Climate Change and the Humanities

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

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2. Introduction

   • Alexander Elliott, Vinita Damodaran, James Cullis

   Pages 1-11

3. Historical

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 13-13

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   2. The Importance of the Humanities to the Climate Change Debate

      • Alexander Elliott, James Cullis

      Pages 15-42

   3. Understanding Climate Change Historically

      • Richard Staley

      Pages 43-68

   4. The Culture of Islands and the History of Environmental Concern

      • Richard Grove

      Pages 69-91

   5. The Locality in the Anthropocene: Perspectives on the Environmental History of Eastern India

      • Vinita Damodaran

      Pages 93-116

   6. Plastic Daffodils: The Pastoral, the Picturesque, and Cultural Environmentalism

      • Nick Groom

      Pages 117-139

4. Contemporary

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 141-141

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   2. Cli-Fi? Literature, Ecocriticism, History

      • Martin Ryle

      Pages 143-158

   3. Climate Change as a Challenge to Philosophy

      • Gideon Calder

      Pages 159-175

   4. Belief in Change: The Role of Media and Communications in Driving Action on Climate Change

      • Catherine Happer

      Pages 177-197

5. Future

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 199-199

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   2. Climate Change and Future Aesthetics

      • Emily Brady

      Pages 201-220

   3. Investment Without Return: On Futures that Will Never Be Ours

      • Paul Davies

      Pages 221-245

   4. Climate Change and Moral Philosophy

      • Tim Mulgan

      Pages 247-265

6. Back Matter

   Pages 267-271

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This  volume  of  essays  fills  a  lacunae  in  the  current  climate  change  debate  by  bringing  new perspectives on the role of humanities scholars within this debate. The humanities have historically played an important role in the various debates on environment, climate and society. The past two decades especially have seen a resurfacing of these environmental concerns across humanities disciplines in the wake of what has been termed climate change. This book argues that these disciplines should be more confident and vocal in responding to climate change while questioning the way in which the climate change debate is currently being conducted in academic, political and social arenas. Addressing climate change through the varied approaches of the humanities means re-thinking and re-evaluating its fundamental assumptions and responses to perceived crisis through the lens of history, philosophy and literature. The volume aims thus to be a catalyst for emerging scholarship in this field and to appeal to an academic and popular readership.

• climate
• climate change
• environment
• ethics
• aesthetics
• climate change impacts

“The chapters in this volume offer nuanced and detailed perspectives on the challenges of knowing and representing climate change. … they provide an extensive overview of a set of cross-temporal environmental themes and make a forceful case for interdisciplinary conversations on climate change.” (Ramya K Tella, Ecology, Economy and Society, Vol. 3 (1), January, 2020)

• Social and Political Thought, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, United Kingdom

  Alexander Elliott

• Department of History, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, United Kingdom

  James Cullis, Vinita Damodaran

Alexander Elliott is a DPhil candidate and Associate Tutor at the University of Sussex, UK, in the department of Social and Political Thought. He is also a graduate associate of the Centre for World Environmental History. His research interests include climate change, epistemology and the history of philosophy.

James Cullis is an MPhil student at the University of Sussex, UK, associated with the Centre for World Environmental History and the Centre for Intellectual History.  His research deals with the way environmental and geographic concerns arose within Scottish Enlightenment accounts of societal progress.

Vinita Damodaran is Professor in South Asian History and Director of the Centre for World Environmental History at the University of Sussex, UK. Her publications include Nature and the Orient, Essays on the Environmental History of South and South-East Asia (1998), British Empire and the Natural World: Environmental Encounters in South Asia, (2010) and The East India Company and the Natural World (2014).

Policies and ethics