Selin in BU Today: Climate Morality
Pope Francis, current leader of the Roman Catholic Church, also has a background in chemistry. But it is not solely towards science he turns in a recent encyclical condemning human contributions to global climate change. Francis argues that climate change is a moral issue, and Henrik Selin, Associate Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, agrees.
Selin made his argument in a July 23 POV Op-Ed published in BU Today. It was entitled “Making Climate Change a Moral Issue.”
From the text of the op-ed:
Pope Francis echoes the concerns of others when he argues that it is the world’s poorest and most vulnerable who are mostly starting to bear the brunt of the costs associated with a changing climate, and that will only increase. As true as this is, it is a perspective that is woefully neglected in many global and national political debates, which remain narrowly centered on limiting the costs of cutting emissions and how to pass on responsibilities and obligations to others.
Any meaningful response to climate change must involve government action in the name of the common good, coordinated across national borders. Governments have the authority to formulate economic and energy policy and set environmental and human health standards.
You can read the entire op-ed here.
Selin is the faculty coordinator for the IR & Environmental Policy program. He is also a Core Faculty member of the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, Boston University; a faculty member of the Center for the Study of Europe, and a Fellow with the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of Longer-Range Future, Boston University. Learn more about him here.