For the first time in history, it is not only conceivable but in fact likely that human action will result in the extinction of our species. We face in climate change an impending global catastrophe beyond the imagination of all but the most recent generations. The first years of the 2020s made this inescapably clear, as they presented extreme challenges to human communities throughout the world. Uncontrolled climate change continues to accelerate the predictably unpredictable growth of extreme weather events like devastating mega-fires, hurricanes, droughts, floods, landslide, and monsoons, to shrink the habitable portions of the earth, and to spread novel diseases to new areas. This course will provide a foundation in the state of the current scientific knowledge of climate change and the multiple planetary processes at work as mutually interacting dynamics transform weather, oceans, rain and other forests, icecaps, glaciers, and permafrost, fires, top-soil, and various ecosystems. Having surveyed the complex but certain science of global climate change, we will then relate it to what is called the vulnerable world hypothesis: in light of advances in technology, population growth and interconnectivity, human activity increasingly threatens consequences that can literally alter the entire planetary ecosystem. The final focus of this conversation, then, will be on ethics, politics, culture, and technology, specifically on how we might develop the normative and imaginative resources to grasp the enormity of the advancing climate crisis and our increasingly vulnerable world, to face up to the ethical, political, and technological challenges these unprecedented circumstances pose, and begin to develop new capacities for collective action to address the new threats we face.

This is a 6-lecture series with three lectures per month in July and August. Lectures will be live and interactive, and archived for those who are not able to make the live session or want to view the lecture again later.

The lectures will be held every Monday at 1 p.m. EST (10 a.m. PST):

• July 11, 2022: The Complex but Certain Science of Global Climate Change.
• July 18, 2022: Climate Change, Pandemic, A Vulnerable World, and the Existential Threat of Inaction.
• July 25, 2022: From Economy to Energy and Technology: The Nature and Limits of the Response to the Climate Crisis Until Now.
• August 1, 2022: The Great Derangement: Why Are We Not Changing in the Face of Climate Change?
• August 8, 2022: Global Interconnectivity, History and Ethics in the Anthropocene.
• August 15, 2022: The Politics of an Effective Response versus the Consequence of Failure: From Just Climate Action to Desperate Gambits.

This course is being offered as part of the Social Philosophy online courses. If you would like to see our other offerings visit us at www.minervalife.org

This fee is non- refundable and non-transferable.

The course fee is for individuals only. For institutional subscriptions, please contact us at: [email protected]