Carbon Capture and the Future of Environmentalism now featured online and available for pre-order

Information from Bloomsbury Academic about my forthcoming book Carbon Capture and the Future of Environmentalism has now appeared online. Info includes book summary, Table of Contents, and a blurb by Peder Anker.

#1; environmental semiotics chapter revised

Over the last four days I have completed what amounts to an article writing day, the first in the Autumn semester. In the process of taking part in revising the book chapter "Environmental Semiotics", which I co-write with Jonathan Beever, I added some 800 words to the manuscript (we also shortened the title). Moreover, I also composed five bullet points concerning practical implications related to the article "Friluftsliv in Therapeutic Residential Care: When Staff Take Youth Out to Find a Way In", which I co-write with Joakim Jiri Haaland and which has since been published (cf. separate post).

Ethics of CCS paper rejected for NEEN26 event

I have been notified that my paper submitted to NEEN26, the NEEN & ISEE Conference on Environmental Ethics which is to be held at Umeå University, Sweden, October 14-16th, titled "The ethical case against Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)", has been rejected by the organisers. 

This is the second or third time I have had a paper on this theme rejected. For some reason, the ethics of CCS seems to be anathema.

See also:

CCS paper submitted to NEEN26 conference

#29; Philosophising with Rocks received

Over the course of last Friday and today I´ve had an article writing day, with work done related to my book review of Interpreting, Communication and Animal Welfare for Biosemiotics. Also, at work, I received my print copy of Philosophising with rocks: Henrik Steffens and the Anthropocene (eds. Benedikt Jager and Marius Timmann Mjaaland), which includes my chapter "Steffen´s early outlook reconsidered. Nature conceptions of the industrial-age Anthropocene".

This brings the number of writing days so far this Spring up to 29, including 20,5 article writing days.

Joint abstract for 26th Gathering in Biosemiotics: "Ecosemiotics and Environmental Philosophy"

Jonathan Beever and I have just composed and submitted the abstract below to the organisers of the 26th Gathering in Biosemiotics, which will be held in Sheffield, UK, July July 27-31st.

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Ecosemiotics and Environmental Philosophy

This presentation examines ecosemiotics´ relation to environmental philosophy: how has it interwoven with other approaches, and how can it support the future of environmental philosophy? We argue that ecosemiotics’ fundamental relationality offers both strong parallels to and novel perspectives on environmental phenomenology, aesthetics, hermeneutics, and ethics, articulating how ecosemiotics can respond to contemporary debates in environmental philosophy. Ecosemiotics’ novel Peircean and Uexküllian representationalism acts as a thread running through environmental philosophical traditions. Researchers have advanced relational perspectives in environmental ethics deeply informed by ecosemiotics, like Beever and Tønnessen, who argue – for example – that accounts of intrinsic value in nature can be strengthened by appeals to biosemiotics accounts of life-worlds. Key figures in environmental philosophy have cited ecosemiotic figures directly, like Merleau-Ponty’s references to Uexküll that anticipate the emergence of ecophenomenology in environmental philosophy. Other contemporary figures have developed ecosemiotic positions in traditional environmental philosophical areas in order to offer novel and more robust articulations, like Tønnessen’s Uexküllian reading of phenomenology, that pursues Merleau-Ponty and the late Husserl along biosemiotic lines. In this presentation, we draw attention to these threads throughout enviornmental philosophy, and anticipate the possibility of a John Deely-esque project of weaving semiotic threads together in environmental philosophy to fundamentally reorient perceptions of the field and to resolve some old tensions (like around disputes on the metaphysics of deep ecology, concerns about deprioritizing human value, and under-evidenced claims about environmental capacities) with the introduction of an empirically-grounded science of signs and meaning-in-environments. Not only does such a project support ongoing research in environmental philosophy, it can furthermore reshape pedagogical approaches to the field, opening space for a re-telling of the history of environmental philosophy that is grounded in the study of signs. Our presentation will conclude with a foray into the possibility of semiosis of artificial agents and its implications for extensions in environmental philosophy beyond mere «natural» environments.

Proposal submitted to 2026 IAEP organizers: "The ethical case against Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)"

I have just submitted the abstract and proposal below to the organisers of the 2026 digital conference of the International Association for Environmental Philosophy (IAEP).

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The ethical case against Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)  

SHORT ABSTRACT  

Based on ethical considerations, this paper argues against the use of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as a climate mitigation measure. CCS has become increasingly central as a proposed mitigation measure. However, despite the widespread claim and perception that CCS is a necessity, CCS as practiced to date has been found to be net CO2 additive, and the Net Zero goal has been misappropriated by fossil fuel interests. Key arguments against CCS are derived from the perspective of interspecies justice, and from the perspective of intergenerational justice and fairness. In the latter context, CCS exemplifies unfair intergenerational externalization of costs.  

PROPOSAL 

In the global discourse, CCS has become increasingly central as a proposed mitigation measure, particularly after Net Zero targets were added to the global agenda with full force with the Paris agreement. The Net Zero goal presupposes Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), which may involve the use of so-called negative emission technologies (NETs), which in turn in some cases involve CCS. The Net Zero goal has arguably been misappropriated by fossil fuel interests and their allies to promote an agenda that seeks to avoid rapidly phasing out fossil fuels. Despite the widespread claim and perception that CCS is a necessity, CCS as practiced to date has been found to be net CO2 additive (Sekera and Lichtenberger 2020). In the big picture emission reductions from CCS are uncertain, whereas research has established that CCS mitigation measures result in mitigation deterrence and climate delay.

