ComET

The Shifting Frontier is a series of short video episodes aimed to highlight the scientific, policy, and human dimensions of regionally important environmental issues, each with a connection to climate change. Rather than focusing on the forecasts and projections of climate science, however, the episodes are structured to introduce tricky ethical concepts in an approachable manner.

By presenting ethics through relevant scenarios and concrete cases -- including stories from people on the ground, the testimony of scientists and scholars, and visual animations of the theoretical factors in play -- Prof. Benjamin Hale and doctoral candidate Alex Lee guide students and others into the complex terrain of philosophy. In so doing, ComET hopes to inspire deliberative engagement with friends and family and/or instructors and classmates that will enrich the wider public debate about how to address climate change.

Table of Contents/Episode List: 

1. Failing Snow: The Ski Industry and the Problem of Change

2. Buried in Bedrock: The Question of Value in Conventional and Alternative Energy

3. Moving the Pieces: The Plight of the Pika and Assisted Colonization

4. An Uncertain Future: Children Have Brilliant Ideas

Featuring Interviews with:

• Paul Anderson (Columnist, Aspen Times)

• Bonnie Colby (Economics, University of Arizona)

• Stephen Gardiner (Philosophy, University of Washington)

• Dale Jamieson (Philosophy, Law, and Environmental Studies, NYU)

• Dan Kahan (Law, Yale)

• Andrew Light (Philosophy, GMU and the US State Department)

• Christy Mahon (Professional Skier)

• Emma Marris (Author of Rambunctious Garden)

• Darrel Moellendorf (Political Science, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt)

• David Morrow (Philosophy, American University)

• Jay Odenbaugh (Philosophy, Lewis and Clark)

• Stuart Pimm (Biology, Duke University)

• Christopher Preston (Philosophy, University of Montana)

• Louie Psihoyos (Director, The Cove and Racing Extinction)

• Andy Revkin (New York Times Dot.Earth Blog and Pace University)

• Ken Shockley (University of Buffalo/Sustainability Academy)

• Auden Schendler (Aspen Ski Company Sustainability Director)

• Henry Shue (Philosophy, Oxford University)

Distribution: Vimeo, YouTube.; also through integration into classroom curricula.

Audience: 18-30 yr olds

Shooting spans the West, and includes stories from Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico, as well as footage from California, Wyoming, Oregon, Idaho, and Washington.

Want to read more? Check out our Conceptual Overview of Episode 1. 

Interested in helping? Check out our Needs.