Climate Ethics
Climate Ethics is a framework for examining the moral issues that have arisen within the global climate crisis, and the implications for what to do about it. It includes framing questions such as: How do we respond to the reality that communities hurt first and most intensely by the crisis are generally the least responsible for causing it? What are our responsibilities to future generations? What values shape our relationships with other-than-human species and the elements of nature? What are the threats and opportunities of proposed technological solutions? What are the laws and social norms that undergird the status quo? How can we create positive change?
The course will provide basic literacy in climate science and case studies of impacts, but it focuses on an understanding of the drivers of human behavior that are shaping our shared biosphere. Recognizing that the climate crisis is about more than data, science, and technology (as important as they are), Climate Ethics explores how to draw from values, culture, and spirituality to heal and protect the life-support system of the Earth.
Date & Time:
September 16 & 30, October 7 & 14
6:45 PM – 9:15 PM EST
Online Session
Registration Deadline: September 2, 2025
Meet the Instructor:
Karenna Gore is the founder and executive director of the Center for Earth Ethics and a visiting professor of Practice of Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Karenna formed CEE in 2015 to address the moral and spiritual dimensions of the climate crisis. Working at the intersection of faith, ethics, and ecology, she guides the Center’s public programs, educational initiatives, and movement-building. She is also an ex officio faculty member of Columbia University’s Earth Institute. Karenna is the author of “Lighting the Way: Nine Women Who Changed Modern America” (2006). , and has written for numerous publications, including Slate, El País (Spain), and the New York Times. She serves on the boards of the Association to Benefit Children, Pando Populus, which helps local communities leverage their creative and intellectual resources for sustainability, the Sweetwater Cultural Center, an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to promoting the education, health and welfare of Indigenous Peoples and to preserve their cultures and ceremonial practiced locally, regionally, and around the Western Hemisphere, and Riverkeeper, an organization that protects and restores the Hudson River and safeguards drinking water. She is also an expert in the United Nations’ Harmony with Nature Knowledge Network, an online platform of practitioners, academics, and researchers. A graduate of Harvard College, Karenna earned her law degree from Columbia Law School and a master’s in social ethics from Union Theological Seminary. She lives in New York City with her three children.
