How We Can Use Philosophy to Get a Better Picture of Climate Change
My Global Studies Capstone Project
The goal of my project is to see how we can use psychology, philosophy, and system-thinking to get a more complete picture of climate change and our future. In this project i will try to determine what philosophies and ideas are useful to have moving forward in a world shaped by climate change. I will judge this based on how prepared this method of thinking makes us for a future molded by climate change if it helps us get a better picture of climate change, and how effective the idea is for getting people to act to mitigate climate change. From there I will want to focus on climate change as a “Hyperobject” (a concept that effects and is part of many other issues but is not a solid thing itself) and how it permeates through everything from labor rights to racial prejudice. I also plan to briefly address how the current public perception of climate change affects people. Here I will focus on things like climate grief and other issues like ‘making climate change the next generation’s problem.
Aspects of My Project
Research
Books by Timothy Morton will give a good baseline for my research which I then plan to build upon by reading the work of indeginous scholars. For example I have found a great article about how the tribes and protestors lived during standing rock and how that indigenous lifestyle and way of thinking could be helpful when combating climate change. Some other examples of research sources I plan to take advantage of are Timothy Morton’s books, Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology After the End of the World and Ecology Without Nature. And other books discussing the current world effect of climate change and climate grief.
List of sources i plan to use
Derek Parfit, “Future People, The Non-Identity Problem, And Person Afftecting Principals” in Philosophy and Public Afairs
Hot Mess, Climate Change is Too Big for Our Brains
Jonathan Neake, “Social Change and Climage Change” in The Ecologist
Jordan Engel, “Names and Locations of the Top 100 People Killing the Planet,” in Decolonial Atlas
Kalamaoka’aina Niheu, “Indegenous Resistance in an Era of Climate Change,” in Radical History Review
Natasha Lennard, “The El-Paso Shooter Embraced Eco-Fascism. We cant let the Far Right Co-Opt the Environmental Struggle” in The Intercept
Mike Pearl, “Climate despair is making people give up on life” In Vice
Afformentioned Timothy Morton books.
Product
I conducted a survey that was sent out to the student body of Watkinson school. I received feedback which helped me revise the survey to be easier to take and be more effective in answering the questions I wanted it to. I also plan to send this survey to other schools and groups in the future.
Internship
My Time With Save the Sound
A Peek at my Capstone Paper: Understanding Diverse Perspectives On Climate Change
Climate change appears to people in many different ways, most of which they have become accustomed to. Some ecological issues like plastic waste are kept present in the average American’s mind by adverts, while others such as climate refugees moving north from South and Central America are less present. Climate change’s effects can be felt from anywhere by almost anyone. Although climate change does not affect everyone in the same ways. For instance, some Americans may be accustomed to hearing about climate change in news articles, often about how they themselves are helping to perpetuate it. Others become conscious of climate change when they hear that housing is under threat of flooding because of rising sea levels.