Catastrophe Ethics

An urgent, thought-provoking answer to the question we are all secretly asking: individually, how should we act in the face of the climate emergency?

Philosopher Travis Rieder outlines a new ethics for the age of humanmade catastrophe. We are all asking, in a hyperglobalised world hurtling towards environmental destruction: how do we determine the right actions? Do our individual efforts to avoid plastic or air travel, or to drive electric, make any real difference?

We urgently need to expand our ethical toolkit. The mental tools most of us rely on to ‘do the right thing’ just don’t work when it comes to reasoning about large collective problems. From the small stuff like single-use plastics to major decisions like whether to have children, Rieder defines exactly how we can change our thinking and lead a decent, meaningful life in a scary, complicated world.

Travis Rieder is a bioethicist and moral philosopher, and an associate professor of Philosophy and Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University. His first book In Pain was named an NPR Best Book of 2019 and his TED Talk on the same topic has been viewed 2.8 million times. He has written for Psychology Today and the New York Times.