In Winter 2015 Professor of Philosophy Stephen Gardiner undertook a pioneering and ambitious academic task: to co-teach a course on the ethics and science of climate engineering with Prof Thomas Ackerman from the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington. In a recent commentary for the Forum for Climate and Engineeing, Gardiner and Ackerman reflect on their experience teaching the course. Their reflection provides a number of useful lessons for other academics seeking to teach interdisciplinay courses, particularly issues as scientifically and ethically complex as climate engineering. As Gardiner and Ackerman highlight, climate engineering can be broadly defined as the “deliberate, large-scale intervention in the Earth’s natural systems to counteract climate change”. Such interventions raise a host of ethical and scientific questions, and their course set out to provide an interdisiplinary approach to the issue, which brought together science, ethics and policy questions.
To read their reflection please visit: http://ceassessment.org/commentary-can-a-philosopher-and-a-scientist-co…
Prof Gardiner is Director of the Program on Values, Professor of Philosophy, and Ben Rabinowitz Endowed Professor of Human Dimensions of the Environment at the University of Washington, Seattle