Hello Ken et al, Not having an undergraduate degree in Philosophy, and my involvement with the subject being confined to participating in demonstrations and marches led by Bertrand Russell in the 1950/1960s, I am not competent to challenge or comment on any of the specific points Ken raises.
But I wonder whether - since geoengineering is related to issues concerned with a novel situation: the possible extinction of many of Earth's life-forms and associated massive planetary disruption - there may be philosophical questions hitherto not recognised or fully examined, perhaps not thought to be important or valid, which could profitably be addressed now. I do not know the answer to this question. All Best Wishes, John. John Latham Address: P.O. Box 3000,MMM,NCAR,Boulder,CO 80307-3000 Email: [email protected] or [email protected] Tel: (US-Work) 303-497-8182 or (US-Home) 303-444-2429 or (US-Cell) 303-882-0724 or (UK) 01928-730-002 http://www.mmm.ucar.edu/people/latham ________________________________________ From: [email protected] [[email protected]] on behalf of Ken Caldeira [[email protected]] Sent: Friday, April 06, 2012 10:27 PM To: [email protected] Cc: [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: [geo] Ethics of Geoengineering (anything new?) Having but an undergraduate degree in Philosophy, you can forgive me for asking stupid questions, but ... Does geoengineering raise any ethical issues not already considered by historical figures such as Aristotle, Hume, Kant, and so on? Isn't the ethics of making decisions that affect others not involved in making the decisions a problem as old as humanity? I just don't understand how there is anything new here for philosophy. Surely there are difficult decisions to be made with moral dimensions, but I just can't imagine how geoengineering could pose fundamentally new philosophic problems. Perhaps someone can compensate for my failure of imagination and tell me in what way geoengineering poses fundamentally new philosophic problems not previously addressed. _______________ Ken Caldeira Carnegie Institution Dept of Global Ecology 260 Panama Street, Stanford, CA 94305 USA +1 650 704 7212 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> http://dge.stanford.edu/labs/caldeiralab @kencaldeira Currently visiting Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS)<http://www.iass-potsdam.de/> and Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Resarch (PIK)<http://www.pik-potsdam.de/> in Potsdam, Germany. On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 10:58 PM, Andrea Gammon <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: The Mansfield Center for Ethics and Public Affairs at the University of Montana (with support from the National Science Foundation) is pleased to announce the launch of the Ethics of Geoengineering Online Resource Center. We have attempted to make this an exhaustive resource for materials, organizations, and events related to geoengineering and ethics. We will continue to work to make the site increasingly comprehensive, accessible, and engaging. We welcome feedback and suggestions about significant resources that are not yet included. Please bring to our attention any papers, events, and other media you think may be missing. Visit the site at: <https://ch1prd0102.outlook.com/owa/redir.aspx?C=OWAMf8GxrUmH3DmLPhvEmRVCg4-F5s4Ia3rgDEllyFha_7YuC8CjtGrFU9mOVuqXWwDCLmctAsw.&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.umt.edu%2fethics%2fresourcecenter%2fdefault.php> http://www.umt.edu/ethics/resourcecenter/default.php Please email feedback or suggestions to <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Thanks! Andrea Gammon Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Philosophy University of Montana, '13 Christopher Preston Associate Professor of Philosophy and Fellow at the Program on Ethics and Public Affairs University of Montana -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]<mailto:geoengineering%[email protected]>. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en.
