Will Technology Save the World?: Environmental Ethics and Techno-Optimism

Catalog description

The environment is in crisis and we are the cause. In this class we examine our relationship to the environment, and our ethical obligations towards humans, non-human species, and the ecosystem more broadly. We will be doing this through the lens of technology, asking how novel eco-tech might help us solve the environmental crisis, including evaluating the risks, benefits, and ethics of proposed solutions like geo-engineering, genetic modification, and renewable energies. As part of this, we will consider who benefits from technological solutions, how we might need to change our relationship to nature, and whether societies are betting too much on the promise of future technologies to fix current environmental crises. The course will ground students in applied environmental ethics, teaching them how to apply ethical decision-making frameworks, including non-western ethical systems, with an emphasis on case studies and practical implementation.