The Imperative of Ethical Change through Climate Change: Cultivating New Ecological Virtues

Watch the recording of this presentation on YouTube

In this interactive discussion, Don Beith, Assistant Professor of Environmental Philosophy at the University of Maine, will discuss how environmental ethics is about more than simply applying human values to environmental problems, but also learning to make our ethical thinking itself more ecological and to become more environmentally sensitive in our habits and everyday lives. We often think of climate change as a crisis in our external environment, but in this talk, we will consider the equally daunting challenge of ethical change, and the positive and necessary impact that changing our lives and values will have in the environmental crisis. We will discuss how achieving a sustainable future will require us to learn to be different kinds of people, with different habits and values. We will consider what the shape of these environmental virtues look like in an increasingly ecologically and multiculturally changing world.

Support for the Ted Exford Climate Stewards lecture series is provided by Dave & Loretta (Exford) Hoglund.

About the Presenter

Don Beith teaches environmental philosophy at the University of Maine and is a fellow at the Senator George J. Mitchell for Sustainability Solutions. Through approaching philosophy through experiential learning, like guided philosophical nature walks, or engaged philosophy, like the application of principles of environmental justice to local indigenous sovereignty and conservation efforts, to bigger global problems like climate change and ecological injustice, Beith is committed to philosophy as an opportunity to learn how to change our lives to address contemporary existential issues. Don is working on new publications in environmental virtue ethics, the moral status of new "green" technologies, the role of place and environment in our identity, medical ethics, and he is actively learning about environmental issues in Maine. Please get in touch with thoughts or questions! https://umaine.edu/philosophy/people/don-beith/   donald.beith@maine.edu