Upcoming Events
Reading/Exeter Leverhulme Climate Lecture
Monday 13th September, 2021. 5pm-6:30pm
Title: Generationally Parochial Geoengineering?
Abstract: Much talk of geoengineering in public and in policy tends to assume that interventions will benefit both the current generation and future generations more-or-less equally. In this talk, we question this assumption and argue that interventions that are unjust towards future generations are both possible and likely. We illustrate this through a discussion of the leading example of solar radiation management, stratospheric sulphate injection (SSI).
Speaker: Professor Stephen M. Gardiner
Stephen M.Gardiner is Professor of Philosophy and Ben Rabinowitz Endowed Professor of Human Dimensions of the Environment at the University of Washington, Seattle. His main areas of interest are ethical theory, political philosophy and environmental ethics. His research focuses on global environmental problems (especially climate change), future generations, and virtue ethics. Steve has published on a diverse range of topics including intergenerational justice, the ethics of geoengineering, the precautionary principle, climate justice, Aristotle’s account of the reciprocity of virtues, Seneca’s approach to virtuous moral rules, and Socrates’ political philosophy. His most recent books are Debating Climate Ethics (Oxford, 2016), a “for and against” book on climate justice, with David Weisbach, and the Oxford Handbook on Environmental Ethics (Oxford, 2016), co-edited with Catriona McKinnon and Augustin Fragniere.
This is a Zoom talk; a link will be provided on the day to all members of the GSI mailing list. In order to join the list, please contact GSI Support at gsi.support@exeter.ac.uk.
November 15th 2018
Workshop: Making a Difference: from Theory to Practice in Climate Justice
Speakers: Simon Caney (University of Warwick), Ben Hale (University of Colorado – Boulder), John Barry (Queen’s University Belfast)
Autumn Term 2018, dates TBC
Visiting Scholar: Professor Dave Frame (Victoria University Wellington)
Previous Events
September 19th 2018
Report on the International Governance of Climate Engineering (joint with the Forum for Climate Engineering Assessment)
Speakers: Aarti Gupta (Wageningen University), Prakash Kashwan (University of Connecticut)
September 18th 2018
Workshop: Geoegineering: Justice and Legitimacy (joint with the Programme on Values in Society, University of Washington)
Speakers: Stephen Gardiner (University of Washington), Jonathan Wolff (University of Oxford), Axel Gosseries (UC Louvain), Sabine Roeser (TU Delft), John O’Neill (University of Manchester)
10th-12th September 2018
Panel (MANCEPT): Climate Change Mitigation and Imperfect Duties
Confirmed speaker: Elizabeth Cripps (University of Edinburgh)
Convenors: Livia Luzzatto (University of Reading) and Adam Pearce (University of Reading)
Held at the University of Manchester as part of MANCEPT Workshops.
July 6th 2018
Workshop: Henry Shue (University of Oxford) ‘Subsistence Protection and Mitigation Ambition: Necessities, Economic and Climatic’ (Breakthrough Article) (joint with British Journal of Politics and International Relations)
Commentators: Catriona McKinnon (University of Reading), David Schlosberg (University of Sydney), Robert Falkner (London School of Economics), Tim Hayward (University of Edinburgh), Giovanna Di Chiro (Swathmore College), Alex McLaughlin (University of Reading)
June 8th 2018
Workshop: Envisioning Everyday Environmentalism and Climate Populism
Keynote: Julian Agyeman (Tufts University), Nancy Fraser (The New School) via Skype
Speakers: Sherilyn MacGregor (University of Manchester), Lisa Disch (University of Michigan), John Meyer (Humboldt State University) & more TBC.
May 22nd-23rd 2018
Workshop: Early Career Workshop in Climate Justice (joint with the Doctoral Programme in Climate Change)
Held at the University of Graz.
May 21st-June 8th 2018
Visiting Scholar: Professor John Meyer (Humboldt State University)
May 8th 2018
Seminar: Luke Elson (University of Reading) ‘Vagueness and Pessimism about Climate Rationality’
January 18th 2018
Launch Event for the Centre for Climate Justice with Mary Robinson (Mary Robinson Foundation: Climate Justice)
University of Reading
For information about the launch event, please see the news item available here.
January 16th-17th 2018
Doctoral Scholars’ Conference – Climate Justice: Dialogue Across Disciplines
Keynote speakers: Professor Neil Adger (University of Exeter), Dr. Elizabeth Cripps (University of Edinburgh) and Professor Mark Maslin (University College London)
University of Reading
Communicating Climate Science (for Climate Justice) in Troubled Times Workshop
University of Reading
Keynote speakers: Professor Katharine Hayhoe (Texas Tech University) and Dr Susanne Moser, (Stanford/University of California-Santa Cruz)
Panelists: Max Boykoff (University of Colorado-Boulder), Anabela Carvalho (University of Minho), Mike Goodman (University of Reading), Ed Hawkins (University of Reading), Alyssa Gilbert (Imperial College London) and Emily Shuckburgh (University of Cambridge)
In a time witnessing the declared ‘death of the expert’, how are climate change researchers to engage in effectively communicating climate change and its effects to policy-makers, and the wider public? How can this be done in ways that contribute to achieving climate justice? Scientists seek to maintain their independence and integrity when communicating the evidence for climate change. Given the complexities of climate change, and the uncertainties in the science, this type of communication is difficult to do well, especially given the need for simplicity and clarity in addressing policy-makers and the lay-public who do not share scientists’ expertise. At the same time, many climate scientists are committed to doing what they can to secure climate justice. This workshop will address questions about the effective communication of climate science in troubled times and the extent to which this communication can, and should, contribute to the pursuit of climate justice. The workshop will bring together experts from a range of disciplines with an interest in these questions from both a theoretical and a practical perspective.
