How to Think about the Climate Crisis: A Philosophical Guide to Saner Ways of Living

The philosopher Graham Parkes explores the climatic predicament and how to think about it anew by considering history, science, economics, politics, and philosophies. He identifies the immediate obstructions to coping with the problem and outlines the libertarian ideology behind them. He also shows how a greater awareness of non-Western philosophies, especially the Confucian political philosophy advocated by China, can help us deal effectively with climate change and thrive in a greener future.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 26 November 2020
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

The climate crisis is the greatest challenge we face as a species, and reducing our emissions as rapidly as possible is the main task to minimise the harm to the world's population now and for generations to come. Philosophy can offer us valuable insights into this problem. In this compelling account of a problem we think we know inside out, philosopher Graham Parkes outlines the climatic predicament we are in and how we got here, and explains how we can think about it anew by considering the relevant history, science, economics, politics, and, for the first time, the philosophies underpinning them. Introducing the reality of global warming and its increasingly dire consequences, he identifies the immediate obstructions to coping with the problem, outlines the libertarian ideology behind them, and shows how they can be circumvented. Drawing on the wisdom of the ancients in both the East-Asian and Western traditions, Parkes shows how a greater awareness of non-Western philosophies, and especially the Confucian political philosophy advocated by China, can help us deal effectively with climate change and thrive in a greener future. If some dominant Western philosophical ideas and their instantiation in politics and modern technology got us into our current crisis, Parkes demonstrates persuasively that expanding our philosophical horizons will surely help get us out.

Weight: 364g
Dimension: 138 x 214 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350158870