Episode description

The climate crisis presents us with a number of moral challenges. We all produce emissions, but there are massive differences and inequities in how much pollution each individual is responsible for and who is harmed the most by the consequences. As the very real impacts of the crisis only become more obvious and deadly, we continue to ask ourselves: what is our responsibility? 

In this week's show, we dig into some of the tough ethical considerations for living in a climate crisis. To do so, we talk to Travis Rieder, an associate research professor at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. Rieder is the author of multiple books including In Pain: A Bioethicist’s Personal Struggle with Opioids. His latest book is Catastrophe Ethics: How to Choose Well in a World of Tough Choices. We discuss the conversations around individual responsibility vs. collective action, how to determine our best path for fighting climate change, and what it means to exist between purity and nihilism. 

Read Catastrophe Ethics: How to Choose Well in a World of Tough Choices

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.