The Anthropocene project: virtue in the age of climate change

The Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC contains a detailed analysis of the threats climate change poses to human security. The IPCC chairman stated recently that the new report shows how our persistent inaction on climate change presents a grave threat to 'the very social stability of human systems'. This book attempts to make philosophical sense of this. We are now in 'the human age' - the Anthropocene - but it argues that this is no mere geological marker. It is instead best viewed as the latest permutation of an already existing moral and political project rooted in Enlightenment values

The Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC contains a detailed analysis of the threats climate change poses to human security. The IPCC chairman stated recently that the new report shows how our persistent inaction on climate change presents a grave threat to 'the very social stability of human systems'. This book attempts to make philosophical sense of this. We are now in 'the human age' - the Anthropocene - but it argues that this is no mere geological marker. It is instead best viewed as the latest permutation of an already existing moral and political project rooted in Enlightenment values.

The recent Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggested that continuing inaction on climate change presents a significant threat to social stability. This book examines the reasons for the inaction highlighted by the IPCC and suggests the normative bases for overcoming it.