Jeremy Bendik-Keymer, the Beamer-Schneider Professor in Ethics in the Department of Philosophy, will deliver a plenary talk at the 10th annual international joint meeting of the International Society for Environmental Ethics and the International Association of Environmental Philosophy at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom on June 13. He will deliver the talk by Skype in order to avoid a long-haul flight carbon footprint.
The conference’s theme is “Thinking and Acting Ecologically.”
Bendik-Keymer will discuss presentism, or bias against future generations in favor of the present one. He believes presentism is the current worst form of discrimination because it not only affects more people, but it magnifies the effects of many other -isms—especially racism, sexism and classism. Presentism magnifies the vulnerability of maginalized people by producing a future world in which future generations have a less livable world with fewer resources for living, he said. In such an environment, the abuse that is sexism and racism, for instance, will be more severe.
For more information on the conference, visit enviroethics.org/2012/