Marion Hourdequin, Colorado College – « Climate Ethics and ‘The Right to be Cold' » (online | en ligne)

Marion Hourdequin, Colorado College, « Climate Ethics and The Right to be Cold »

Pré-inscription requise | Registration required: ely.mermans@umontreal.ca

Abstract

This talk explores climate ethics through the lens of the 2015 book, The Right to be Cold. The book traces Sheila Watt-Cloutier’s journey from childhood through adulthood and describes her international advocacy on behalf of Canada’s Inuit communities, as well as Arctic peoples throughout the world. I argue that Watt-Cloutier’s account offers important lessons for climate ethics and climate justice, by highlighting the deeply contextual and relational dimensions of climate impacts; implicitly challenging highly abstract and ideal conceptions of justice; and at the same time, strategically deploying the notion of human rights to convey what is at stake for Arctic peoples in a changing climate.