Byron Williston - Böcker

The evidence presented in the recently released Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggests strongly that continued failure to make meaningful cuts to greenhouse gas emissions could bring about disastrous results for the human community, especially for future generations. Summing up the findings of AR5, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, has stated that our persistent inaction on climate change presents a grave threat to the very social stability of human systems. The Anthropocene Project attempts to make philosophical sense of this, examining the reasons for the inaction highlighted by the IPCC, and suggests the normative bases for overcoming it. Williston identifies that we are now in the human agethe Anthropocenebut he argues that this is no mere geological marker. It is instead best viewed as the latest permutation of an already existing moral and political project rooted in Enlightenment values. The author shows that it can be fruitful to do climate ethics with this focus because in so many aspects of our culture we already endorse broadly Enlightenment values about progress, equality, and the value of knowledge. But these values must be robustly instantiated in the dispositions of moral agents, and so we require a climate ethics emphasizing the virtues of justice, truthfulness, and rational hope. One of the books most original claims is that our moral failure on this issue is, in large part, the product of motivated irrationality on the part of the world's most prosperous people. We have failed to live up to our commitments to justice and truthfulness because we are, respectively, morally weak and self-deceived. Understanding this provides the basis for the rational hope that we might yet find a way to avoid climate catastrophe.

At the quarter mark of the twenty-first century Canada faces two existential threats: runaway climate change and the rising global tide of right-authoritarian imperialism. The inextricable relationship between the two threats requires clear vision and bold policy as Canada reconceives its future.Arguing that peace, order, and good government form the cornerstone of Canada’s national identity, Byron Williston revives the vision of philosopher George Grant to explore how these values can guide Canada in reimagining its identity across its own regions, within the North American context, and in the global political order. In a work that lays out a positive vision for Canada rooted in the ideal of an ecological nation, Williston argues that this country faces a stark choice between this ideal and absorption into the American empire. The key is a refined governance model addressing the failed history of Canadian climate policy and overcoming the false belief that Canada is essentially a land of inexhaustible resources. The nation-building project described here will both benefit all Canadians and avoid capture by the forces of social and political regression. It will help secure a sovereign and flourishing future for this country.The challenges Canada faces are profound. To meet them the country must engage fully with the eco-national project. While daunting, this moment provides a unique opportunity for Canada to link its national well-being to that of planetary health and to create a singularly Canadian political ethic informed by Indigenous knowledge and developed in step with the ongoing project of reconciliation

This book explores how the history of philosophy can orient us to the new reality brought on by the climate crisis.If we understand the climate crisis as a deeply existential one, it can help to examine the way past philosophers responded to similar crises in their times. This book explores five past crises, each involving a unique form of collective trauma. These events—war, occupation, exile, scientific revolution and political revolution—inspired the philosophers to remake the whole world in thought, to construct a metaphysics. Williston distills a key intellectual innovation from each metaphysical system:• That political power must be constrained by knowledge of the climate system (Plato)• That ethical and political reasoning must be informed by care or love of the ecological whole (Augustine)• That we must enhance the design of the technosphere (Descartes)• That we must conceive the Earth as an internally complex system (Spinoza)• And that we must grant rights to anyone or anything—ultimately the Earth system itself—whose vital interests are threatened by the effects of climate change (Hegel).Philosophy and the Climate Crisis will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change, environmental philosophy and ethics and the environmental humanities.

This book explores how the history of philosophy can orient us to the new reality brought on by the climate crisis.If we understand the climate crisis as a deeply existential one, it can help to examine the way past philosophers responded to similar crises in their times. This book explores five past crises, each involving a unique form of collective trauma. These events—war, occupation, exile, scientific revolution and political revolution—inspired the philosophers to remake the whole world in thought, to construct a metaphysics. Williston distills a key intellectual innovation from each metaphysical system:• That political power must be constrained by knowledge of the climate system (Plato)• That ethical and political reasoning must be informed by care or love of the ecological whole (Augustine)• That we must enhance the design of the technosphere (Descartes)• That we must conceive the Earth as an internally complex system (Spinoza)• And that we must grant rights to anyone or anything—ultimately the Earth system itself—whose vital interests are threatened by the effects of climate change (Hegel).Philosophy and the Climate Crisis will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change, environmental philosophy and ethics and the environmental humanities.

Canadian Environmental Philosophy is the first collection of essays to take up theoretical and practical issues in environmental philosophy today, from a Canadian perspective. The essays cover various subjects, including ecological nationalism, the legacy of Grey Owl, the meaning of "outside" to Canadians, the paradigm shift from mechanism to ecology in our understanding of nature, the meaning and significance of the Anthropocene, the challenges of biodiversity protection in Canada, the conservation status of crossbred species in the age of climate change, and the moral status of ecosystems. This wide range of topics is as diverse and challenging as the Canadian landscape itself. Given the extent of humanity's current impact on the biosphere – especially evident with anthropogenic climate change and the ongoing mass extinction – it has never been more urgent for us to confront these environmental challenges as Canadian citizens and citizens of the world. Canadian Environmental Philosophy galvanizes this conversation from the perspective of this place.

The Ethics of Climate Change: An Introduction systematically and comprehensively examines the ethical issues surrounding arguably the greatest threat now facing humanity. This second edition has been updated and includes two new chapters on climate change and capitalism and climate change and law. Williston addresses important questions such as: Has humanity entered the Anthropocene epoch?Is climate change primarily an ethical or an economic issue?Can capitalism be reformed to prevent climate catastrophe?What are the moral failings of international climate diplomacy?What are the main causes of political inaction and climate denial?Should tort law be used to sue those responsible for climate change?What are intragenerational and intergenerational justice?Is geoengineering an ethically justifiable response to climate change? Featuring case studies throughout, this textbook provides a philosophical introduction to an immensely topical issue studied by students within the fields of applied ethics, global justice, sustainability, geography, and politics.