Abstract
In a speech before the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, Gro Harlem Brundtland, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Change, said:
So what is it that is new today? What is new is that doubt has been eliminated. The report of the International Panel on Climate Change is clear. And so is the Stern report. It is irresponsible, reckless and deeply immoral to question the seriousness of the situation. The time for diagnosis is over. Now it is time to act (Brundtland 2007).
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Notes
- 1.
The literal translation of “livssyn” is “life view”. One can find three translations of this term into English: (secular) “philosophy of life”, “life philosophy” and “world view”. The Norwegian Government appears to prefer “philosophy of life” in their official documents. In order to avoid the connotation to the Germanic philosophical tradition, I will use the slightly more awkward “life philosophy” in this chapter. “World-view” is in my opinion not an adequate translation because the concept of “livssyn” typically embraces and emphasizes the existential and moral dimension of human life
- 2.
The complaint made to NENT by cand. real. (= M. Sc.) Jan M. Doderlein as well as the Committee’s reply is publicly available at http://www.etikkom.no. I should make clear that I was not a distant observer in this case, as I was a member of the NENT Committee at the time and participated in the drafting of the response to Doderlein.
- 3.
- 4.
Author’s translation, which was anything but easy in this case. Stoltenberg uses the word “tydelig” – deutlich in German. I have translated it into “distinct”, which perhaps exaggerates the association to rationalist philosophy in his mention of secular life philosophies.
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Strand, R. (2012). Doubt has been eliminated. In: Øyen, S.A., Lund-Olsen, T., Vaage, N.S. (eds) Sacred Science?. Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen. https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-752-3_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-752-3_4
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