Concluding the fall’s The Five Thousand Pound Life programming, which focuses on climate change communication and ethics, Stephen Gardiner will explore how individuals should think about their responsibilities within a global, intergenerational crisis such as climate change.  The lecture will begin by framing the climate problem as a severe ethical challenge: a “perfect moral storm.”  It will then confront the worry, memorably expressed by Dale Jamieson, that “today we face the possibility that the global environment may be destroyed, yet no one will be responsible.”

Stephen 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. Gardiner is the author of A Perfect Moral Storm: the Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change (Oxford, 2011), the coordinating co-editor of Climate Ethics: Essential Readings (Oxford, 2010), and the editor of Virtue Ethics: Old and New (Cornell, 2005).  His articles have appeared in journals such as Ethics, the Journal of Political Philosophy, Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, and Philosophy and Public Affairs.

Following his talk, Gardiner will discuss the implications of his research for design with respondents Adam Yarinsky—architect and principal of Architecture Research Office—and Joel Towers—Executive Dean of Parsons The New School for Design.

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