Book Review: Elizabeth Cripps - What climate justice means and why we should care

 

This week I got hold of a few books I've had my eye on for a while. 

Although I've got an infeasibly huge pile of research and teaching reading to do I thought I would take a little look at one of them - What Climate Justice Means And Why We Should Care by Elizabeth Cripps. 

I ended up reading the whole thing over two consecutive afternoons. 

This really demonstrates one of the great things about this book - the writing. Cripps is a former journalist and it is written in an extremely clear and engaging way. She introduces real-life cases and examples wherever possible to illustrate the impacts of climate change. 

The book is extremely accessible for a book on morality and justice.

The Moral imperative

This accessibility  is important because it is the impact that climate change will have - is currently having - on vulnerable individuals and groups around the world that makes it such a pressing moral issue. The climate tragedies will occur on a small - human - scale. People's lives will be ruined by droughts, floods, storms and so on that would not have occurred were it not for climate change. These tragedies are completely out of sight when we drive our cars or heat our homes or buy our products. 

Indeed, the issue of scale is one of the big problems with climate justice. Climate change is caused by cumulative emissions consisting of (usually) small amounts of emissions from billions of people - it is a macro problem. However, the impacts will be felt by vulnerable individuals in the future. Cripps reminds us to think about those individual stories.

Our own attempts to do something about it can seem tiny and insignificant, but we all have a moral duty to make those attempts. Cripps sets out the arguments here with admirable clarity. She also does the great service of listing and responding to some of the common counter-arguments. These really do not give us any moral excuses. 

Our own duties

What are our duties as individuals when it comes to climate change? Cripps' previous book was on the topic and so she covers this very well in the final chapter. 

Part of it is considering our own lifestyles and whether we can take reasonable steps to reduce our greenhouse contributions (think cows, planes, cars and draughty houses). 

However, since the issue is really a global one that no individual can resolve we also have the duty to act politically as well. This means supporting parties that take climate change seriously and will act on it. However, it is a flexible duty - it depends on our own position in society and our own skills. We can't all be Greta Thunberg but we can all make our small difference. This could be by changing our pension investments, challenge climate falsehoods when we hear them expressed, installing solar panels and heat pumps when we get an opportunity. 

Cripps sets out six highlights from the book at the end, and seeks to inspire us all to take the steps needed. 

Too emotional?

The book was very accurate when it comes to the issues and arguments. I had a slight concern that it tipped into the bombastic with a couple of comments that climate inaction or denialists 'might just kill us all.' 

Critics (wrongly) accuse climate activists of being irrational and overly-emotional. (The likes of Greta Thunberg can't win can they - too nerdy/robotic/scientific when presenting the science/facts and too emotional when demanding necessary actions). So there is a concern that this kind of language plays into the hand of the critic. 

On the other hand, Cripps does use the word 'might'! 

While it seems unlikely that climate change will end humanity, there might be some extreme scenarios where it triggers something like a nuclear war or mass extinction or something that ends civilization. Perhaps a few humans might survive even that but it would in fact pretty much be the death of all of us. 

I don't think that this will happen and Cripps' argument generally rests on the point that vulnerable people will die because wealthy people refused to take reasonable steps to limit their emissions (and in some unforgivable cases even spread misinformation designed to block such action). 

Summary

I didn't read every word of the book - I've taught this topic several times myself and so I'm familiar with a lot of the arguments. I felt I could skim over the summaries of those arguments. I didn't take the book to be aiming to give novel arguments for philosophers. Rather, it is aiming to explain to those unfamiliar with those arguments why we have a moral duty to act. Why a failure to act is unjust and therefore wrong. This is the latest test for humanity and we aren't quite covering ourselves in glory. 

In general, I like to think that this book would be suitable for someone who does not pay too much attention to the issue of climate change and thinks that there is no need for them to consider it. They are the people who need to get the message and Cripps has put her considerable research and writing skills to their best possible purpose by presenting that message in clear form. 

Drinking in nature: A worldwide experience?

In so many ways I am very lucky, and it is always good to acknowledge this.

Over the festive season we’ve been exploring the surrounding area a bit more on our dog walks, heading more for the downs (hills) than the Thames valley floor. The latter has been a bit muddy (if not flooded).

A few days ago we walked around the villages of Ipsden and Hailey and along a bit of the Chiltern way and Icknield Way walks. The pictures I took really don’t do justice to the scenery.

I stopped to take some photos because a thought occurred to me during a quiet and still moment as I gazed over the hills and valleys.

The thought was that there could be millions of people over the world doing something very similar to me at that moment—appreciating the stillness or majesty of the natural world.

Others might have been on a ship the sea, on a boat on a lake or river bend, in the mountains, surrounded by trees or on a plain. But were others also experiencing that absent-minded moment taking in a scene? I expect some were.

We were no doubt in a significant minority among the global population. Maybe a few thousand, maybe a million. Certainly not more—most people would be sleeping, eating, moving, entertained, worrying, hustling; all things we must do as humans. Many people would get very little opportunity to experience that kind of quiet scene.

I imagined flipping between those different people’s views, all different but unified and connected in some unreal manner. All swapping places for a split second with one another. Flicking between our views like a rapid slideshow.

No doubt a poet could express my thought much better.

My fellows and I might have completely opposed, maybe even alien, worldviews. Our cultural and religious attitudes could be radically conflicting. We are primarily social creatures, understanding the world through our language and cultural upbringing. We are different from any other species in that respect, we rely much more on knowledge rather than instinct and knowledge is transferred by language.

However, is this experiencing of nature potentially one of those universal human experiences that completely cuts across cultural differences? Mostly universal human experiences are going to be biological functions such as eating. Perhaps laughing and loving might also cut across cultural and linguistic divides as does experiencing nature?

During the cold war the great philosopher Sting said “I hope the Russians love their children too” perhaps making the same point at a time when mass destruction was quite a live option. Nuclear war hasn’t been such a prominent concern for a while, though chances might rise if the current US President thinks it might help him avoid impeachment or losing an election.

I’m very fortunate that I live somewhere I can access quiet nature; I have the time to go for walks and we have a car to get there quickly and easily. Many others won’t be so fortunate; those in a busy city, a slum or a refugee camp might have little opportunity to get away.

But at times like these, when there are those seeking to divide us in so many ways, it is good to appreciate the little ways we are perhaps united. That we all matter and that the quiet of certain kinds of natural environments matters too.