By Laurie Laker '12
"This class did the nitty gritty, sure, but it also told us what that nitty gritty was, and what needs to be done and done justly," says Westly Joseph '20她是科罗拉多大学A区夏季课程“气候正义竞赛”的一名学生.
这门课涉及哲学与科学交叉的问题, 站在全世界最紧迫、最重要的问题——应对全球气候变化——的最前沿. Engaging with the human responses, from the local to the international, 这堂课讨论了经常被遗忘的气候变化问题，这些问题超越了科学范畴，探讨了如何制定兼顾公平的拯救地球的对策, justice, and equity.
“多年来，关于气候正义的讨论发生了变化," explains Marion Hourdequin, professor of philosophy, who specializes in environmental philosophy.
“早期的气候正义和哲学非常关注民族国家, and their dividing up of responsibilities for CO2 emissions. 随着时间的推移，这种对话变得越来越复杂，尤其是随着科学的发展和进步."
Speaking of conversation, 由于冠状病毒的影响，这门课延续了CC最近的在线和远程学习趋势. It's not the normal for any student who arrives at CC, geared and ready for in-depth classroom debates, in-person lab work, field study, and so on.
"It's been really strange having online classes," says Brita Mackey '22她主修政治学，同时也在考虑辅修哲学.
"Our conversations were really productive, 我们教授提供的设置是经过深思熟虑的. 我们每天都使用Slack——这是一种有趣的体验，但我可以肯定地看到它的吸引力."
Westly Joseph '20, who is a chemistry major and environmental issues minor, 对远程教育有类似的感受吗?尤其是像这样的课程, lodged between the STEM and social science realms.
"I can only compare it to my 7th and 8th 这两门课的科学含量都很高。”她说.
"This class was really different for me, mostly reading and discussion based, but it was really enjoyable. The daily conversations and responses in Slack, 它给了你比平时在课堂上更多的时间. 不用那么紧张，这对平时在课堂上比较安静的学生来说可能更有吸引力, as well."
扩大对话范围的想法是这门课的主要焦点之一, the importance of Indigenous voices in the local, national, 以及关于气候变化和气候正义的全球讨论.
“许多关于公平的哲学解释都指向一个类似的方向.e., wealthy, 高排放国家应该带头减排——但权力动态和我们当代的权力结构使这一点复杂化, drastically," says Hourdequin. "With that in mind, 我们齐心协力，将原住民的声音集中在气候正义的对话中."
That centering was the heart of the class, and the takeaways from the class, for Hourdequin's students.
“这门课的很大一部分内容是接受和应用土著和传统知识, and how we can combine that with Western science," says Joseph.
“原住民世代与土地和当地生态互动, which is essentially decades of data, just not expressed in the ways of Western science. Ecological knowledge is not always 'science heavy,' it far more reflects how climate changes impact people, and their relationship to land. 作为科学传播的工具，它真的很有效，因为它使数据人性化，”她补充道.
这些互动的一个例子来自课堂上阅读的一篇文章, Sheila Watt-Cloutier's book, "The Right to be Cold."
That book "describes how many Inuit have deep, experiential knowledge of the weather, 以及阅读冰雪状况的能力——这些知识使猎人能够安全地穿越北极，并成功地为他们的社区获取食物. 因纽特人对气候变化的影响也非常敏感:他们一直在观察降雪的变化, ice, and animal migration patterns for decades. 很长一段时间以来，许多西方科学家未能认识到土著知识 as genuine knowledge," explains Hourdequin.
“非土著科学家和土著知识持有者之间的伙伴关系可以富有成果，可以促进相互学习, 但相互尊重的伙伴关系至关重要，也可能具有挑战性, given the ways in which the knowledges, lands, 土著人民的文化已经并将继续被他人占用," she adds.
对麦基来说，这种对人际协作和影响的关注标志着课堂重点的转变.
“这门课和我上过的很多哲学课都不一样. There was a focus on personal accounts, case studies, and real-world impacts, rather that philosophical theories. 理论成分补充了个人成分，而不是相反."
Those personal accounts and case studies, 尤其是关于正义的讨论”很容易被西方思想所殖民," explains Mackey. “我们看待自身利益和所有权这些基本问题的方式, and how they relate to future generations, 以及我们的环境和社区——这些并不像西方社会通常想象的那样普遍或单一."
灵活性是本课程对所有参与者的另一个核心收获.
“正如我们所知，气候正义确实是一个交叉领域，”约瑟夫说. “气候正义是种族正义，也是性别正义，等等. Addressing one area impacts all of these others; they're intrinsically linked."
“我设计的课程包含了气候变化讨论的各种组成部分," explains Hourdequin. "We talked about cultural, ecological, and economic issues, and how they are all bound up with questions of justice. For example, 我们考虑了如何制定有关气候适应的公平决策程序, 以及如何在各国之间公平分配减排责任. 这些讨论揭示了思考公平的多种方式, and that climate justice is important, but deeply contested."
气候变化和气候正义问题“不仅在国际上和国家之间发挥作用," adds Mackey, "they're also subnational, 并在已有的文化权力关系中运作, race, heritage and so on."