Climate Justice and Feasibility

Normative Theorizing, Feasibility Constraints, and Climate Action

Edited by Sarah Kenehan and Corey Katz

This collection helps bridge the divide between the work of normative theorists and climate action (or inaction). In this volume, contributors reflect on how we should understand the relationship between theorizing about climate justice, the principles of justice that result, and feasibility constraints on climate action. Some explore the role of theorists or the usefulness of their theories for guiding policymaking and action on climate change, while others discuss concerns with who is establishing what the feasibility constraints are and how they are doing so. Others identify and discuss psychological feasibility constraints on just climate action, or draw important parallels and distinctions between the feasibility constraints that were tackled in order to address the COVID-19 pandemic and those that need to be tackled in order to respond to global climate change.

The international and interdisciplinary contributors offer a range of approaches and frameworks, to re-think the ways that concerns of justice should be considered on the policy level, speaking to students, research scholars, activists, and policymakers.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / Rowman & Littlefield International

Pages: 260 • Trim: 6½ x 9

978-1-5381-5419-9 • Hardback • October 2021 • $128.00 • (£98.00)

978-1-5381-5421-2 • Paperback • August 2023 • $40.00 • (£30.00)

978-1-5381-5420-5 • eBook • October 2021 • $121.50 • (£94.00)

Subjects: Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, Philosophy / Political, Philosophy / Ethics / Environmental Ethics

Climate Justice and Feasibility

Normative Theorizing, Feasibility Constraints, and Climate Action

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

This collection helps bridge the divide between the work of normative theorists and climate action (or inaction). In this volume, contributors reflect on how we should understand the relationship between theorizing about climate justice, the principles of justice that result, and feasibility constraints on climate action. Some explore the role of theorists or the usefulness of their theories for guiding policymaking and action on climate change, while others discuss concerns with who is establishing what the feasibility constraints are and how they are doing so. Others identify and discuss psychological feasibility constraints on just climate action, or draw important parallels and distinctions between the feasibility constraints that were tackled in order to address the COVID-19 pandemic and those that need to be tackled in order to respond to global climate change.
The international and interdisciplinary contributors offer a range of approaches and frameworks, to re-think the ways that concerns of justice should be considered on the policy level, speaking to students, research scholars, activists, and policymakers.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / Rowman & Littlefield International

Pages: 260 • Trim: 6½ x 9

978-1-5381-5419-9 • Hardback • October 2021 • $128.00 • (£98.00)

978-1-5381-5421-2 • Paperback • August 2023 • $40.00 • (£30.00)

978-1-5381-5420-5 • eBook • October 2021 • $121.50 • (£94.00)

Subjects: Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, Philosophy / Political, Philosophy / Ethics / Environmental Ethics

Author

Corey Katz is assistant professor of philosophy at Georgian Court University and was the post-doctoral researcher in the ethics of sustainable development at the Center for Ethics and Human Values and the Philosophy Department at the Ohio State University. His research lies at the intersection of global, long-term environmental problems like climate change, and ethical and political philosophy.
Sarah Kenehan associate professor of philosophy at Marywood University and works on issues of climate justice, global justice, and applied ethics. Recent publications include: Food, Environment, and Climate: Justice at the Intersection (Rowman and Littlefield, ed. With Erinn Gilson).

Table of Contents

Introduction, Corey Katz and Sarah Kenehan
1. Feasibility and Climate Justice, David Weisbach
2. Utopia, Feasibility, and the Need for Interpretive and Clinical Climate Ethics, Joshua McBee
3. Falling On Your Own Feasibility Sword? Challenges for Climate Policy Based on “Simple Self-Interest,” Stephen Gardiner and Justin Lawson,
4. Climate Justice, Feasibility Constraints, and the Role of Political Philosophy, Brian Berkey
5. Is a Just Climate Policy Feasible?, Kirsten Meyer
6. The “Pathway Problem,” Probabilistic Feasibility, and Non-ideal Climate Justice, Jared Houston
7. Making the Great Climate Transition: Between Justice and Feasibility, Fabian Schuppert
8. Is Climate Justice Feasible? A Psychological Perspective on Challenges and Opportunities for Achieving a Just Climate Regime, Ezra Markowitz and Andrew Monroe
9. Climate Change, Individual Preferences, and Procrastination, Fausto Corvino
10. COVID Pandemic and Climate Change: An Essay on Soft Constraints and Global Risks, Lukas H. Meyer and Marcelo de Araujo
About the Contributors
Index

Reviews

The contributors to this interdisciplinary collection reflect on how we should understand the relationship between principled theorizing about climate justice and feasibility constraints on climate action. Some explore the usefulness of theories for guiding policymaking and action on climate change. Others draw important parallels and distinctions between the feasibility constraints that were tackled in order to address the COVID-19 pandemic and those that need to be tackled in order to respond to global climate change. Employing a wide range of approaches and frameworks, the international contributors to this volume re-think the ways that climate justice should be considered on the policy level – by students, researchers, and policymakers.

— Yale Climate Change Connections

This is the first in a series of two volumes that explore the normative theory of climate justice and the feasibility of climate action. The 10 essays in this volume run the gamut of philosophical perspectives on the two central themes. A persistent thread running through the text (both implicitly and explicitly) is the considerable gap between the work of those who theorize issues, such as climate justice, and the practical work of policy makers who can enact change on a grand scale. Is it feasible to think that these theorists will have an impact on such politicians? More to the point, will politicians read this book? They may not, but they should. All the essays, as well as the introduction, are strong pieces that provoke thought, interest, and sometimes even anger. After all, climate affects everyone, yet it is not taken seriously by all, even those whose job it is to take it seriously. This text sets a high bar for the series, and one can hope that the second volume is of a similarly high caliber.Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals.

— Choice Reviews