Climate Change and the Humanities : Historical, Philosophical and Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Contemporary Environmental Crisis

This volume of essays fills a lacunae in the current climate change debate by bringing new perspectives on the role of humanities scholars within this debate. The humanities have historically played an important role in the various debates on environment, climate and society. The past two decades especially have seen a resurfacing of these environmental concerns across humanities disciplines in the wake of what has been termed climate change. This book argues that these disciplines should be more confident and vocal in responding to climate change while questioning the way in which the climate change debate is currently being conducted in academic, political and social arenas. Addressing climate change through the varied approaches of the humanities means re-thinking and re-evaluating its fundamental assumptions and responses to perceived crisis through the lens of history, philosophy and literature. The volume aims thus to be a catalyst for emerging scholarship in this field and to appeal to an academic and popular readership.-- Provided by publisher Front Matter ....Pages i-xii Introduction (Alexander Elliott, Vinita Damodaran, James Cullis)....Pages 1-11 Front Matter ....Pages 13-13 The Importance of the Humanities to the Climate Change Debate (Alexander Elliott, James Cullis)....Pages 15-42 Understanding Climate Change Historically (Richard Staley)....Pages 43-68 The Culture of Islands and the History of Environmental Concern (Richard Grove)....Pages 69-91 The Locality in the Anthropocene: Perspectives on the Environmental History of Eastern India (Vinita Damodaran)....Pages 93-116 Plastic Daffodils: The Pastoral, the Picturesque, and Cultural Environmentalism (Nick Groom)....Pages 117-139 Front Matter ....Pages 141-141 Cli-Fi? Literature, Ecocriticism, History (Martin Ryle)....Pages 143-158 Climate Change as a Challenge to Philosophy (Gideon Calder)....Pages 159-175 Belief in Change: The Role of Media and Communications in Driving Action on Climate Change (Catherine Happer)....Pages 177-197 Front Matter ....Pages 199-199 Climate Change and Future Aesthetics (Emily Brady)....Pages 201-220 Investment Without Return: On Futures that Will Never Be Ours (Paul Davies)....Pages 221-245 Climate Change and Moral Philosophy (Tim Mulgan)....Pages 247-265 Back Matter ....Pages 267-271