War on the Environment

In this lecture, Professor Malavisi will ponder the futility of war, arguing that the industry of war through the centuries has contributed to our current climate crisis. To address the crisis, she will argue, we must better understand the impact war has and has had on the environment, and challenge a current political ideology that too easily justifies the waging of war as the only solution to conflict.​ Many will say that humanity has always engaged in war, so it’s futile to think we could ever abolish it. But this lecture will challenge that notion to the extent that, too often, countries resort to war without considering other alternatives, such as non-violent ones. The fact that war itself is a major contributor to the climate crisis should be reason enough for nation-states to rethink strategies of protection, security, and related matters. This talk will further the analysis by offering a historical and theoretical perspective on war, then move to a contemporary perspective arguing that the dominant political ideology turns to war too easily. It will also examine some immediate and long-term effects of war before concluding with a vision on how best to mitigate the onset of war.

Biography

Anna Malavisi is a philosopher, development ethicist, and peace activist. She is associate professor and associate chair of the Department of History, Philosophy and World Perspectives at Western Connecticut State University and vice-president of the Center for Values in International Development. She received her Ph.D. from Michigan State University and her master of health and international development degree from Flinders University of South Australia. Her research interests include: practical and global ethics, social and political thought, feminist philosophy/epistemology, peace and non-violence, and environmental philosophy. She is fluent in Spanish and spent 16 years working in international development in Latin America, primarily in Bolivia working for eight years in national NGOs. For the next eight years she managed the Bolivian program for International Service, a British based NGO that supported local organizations with skilled human resources in the areas of agriculture, water, forestry, health, and other areas. Anna has produced a number of publications on development ethics and related issues including a book titled Global Development, Ethics, and Epistemic Injustice: Rethinking the Theory and Practice.

Suggested Readings

Malavisi, Anna. “Chapter Six: The Climate Crisis and Global Development.” Global Development, Ethics, and Epistemic Injustice: Rethinking the Theory   and Practice. Rowman & Littlefield, 2022.

Malavisi, Anna. “The Urgency of the Greening of Ethics.” Australasian Journal of Logic, vol. 15, no. 2, 2018, pp. 593–609.