The Global Environmental Crisis: Is there a Place for an Individual Response?

A European Studies Lunch Talk with Katia Vladimirova

Many of us concerned with the degradation of the environment and global environmental challenges such as climate change at some point face the frustration of helplessness. How can I do something about these problems? Why should I continue reducing my carbon footprint if others don't? How can I make my effort count if the others do nothing? Our moral motivation to act sustainably is an important element of a transition towards sustainability and coping with climate change.

In her talk Katia Vladimirova, PhD fellow from LUISS University (Rome) and a visiting scholar at Boston University's Center for the Study of Europe, will discuss from an interdisciplinary perspective how values and virtues are at play in enabling individual responses to global environmental crisis. Among other questions the talk will address the challenges of over-consumption, the lack of a concept of individual responsibility for global environmental problems and concerns for remote posterity in the context of sustainable development.

Open to BU community and others with a research interest in the topic. Lunch provided. RSVP by January 26 to edamrien@bu.edu.