Climate Change and Complacency

Abstract

In this paper I engage interdisciplinary conversation on inaction as the dominant response to climate change, and develop an analysis of the specific phenomenon of complacency through a critical‐feminist lens. I suggest that Chris Cuomo's discussion of the “insufficiency” problem and Susan Sherwin's call for a “public ethics” jointly point toward particularly promising harm‐reduction strategies. I draw upon and extend their work by arguing that extant philosophical accounts of complacency are inadequate to the task of sorting out what it means to be complacent on climate change. I offer a sketch for an alternative account, which I take to be a start in the direction of mapping out a diverse array of “motivational vices” that need to be named, grappled with, and (hopefully) remedied.

Imagining a sustainable future: Eschatology, Bateson’s ecology of mind and arts-based practice

“…We have stated above that establishing a definitive link between participation in a workshop or attendance at a poetry reading and future activism is far from straightforward. However, it is welldocumented that ecological issues such as climate change appear as a distant risk to Western publics (Corner et al, 2012;Doan, 2014;Poortinga et al, 2011;Slocum, 2004). Workshop participants reported that climate change felt removed from their everyday lives but writing their own poetry made them think about weather patterns and impacts at a very local level.…”

Plastic Littering and Waste Management in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa: Exploring the Snack-Food Consumer Littering and Responsibility towards the Environment.

“…Quinn (2012) asserts that the littering impacts on the ecosystem include but are not limited to the changing climate, global warming and natural disaster. Doan (2014), agreeing with Quinn (2012), indicates that globally, people are beginning to be affected by regional and global environmental changes. Thus, the communities are now overwhelmed with many odds regarding the recurrent and strong climatological events (high-temperature waves, abnormally low temperature, and hurricanes), ecological disturbances (melting glaciers, growing oceanic water levels, floods, droughts, and wildfires), pressures to transform out-of-date agronomic practices, food and water security crisis (Brown et al, 2018).…”

Geosocialities, Flow and Renewal in Microbial Rivers

“…By considering the moving and changing nature of rivers and their communities it may be possible to counter a widespread, apocalyptic and destructive response to environmental degradation that entails defeatism and discouragement (Haraway, 2016). Thinking with rivers may assist in overcoming the problem of inaction and complacency resulting from the recognised failure to propose nationwide and structured plans to counter climate change and the still insufficient public engagement with the issue (Doan, 2014).…”