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Home / 2022 / April / 07 / Should individual choice be restricted to preserve the climate?
Community Engagement, Community Events

Should individual choice be restricted to preserve the climate?

Keynote speaker Michael Ignatieff and an expert panel will explore if limiting freedoms is required for climate stability

April 7, 2022

A photo of a man cycling near a wildfire

The next Roger W. Gale Symposium in Philosophy, Politics and Economics will focus on whether individual freedoms should be limited in order to stabilize the global climate.

What: Roger W. Gale Symposium in Philosophy, Politics and Economics
Who: Expert panel including keynote speaker Michael Ignatieff, Ed Dolan, John Dryzek, Kathryn Harrison, William Rees, Meghan Robinson, Mark Sagoff, Marlowe Sam and Andrew Weaver
When: Tuesday, April 12–Individual and panel sessions between 9 am and 6:30 pm PST
Where: Zoom webinar

With the increase in wildfires, flooding and other natural disasters, it is evident that the state of the global climate is shifting. Humans are directly impacted by the adverse changes in their environment—yet continue activities that put the climate at risk.

Individual choices—especially those that emit heat-trapping gases—are a catalyst for the disruption in the current state, should they be limited? If the answer is yes—who would be limited and how?

On Tuesday, April 12, the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences‘ Department of Economics, Philosophy and Political Science at UBC Okanagan presents A Wicked Problem: Individual Freedoms and Climate Change. The event will explore if constraining human choices can promote climate stability. A panel of subject-matter experts—including keynote speaker Michael Ignatieff—will take the virtual stage to explore this topic in individual and panel sessions.

Dr. Johannus Janmaat, event organizer and Associate Professor of Economics, says the symposium comes at a crucial time when there is a shortcoming in the efforts for climate stability.

“On April 4, 2022, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released the third component of its latest assessment, pointing out that the nations of the world have done far less than promised to reduce climate change,” he states. “Why? Are the people of the world simply not willing to sacrifice their own freedoms now to reduce the chance of a less livable future?”

The Roger W. Gale Symposium is a series of events focusing on current issues that overlap multiple disciplines. Its goal is to bring together the academic and public worlds for a fruitful dialogue with subject-matter experts.

This virtual event is free and open to all, with online pre-registration required.

To register, or learn more about the lineup of speakers, visit: epp.ok.ubc.ca/about/freedomsandclimatechange

Media Contact

Nathan Skolski
Associate Director, Public Affairs
University Relations

The University of British Columbia
Okanagan campus
Tel: 250 807 9926
E-mail: nathan.skolski@ubc.ca

Content type: Media Advisory
More content from: Economics, Philosophy and Political Science, Irving K Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

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About UBC Okanagan

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning founded in partnership with local Indigenous peoples, the Syilx Okanagan Nation, in whose traditional, ancestral and unceded territory the campus resides. The most established and influential global rankings all consistently place UBC in the top five per cent of universities in the world, and among the top three Canadian universities.

The Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world in British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley. For more visit ok.ubc.ca.

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