Tag Archives: ethics

Peter Singer’s followers occupy Wall Street, and not in a good way

If practical ethics is supposed to be a guide to conduct in the social and political world, then those who would teach it as an academic subject should be careful to work with an appropriate degree of understanding of social … Continue reading

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Why shouldn’t Scottish prisoners get to vote?

On prisoner voting, the UK government is less progressive than most other European countries. Scotland aspires to be a ‘beacon of progressive opinion’, but its government not only acquiesces in the UK position, it has also declined to take the … Continue reading

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Who can be trusted with our planet? Reflections on a week in climate politics

This past week I was taking an interest in events unfolding in Warsaw, Edinburgh and Yale.  Each in its way revealed something about the divisions in global politics of the environment. In Warsaw at the COP19 Climate Talks – before … Continue reading

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Should universities divest from fossil fuels?

Divestment from fossil fuels is the focus of a campaign among students and other civil society groups that is gathering momentum – and faster, it seems, even than previous campaigns that targeted apartheid, tobacco and arms manufacturers.  Universities are among … Continue reading

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Human rights and ethics in a crowded planet

Any renewal of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has to acknowledge the fact that we live in a crowded planet – crowded in the sense that the demands placed by the world’s human population on its ecological space are … Continue reading

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What is Ecological Space?

For some time I have been seeking to persuade people that when thinking about justice in relation to natural resources these are usefully conceptualized in terms of ecological space.  What exactly it means to speak of ecological space, and how … Continue reading

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Democracy and Climate Change

Can democracy in crisis deal with climate crisis?   I was invited to address this vexed and dispiriting question by the Center for Humans and Nature.  Along with answers from  Carol Gould, Benjamin Barber, Bill McKibben, Robyn Eckersley and John Dryzek, … Continue reading

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Climate Change and Ethics

‘What does it matter if the climate changes? This kind of question does not admit of a scientific answer. Natural science can tell us what some of its biophysical effects are likely to be; social scientists can estimate what consequences … Continue reading

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