Humanities and climate change: how the humanities can provide a more wholistic approach to our scientific problems. From the editorial:

How can the humanities help restore the centrality of the public good, an essential step toward the collective action necessary for combating our current constitutional and ecological crises?…. 

So how can the humanities aid us in developing a productive counter-response? For some, the question may sound ironic, since our current dilemma is generated by human dominance. But it is important to distinguish anthropocentrism from the cohesive humanistic ideas that blend social and natural ecologies. The principles grounded in the humanities — notions of character, responsibility, civility, empathy, inquiry, collaboration, the public good, the heroic, beauty, and truth — are also at the center of the revolutionary idealism which forged our Constitution. While the antidote to the Age of Loneliness is not easily conjured, it needs a political as well as scientific response — that is, it will need the lessons we can learn through the humanities….

The present, imminent, and long-term exacerbating catastrophes that have been, are, and will be caused by climate change require another revolutionary moment in promoting the centrality of the public good, a revolutionary moment in our collective thinking. We need to realize again the utopian ideology that spurred the formation of the United States through a constitution whereby the liberty and happiness of the people was seen as the true mission of government. We also need to replace recurring imperatives to manifest destiny and the conquest of nature with a humility about our place in the web of life. To limit the process of addressing climate change to the purview of science and policy is to risk a less comprehensive response than this crisis demands….

Environmental issues cannot be solved by science or technology alone. Each issue interacts with policy, market forces, cultural and historical factors, and requires us to effectively communicate about problems, think creatively about solutions, and work collaboratively across disciplines. Complex problems are not solved with one-dimensional solutions. They require nuance, context, and nimbleness. Our digital architectures have permitted us to extend our classrooms beyond four walls and our research beyond hard and soft covers, so why not continue to extend these platforms by firmly necessitating that public engagement be a required part of our educational mission?

h/t Scott Newstok