Panel to address climate change as a moral issue

KALAMAZOO—A panel of Western Michigan University professors will address climate change as a moral issue during a special event on the WMU campus next month.

Drs. Paul Clements, David Karowe and Ronald Kramer, professors of political science, biological sciences and sociology, respectively, will share their views at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 9, at the University Center for the Humanities, 2500 Knauss Hall. The discussion, free and open to the public, is titled "Climate Change: The Greatest Moral Issue of Our Times" and is part of the Center for the Study of Ethics in Society's fall lecture series.

The panel will discuss climate change within the framework of morality, as it causes death, destroys livelihoods and threatens major changes to the world that future generations will inherit. Panelists will examine how climate change creates a significant risk of widespread extinctions, loss of land due to sea level rise and forced population movements.

Panelists also will discuss how, despite very strong evidence that humans are causing the climate to change, the global community is failing to take steps needed to avoid the worst impacts. They will describe the science of climate change, identify the moral issues raised by this science and explore the politics that are blocking robust international action on this important moral issue.

For more information visit wmich.edu/ethics.