"Responding Ethically to Climate Change in the Willamette Valley" was the third SOPHIA symposium that took place in 2009. It was hosted at the University of Oregon in Eugene, OR, on Saturday, October 3rd, 2009. The symposium was cosponsored by SOPHIA and the University of Oregon Community Philosophy Institute.

The following is the organizers' report on the symposium:

The Department of Philosophy at the University of Oregon hosted a community conversation on the ethical dimension of climate change in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, bringing together local leaders representing education, government, labor, and public utilities with university faculty from Environmental Studies, Geography, Law, Philosophy, and Religious Studies (a list of participants is included below).

The conversation aimed to engage the participants in reflective consideration of the role that ethical values play in their current work and of how those values motivate their collective responsibilities in meeting the challenges of climate change, with the hope of stimulating a more cohesive community dialogue as the effects of climate change are felt in our region.

While the scientific and economic impacts of climate change are receiving careful scrutiny at local as well as international levels, insufficient attention has been paid to issues of ethics and equity that will emerge in the wake of climate change. As the 2004 Buenos Aires Declaration on the Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change notes, “Further and more detailed reflection on the ethical issues entailed by specific climate change questions and positions is an international imperative.” Although it is predicted that the Willamette Valley will be spared the worst direct effects of climate change, we anticipate difficult changes ahead as a consequence of altered weather patterns, redistribution of population, and disruption of livelihoods. Issues of ethics and equity should not be an afterthought as we plan our responses to these changes. To this end, our community conversation had the following aims:

• to identify key issues of ethics and equity that our community is likely to face over the next decade as a consequence of climate change;

• to consider the best means of responding to these issues in a way that respects both procedural and distributive justice;

• to identify means of building local community so that all affected stakeholders can effectively be involved in planning and preparing for the necessary changes.

Since our participants were not expected to have any special expertise concerning climate science or policy, we provided two short texts to read in advance of our meeting. The first was a short selection by NYU philosopher Dale Jamieson explaining how climate change challenges us to reshape our concepts of individual and political morality (Professor Jamieson, in residence as the 2009-2010 Wayne Morse Chair of Law and Politics, participated in the discussion).

The second text was the Executive Summary from Preparing for Climate Change in the Upper Willamette River Basin of Western Oregon, produced in March 2009 by the University of Oregon's Climate Leadership Initiative and the National Center for Conservation Science & Policy. This report provided the most detailed and up-to-date predictions concerning anticipated local effects of climate change on natural systems, the built environment, and the local economy.

The conversation, moderated by Scott Pratt and Ted Toadvine, was divided into two ninety-minute segments, the first of which aimed to clarify the values under threat by climate change. The following preliminary list was provided to generate discussion:

1. health and basic necessities – good mental and physical health for ourselves and others in the community, along with access to food, water, energy, etc.

2. economic stability – we’d all like to have jobs and be able to earn a living, and we want this for other members of our community as well

3. our natural environment – we love the beauty of the place where we live: forests, rivers, open spaces, the particular species that live here, etc.

4. solidarity – fair and equitable treatment for all members of the community

5. the lives of those who follow us – good lives for our children and neighbors who will continue to live here after us (i.e., future generations)

To this list, our discussion generated the following additional values: political comity and cohesion, public safety and security, cultural traditions and identity, equitable sharing of costs and benefits, art and beauty, the feeling of security, family cohesiveness, connection to land, and the sense of agency. We noted that populations at risk of inequitably shouldering the burdens of climate change include those already suffering from inequities of race and class, children and the elderly, those with vulnerable health conditions, blue collar workers, and the geographically vulnerable.

During our second session, the conversation focused on how to build capacity as a community to respond to unpredictable changes in a way that protects these values from being sacrificed to expediency. Our conversation revolved around a series of themes that would be significant for such efforts: education, systems thinking, re-understanding migration, re-engineering agriculture around food, the need for interdisciplinarity, relocalization, revitalizing government, political participation, recognizing our arrogance and ignorance, and the development of a local community action plan. We concluded with a consideration of appropriate venues for continuing and developing this conversation with wider representation from the local business community, vulnerable populations, high-school students, and government leaders. After the close of the formal session, the conversations continued informally over a luncheon.

This event was co-sponsored by the University of Oregon’s Department of Philosophy and Office of Sustainability, The Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics, and a grant from The Society of Philosophers in America and the American Philosophical Association. It is part of an on-going series of Community Philosophy Institutes sponsored by the University of Oregon Department of Philosophy.

Community Philosophy Institute participants

Pat Bartlein, UO Professor of Geography

Barbara Byrd, Portland Coordinator, Labor Education and Research Center

Felicity Fahy, Sustainability Coordinator, Eugene Water and Electric Board

Margaret Hallock, Director, Wayne Morse Center for Law & Politics

Dale Jamieson, NYU Professor of Philosophy & Environmental Studies

Larry Kleinman, Secretary/Treasurer, Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste

Kathy Lynn, Research Associate, UO Environmental Studies Program

Andrea Miller, Development & Constituency Coordinator, CAUSA

Steve Mital, UO Sustainability Director

Keli Osborn, CMO Division Manager, City of Eugene

Scott Pratt, UO Head & Professor of Philosophy

Matt Rasmussen, Environmental Journalist, Orion Magazine

Ted Toadvine, UO Associate Professor of Philosophy and ENVS

Mark Unno, UO Professor of Religious Studies

Tim Whitley, Science teacher, Winston Churchill High School

Mary Wood, Knight Professor, UO School of Law

Naomi Zack, UO Professor of Philosophy