Climate Change Adaptation and Human Capabilities : Justice and Ethics in Research and Policy

duty to do the right thing to the other, yet we are always aware of the fact that we will always fail in our efforts to do so. In other words, the moral condition means that the sweet nectar of being in the right is always an illusion. And in some respects, we are always alone in shouldering this moral calling from our fellow beings, since there is always some grain of responsibility that cannot be shared. According to Bauman, this experience of moral failure haunts many of us to the degree that we take our refuge in aesthetic and cognitive space. This is where my worries about the increased interest in the moral dimension of climate change kick in. Will it actually result in proper action, or are we letting our moral concerns transform into ethical reflections in cognitive space only? According to Bauman, an escape from moral space to cognitive space is a coping strategy that we use in order to dodge the anxiety bullets that we have to face daily as moral beings. It is not very altruistic at all. It happens when we can no longer endure that we are part of the pressures that exacerbate the sufferings of others, and when we realize that the turn-off-the-lights adaptation does not cut it, that we are bound to moral failure; then we turn to ethical theories to organize our moral anxiety in cognitive space. Alas, some refuge! This organizing of concepts, models, typologies, distinctions, and definitions in cognitive space, however, resembles compulsive activity disorders. It is as if, driven by moral anxiety, we strive to set up messy morality in coherent and consistent packages. Thus, rather than taking us closer to doing the right thing, ethics may prove to be a poor basis for moral action simply because it constitutes cognitive space. Speaking from Sweden, many of us used to turn to the Protestant Christian deity (God), to nature, or to political deliberation for solace. I now wonder, however, if another reason for why we are turning so feverishly to ethical space in climate change research and policy is that we have outsourced God and formal religion to other countries, that we spend less and less time in the wild, and that we are witnessing the dismantling of the Social Democratic welfare system? So far, the climate change regime has primarily focused on mitigation as a matter of justice. This is to be expected, as mitigation is in symbiosis with the drivers of economic growth and therefore is embedded in the intertwined history of and current economy of affluence. However, present-day climate change vulnerability and need for adaptation are rapidly gaining interest in climate change research as well as policy. With this in mind, I present to you my book about climate change adaptation and human capabilities. You can argue that I am doing April 15, 2014 Uppsala, Sweden papers, and lectures that have now turned into this book. I am grateful to anonymous reviewers, to the members of the research seminar in ethics at Uppsala University, and to master's degree students at the Environmental Learning and Research Centre at Rhodes University, South Africa, as well as to the students in the climate change leadership course, Uppsala Centre for Sustainable Development. Thanks for all the great comments! Thanks also to peer reviewers in editorial committees, conference committees, and at conference seminars. In addition to thanking my great coauthors (you guys are great!), special thanks for support goes to some old and new friends and colleagues in Uppsala: Eva Friman, who did a final reading of the manuscript; Leif Östman and Elisabet Nihlfors, who gave me space to write; Sven Jungerhem, who introduced me to my new coffice, the Seven Gates of Hell restaurant in Uppsala and its manager Erik Bennbom. To Erik and his staff, who invited me to write in their restaurant during the last month, thanks for offering me a table, great company, and good food! I also want to thank the Swedish Research Council FORMAS and the Department of Education, Uppsala University. And to my wonderful and strong kids Li, Ida, Sallie, and my bonus daughter Gabbie, thanks for your love and wisdom. Climate Change Adaptation and Human Capabilities explores the growing interdisciplinary research field of ethical reflections on justice, well-being, and climate change. Climate adaptation as it enables and hinders the way to human well-being is uncovered through transformative learning, holistic mobility, and salutogenic health models. Insight is offered to the question of the social and ethical limits that must be made to adapt to climate change, with Kronlid drawing on research from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's assessment reports and on contemporary literature that demonstrate the need for adaptation for the sake of resilience, social transition, and transformation Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Introduction....Pages 1-29 The Capabilities Approach to Climate Change....Pages 31-45 Mobile Adaptation....Pages 47-74 Transformative Learning and Individual Adaptation....Pages 75-105 The Serious Play of Climate Change Negotiation....Pages 107-132 Salutogenic Climate Change Health Promotion....Pages 133-155 Adaptation for Well-Being....Pages 157-180 Back Matter....Pages 181-211