Poor people are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change, such as extreme weather and sea level rise, yet have contributed little to the causes.
asiandevelopmentbank/flickr
More than 2,000 academics, including philosophers and ethicists, are urging global leaders at the Paris climate summit to focus on the moral dimensions of climate change.
All’s well … then one day you walk out the front door and into a freshly-nuked hellscape.
Midhras
Do you run wild in Fallout, or vicariously hunt zombies in The Walking Dead? Three philosophers investigate the enduring appeal of the post-apocalypse.
Nigeria’s newly appointed government ministers attend their swearing-in ceremony in Abuja.
Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde
No-one imagined that it would take Muhammadu Buhari more than 100 days to form a cabinet. But, then again, Nigeria is no ordinary country and it has its own inherent logic.
The core disciplines of the ancient and enduring tradition are focused on the cultivation of strength.
John Mueller
Considerations of the moral case for coal must do far more than consider whether cheap fossil energy will lift people out of poverty. It must consider the pollution and harm to nature that come with it.
Looking to the cosmos to find our place in the universe.
Milky Way from www.shutterstock.com
Proponents of Big History say science provides a better sacred story for humanity than traditional faiths. Will this lead to an era of better stewardship of the environment?
Scott Turner, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
They’re the soil-builders that allow Africa’s arid savannas to be lush grasslands. What do they do inside their huge mounds – and how does a collective mind allow them to do it?
Would finding the fountain of youth really be such a great thing?
Nicola Sapiens De Mitri/Flickr
Some scientists claim a pill that would have us living healthier lives for longer is less than a generation away. But many philosophers argue extended life may not be as good as it sounds.
Philosophy can often be obscure. But is that because it’s complex, or made so?
Bernard Laguerre/Flickr
We might hope that good arguments will eventually drive out bad arguments – in what Timothy Williamson calls “a reverse analogue of Gresham’s Law” – and we might want (almost?) complete freedom for ideas…
Wildlife corridors: four proposals to ‘rewild’ portions of North America.
Smithsonian Institute
The film 13 Minutes dramatises an attempt by Georg Elser to assassinate Hitler in 1939, to prevent the war the Führer was preparing for. How clear-cut was the moral justification for that act?
Rather than hold on to the idea of equality of opportunity, it might be more accurate to say that we don’t really support it because it comes at too high a price.
How can we incorporate philosophy in our daily lives?
Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P.
Does God exist? Is piety worth it? Can violence be justified? Philosophy can offer a way to engage with these questions on which there are often widely differing beliefs.
How would Descartes approach this?
Child thinking via ClaudioValdes/www.shutterstock.com
A philosophy based on giving of ourselves to others may help us live more meaningful and fulfilling lives, while helping to bridge the extremes of our emotions and beliefs.
Religions can promote division and inequality in our societies.
Reuters/Akhtar Soomro
The pope’s encyclical on ecology addresses all individuals who want to live with integrity – and their ability to take personal actions on global problems.