODULE 4: Climate change and politics

 AGENDA

1. Our question
2. Preview
3. Jamieson--obstacles to climate change ethics

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Our question 

Three possible climate change strategies. Ethically, which should we choose?

1. 
   Nothing/Reversal 
2. Moderate mixed (Bjorn Lomborg, False Alarm)
• a little mitigation
• begin to adapt, but future people will mostly do it
• R&D geoengineering, to be implemented in future
3. Ambitious mitigation (Paris Agreement)
• goal: keep temperature rise to 1.5 or 2 deg C
• transition away from fossil fuels (oil, gas) to renewables (wind, solar)
• preserve carbon sinks

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Preview

1. Future people -- ethics and economics 

• Broome, ethics and economics (3/14) -- don't skip!
• McAskill, What We Owe the Future (3/24)
• Debate about future people (3/26)

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Dale Jamieson, "The Moral and Political Challenges of Climate Change" (2007)

Also wrote Reason in a Dark Time (2017) -- will read an excerpt later

Two challenges to thinking about climate change ethics

1. Hard to see our emissions as an ethical issue (the moral challenge)
2. Political brands skew our preferences (the political challenge)

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Jamieson: the political challenge

1. We should choose policies based on our values, what's in our interests, evidence, reasoning, etc.
2. But in reality we have mere preferences based on political brands 
• I'm a Democrat, Democrats prefer this policy, so I prefer this policy
• I'm a Republican, Republicans prefer that policy, so I prefer that policy
3. We can't think about climate change solutions without freeing ourselves from political brands

Is there any data that suggests our minds really work this way?

• Leaf Van Boven, social psychologist at University of Colorado
• NYT editorial: "Actually, Republicans do believe in climate change"
• At least many do--energy secretary Chris Wright
• TED talk about political polarization

 

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DISCUSSION

1. Are Democrats and Republicans equally partisan about climate change?

2. What originally made climate change part of the Democratic platform and not part of the Republican platform?

3. Why is climate change especially partisan?

4. Why is climate change especially partisan in the US?  See data here on attitudes in other countries.

Bottom line--we need to avoid partisan labels!

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The moral challenge 

• hard to recognize our GHG-emitting behavior as a moral issue
• but it would change our reaction if we did recognize it as a moral issue

Jamieson 2007 (with a little paraphrasing)