Introduction to Environmental Ethics and Sustainability

This course provides the philosophical underpinnings to environmental theory and ethics, and helps you how to begin to think, live and act more sustainably. This is a global issue, and especially urgent in the West, as our hypercapitalist societies, as well as their economic and political systems, condition us from very early ages to consume way more than is good for us. We are reaching a watershed moment where if we do not begin to live more sustainably en masse, then we as a species will suffer even more, and might even perish in the not-too-distant future.

The planet’s climate is fast approaching irreversible tipping points and although the science is clear, serious uptake is still grossly floundering, and many groups and institutions are still actively stalling or even against, and are thereby making a dire situation even worse. This free and relatively brief course gives you some initial inroads into how to be part of the solution, and not the problem. Your journey in environmental ethics and sustainability starts here! Enjoy and prosper!

There are 5 relatively short and sharp lectures to this course, with recommended readings and a quiz after each one.

1. Introduction

2. Philosophy and Ethics

3. Environmental Ethics

4. Sustainability

5. An Environmental Ethics of Minimalism