11th November 2017
Climate Justice Showcase
As part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science.
Can fairness create a green future?
It isn’t just polar bears being affected by climate change – people all over the world are already being negatively affected by changes to the climate, from droughts, flooding, and ruined harvests. That’s not fair. Particularly as these communities had no role in making the problem in the first place. Fast forward a few years, and the environmental situation for our children’s children is not looking too peachy either… but could it look green?
If we changed the way we thought about climate change instead of it being ‘just a problem for science to solve’ to a problem about social justice, could we come up with a solution that addresses injustice that would help these communities and climate change at the same time? Can fairness create a green future?
As part of the ESRC Social Science Festival, the Climate Justice Scholars from the University of Reading will be hosting an afternoon exploring different climate justice topics through presentation-slams, interactive posters and challenges.
To top it all off, there will be a screening of the thought-provoking film ‘Greedy Lying Bastards’ – which exposes the deceit of the fossil fuel industries affecting vulnerable people – followed by an audience discussion chaired by university academics.
The event is free, and drinks & snacks will be provided to fuel the fun and debate!
June 5th-9th 2017
Visiting Scholar: Professor Steve Vanderheiden (University of Colorado Boulder)
21st February 2017
Climate Displacement and Resettlement: What space for claims-making ‘from below’? Workshop
Please note that this is a closed workshop.
26th January 2017
Climate, Culture and Society (CCS) Research Seminar with Professor Mike Hulme (Kings College London)
The idea of climate should be understood as performing important psychological and cultural functions. Climate offers a way of navigating between the human experience of a constantly changing atmosphere and its attendant insecurities, and the need to live with a sense of stability and regularity. People look to the idea of climate to offer an ordered container – a sensory, imaginative, linguistic or numerical repertoire – through which to tame and interpret the unsettling arbitrariness of the restless weather. Climate may be defined according to the aggregated statistics of weather in places or as a scientific description of an interacting physical system. Climate may also be apprehended more intuitively, as a tacit idea held in the human mind or in social memory of what the weather of a place ‘should be’ at a certain time of year. But however defined, formally or tacitly, it is the human sense of climate that establishes certain expectations about the atmosphere’s performance. The idea of climate cultivates the possibility of a stable psychological life and of meaningful human action in the world. In this talk I will offer evidence for this argument, drawing upon anthropological, historical and geographical work from around the world. I will also reflect briefly on what the unsettling phenomenon and discourse of climate-change means for the future cultural value of the idea of climate.
18th January 2017
Reflections on Post-Science Climate Politics: a space for justice?
Seminar with Professor Mike Goodman (University of Reading)
14th-15th November 2016
Doctoral Scholars’ Conference – Climate Justice: Dialogue Across Disciplines
Keynote speakers: Professor Steven Gardiner (University of Washington), Professor Marion Hourdequin (Colorado College) and Professor David Schlosberg (University of Sydney)
8th November 2016
What Makes a Climate Leader?
Keynote speaker: Professor Robyn Eckersley (University of Melbourne)
Discussants: Professor Neil Carter (University of York) and Professor John Barry (Queens University Belfast)
7th-17th November 2016
Visiting Scholar: Professor Steven Gardiner (University of Washington)
30th June-1st July 2016
Climate Change: Society, Governance and Economics
Climate change has become a defining problem of our age, which will affect society in profound and complex ways through both its effects and our responses. PhD and early career researchers are at the forefront as the social sciences engage with climate change in ever more diverse ways. This conference brings together researchers asking how social processes, governance structures and economic realities will be affected by climate change at scales from global to local, and how we can and should design and manage responses all over the world. We will also hear from several keynote speakers, including Professor Emily Boyd from the University of Reading.
17th May-June 7th 2016
Visiting Scholar: Peter Stoett (Concordia University)
28th-29th January 2016
Climate Justice After Paris
Keynote Speakers: Professor Henry Shue (Oxford), Dr. Youba Sokona (University College London) and Professor Simon Caney (Oxford)
Panelists: Yamide Dagnet (World Resources Institute), Fergus Green (London School of Economics), Dominic Roser (Oxford), Tara Shine (Mary Robinson Foundation), Thomas Hale (Oxford), Aaron Maltais (Stockholm), Darrel Moellendorf (Goethe), Sam Bickersteth (Climate and Development Knowledge Network), Sonja Klinsky (Arizona State University) and Henry Derwent (Climate Strategies).
See videos from the conference.