Lecture: Living in Harm's Way - When Are Victims Responsible?

Over the coming years, climate change will harm billions of people around the world. How can moral responsibility for these harms be divided? In particular, if most of the eventual victims will have known about the dangers they faced and had decades to prepare, will they bear responsibility for choices they make that leave them exposed to harm? 

In this talk, Dr. Dan Shahar explores the complex issue of assigning responsibility for the long-term impacts of climate change. He claims that standard assessments exaggerate the moral significance of many climate-induced harms while underemphasizing impacts on people whose poverty, lack of education, or legal and political circumstances leave them unable to get out of harm's way. Shahar argues that properly attending to these issues would imply a new orientation for climate policy—one that focuses not on minimizing harm but rather on empowering people to choose what risks they will bear.

Dan Shahar is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy—Research at the University of New Orleans and a member of the Urban Entrepreneurship and Policy Institute. He completed his Ph.D. in Philosophy at the University of Arizona, where he was also a Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy and a Fellow at the UA Center for the Philosophy of Freedom. Dr. Shahar's research focuses on the implications of environmental challenges for liberal societies and their members.