The Committee on Environmental Thought
The Committee on Environmental Thought (ComET) is an environmental theory research group based at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Members of the group seek to investigate and explore environmental problems and the normative presuppositions that inform, frame, and guide solutions to these problems.
ComET projects include academic papers, work in public philosophy, film projects, and outreach in environmental philosophy.
ComET also curates Environmental Thoughts, a platform for sharing tools from philosophy in environmental problem solving, management, and policy.
Public Philosophy
Grist, March 25, 2021
To protect federal lands, the burden of proof is on conservationists. It should be on extractors.
“Pro-development politicians have, in the past year, sought to open up Arctic oil reserves, expand oil leasing in the Gulf of Mexico, build long-sought pipelines, and grant access to old growth timber resources. Each time, the burden falls upon conservationists to justify why industry should not log, dam, drill, mine, or harvest, rather than on developers to demonstrate why they should. This is backward.”
Read more by ComET members Alexander Lee, Benjamin Hale, and Alex Hamilton in Grist.
High Country News, May 19, 2020
How to Protect Nature in Uncertain Times
“Peering over the ramparts of our quarantined homes — at the disembodied faces of online happy hours, through the parade of masks in grocery stores, beyond the surge tents and makeshift morgues — we easily miss the frenzy of activity transforming our society.
This past month has seen state and local governments loosen controls on coal plants, relax enforcement of environmental regulations, and initiate projects from Alaska to South Dakota that have mostly escaped public scrutiny. The climate discussion has virtually disappeared from the airwaves. Environmental issues may feel less important with nearly 1.5 million COVID-19 cases in the country and an unemployment rate heading towards 20%, but let’s not forget our planet in this time of crisis. If we filter out the non-pandemic world, we become more vulnerable to environmental opportunism.”
Read more by ComET members Alexander Lee and Benjamin Hale in High Country News.
Latest Publications
The Wild and the Wicked
Read the NYTimes Book Review:
"The idea that humans have a unique ability to act for reasons, as opposed to behaving like mere animals, also figures in THE WILD AND THE WICKED: On Nature and Human Nature (MIT Press, $29.95), by the environmental ethicist Benjamin Hale. Hale’s concern is how to “justify environmentalism — why we should preserve, defend or protect nature.” Hale finds the two main approaches to this question wanting. Groups like the World Wildlife Foundation and the Sierra Club argue that nature is intrinsically valuable: “grand and wonderful and awesome.” Hale dismisses this as naïve romanticism that ignores the inconvenient fact that nature is also “nasty and horrible and cruel.” But the alternative approach, prominent in today’s debates about climate change, is to view nature as instrumentally valuable, with human well-being and survival providing the justification for protecting the environment. Hale fears this approach loses sight of the guiding ethos of the environmental movement: its “concern for nature” as such." -- James Ryerson, NY Times
Wanna hear more? Check out this podcast interview with Carrie Figdor at New Books in Philosophy.
For more information about the book, click above.
Looking for info on our Shifting Frontier project? Click any of the films listed above under "Shifting Frontier" or "Interviews" or click here to view our Trailer.