Abstract
Colleges and universities already contribute significantly to the fight against climate change, but the UN has recently called upon them to do even more. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that institutions of higher education play a unique role in combatting climate change and other structural injustices, not only by conducting research and disseminating knowledge, but also by fostering a form of collective political responsibility. A philosophical analysis of different forms of collective responsibility, with specific attention to the Fossil Free divestment movement, reveals how social position facilitates this contribution more so in colleges than in other institutions.
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Notes
- 1.
Throughout this article, these two words will be used interchangeably.
- 2.
Perhaps Basken’s focus on the hard sciences is too limited. Other fields, such as philosophy, may encounter fewer limitations to pursuing such research. For one instance, see Kovel 2007. However, it is true that IPCC’s more recent 5th Assessment report is the first to address the moral implications of climate change by including two philosophers among its authors. So one problem may be that the IPCC does not pay enough attention to work that falls under the social sciences and the humanities.
- 3.
A number of problems arise with the concept of collective responsibility itself; however, they will not be discussed here. This paper assumes some form of collective responsibility is necessary to combat climate change; the present task is to determine the nature of this responsibility.
- 4.
James Hansen, former NASA scientist turned activist, has even called COP 21 in Paris a “hoax” (Milman 2015).
- 5.
These three approaches are discussed in greater detail, alongside the difficulties of sharing responsibility for collective action problems, in Godoy (forthcoming).
- 6.
Economic growth is almost always paired with increasing carbon dioxide levels. The exceptions are 2014 and 2015. The only other periods of declining carbon dioxide are associated with a slowing economy (International Energy Agency 2016).
- 7.
- 8.
This is at least true in principle. The recent Black Lives Matter movement raises questions about the place and voice of non-white students at American universities. Yet the movement strategically leverages this supposed principle of inclusion in order to help make its point.
- 9.
However, academic freedom is a value that is not equally admired everywhere.
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Godoy, E.S. (2017). Going Fossil Free: A Lesson in Climate Activism and Collective Responsibility. In: Leal Filho, W. (eds) Climate Change Research at Universities. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58214-6_4
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