Climate change may be the most serious problem facing humanity, posing threats to life that are unprecedented and horrifying to consider. It is odd that humanists have remained largely silent on the subject, given that questions about the meaning and value of life have been at the heart of philosophical inquiry since before Plato.

Dale Jamieson, a leading authority in environmental ethics and bioethics, considers the challenges facing humanists who would try to approach the topic of global climate change.