How Should We Save the Earth? Public Views of Climate Policies and Moral Duties to Future Generations

Dr. Malcolm Fairbrother

Friday, Sept. 10
1:00- 2:00 pm (PDT)
Hybrid online/in person seminar (room CLE B007)

Surveys show that most people around the world are concerned about environmental problems, including climate change. What they think should be done about those problems, however, is less clear. We know next to nothing about public attitudes towards many environmental policies that are likely to prove vital but also controversial in the years to come--such as carbon tariffs, just transition support, the phase-out of fossil fuel-powered cars, and the protection of nature areas. This talk will present the results of recent surveys in several (mostly European) countries, capturing laypeople's views of these and other policies, plus how they see their moral duties to future generations. The presentation will also review research the speaker has done that shows how people's support for many environmental policies strongly reflects their trust in their country's political and administrative leaders and systems.

Dr. Malcolm Fairbrother is a professor of sociology at Umeå University and the Institute for Futures Studies (in Sweden) and the University of Graz (Austria). Originally from Vancouver, he studied for a BA at UVic in the 1990s, and later received his MA and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on climate and environmental policy and politics, social and political trust, and social science research methods. His current projects investigate the decoupling of greenhouse gas emissions from economic growth, and public attitudes towards policies for environmental protection.

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Presented by IESVic and the School of Public Administration