Regrettably, CCS has not triggered much debate in climate ethics. On a general note, I find it disappointing that anthropocentric perspectives predominate in climate ethics given that some of the most prominent philosophers engaged with climate ethics, such as Dale Jamieson (2010) and Peter Singer (2009), are well-known for their work in animal ethics. Still, neither of them emphasize interspecies justice in the context of climate ethics (see also Callicott 2011). Interspecies justice is particularly relevant in ethical discussions about CCS in two ways: Firstly, in so far as CCS policies contribute to allowing continued greenhouse gas emissions and an overshoot in emissions, this will contribute to exacerbate the impact of climate change, including for non-humans. Secondly, in so far as non-humans are harmfully affected by the transportation of CO2 and long-term dedicated geological storage of CO2 in subsurface environments, this is a direct consequence of CCS policies. This point is particularly pertinent in light of recent scientific discoveries concerning life dwelling in deep-sea and subsurface environments, which include animal habitats in the subsurface (Bright, Gollner et al. 2024). Lastly, while future generations is a common concern in environmental ethics, this perspective have not received much attention in the context of CCS. With its required time horizon of at least 10,000 years for underground CO2 storages (Lindeberg 2003), CCS is a perfect example of intergenerational externalization of costs in a climate change context. This arguably makes CCS unacceptable from the perspective of intergenerational justice and fairness. In this context, the lacklustre climate effects of CCS to date, the widespread political willingness to rely on unproven technologies, and the lack of consensus among researchers on acceptable CO2 leakage rates, is especially concerning.   

REFERENCES 

Bright, M., S. Gollner et al. (2024), ‘Animal life in the shallow subseafloor crust at deep-sea hydrothermal vents’, Nature Communications, 15: 8466. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52631-9  

Callicott, J. B. (2011), ‘The temporal and spatial scales of global climate change and the limits of individualistic and rationalistic ethics’, Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, 69: 101–16. 

Jamieson, D. (2010), ‘Climate change, responsibility, and justice’, Science and Engineering Ethics, 16: 431–45. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-009-9174-x  

Lindeberg, E. (2003), ‘The quality of a CO2 repository: What is the sufficient retention time of CO2 stored underground’, in J. Gale and Y. Kaya (eds), Proceedings of Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies 6th International Conference (GHGT-6), 255–60, Elsevier Science Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-008044276-1/50041-6  

Sekera, J. and A. Lichtenberger (2020), ‘Assessing carbon capture: Public policy, science, and societal need: Review of the literature on industrial carbon removal’, Biophysical Economics and Sustainability, 5: 14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41247-020-00080-5  

Singer, P. (2009), ‘Climate change as an ethical issue’, in J. Moss (ed), Climate Change and Social Justice, 39–51, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.

#52,5

Today I have had an article writing day with some 400 words added to the environmental semiotics chapter I am co-writing with Jonathan Beever. This brings the accumulated number of writing days this Autumn (starting July 1st) up to #52,5, with a total of 20,5 of the writing days devoted to article writing to date.

#41

Today I have had what ended up as half an article writing day, with planning and outline work done in relation to a philosophy handbook chapter I am co-writing with Jonathan Beever on environmental semiotics in the context of environmental philosophy. This was writing day #41 this Autumn (starting July 1st), with a total of 11,5 of the writing days devoted to article writing to date.

#30

Today I have had half an article writing day, with some 100 words added to the chapter "Environmental semiotics", which I co-write with Jonathan Beever for Springer´s Handbook of environmental philosophy.  This was writing day #30 this Autumn (starting July 1st), with 2 days devoted to article writing days so far.

ReFill-podcast interview on prison experience, environmental philosophy, activism released

A few days ago, a podcast episode of ReFill, released by University of Stavanger, which features an interview with me by podcast host Alessandro Falcetta, was published online. The episode (ReFill no. 12) is titled "Hvordan kan filosofi hjelpe oss å forstå miljøkrisen?" (How can philosophy help us understand the environmental crisis?). An automatically transcribed version of the interview in PDF format is also available.

To co-write Handbook of environmental philosophy chapter on environmental semiotics

I have agreed to co-write a chapter for Springer´s forthcoming Handbook of Environmental Philosophy along with Jonathan Beever. 

Preliminary reference:

 — in process, with Jonathan Beever: Environmental semiotics. In: Nathan Kowalsky and Richard Kover (eds.), Handbook of Environmental Philosophy (Handbooks in Philosophy), Section II: Main Theoretical Currents. Springer Nature.

Lecture on environmental philosophy given in sustainability course

Today I have given a lecture on environmental philosophy in the University of Stavanger´s bachelor course "Bærekraft og grønn omstilling" (Sustainability and green transition).

Paper "Umwelt phenomenology, the human condition, and the nature crisis" scheduled for presentation online at IAEP 2024 May 22nd

My paper «Umwelt phenomenology, the human condition, and the nature crisis» has been scheduled for oral presentation at the Twenty-Eighth Annual Meeting of the International Association for Environmental Philosophy, IAEP 2024, which is to be held online May 22-24th, on Wednesday May 22nd at 9-10.30 a.m. EDT (which compares to 3-4.30 p.m. CEST), as part of the session “Phenomenology, Language, and Hermeneutics” (moderated by Jonathan Beever).

Lecture on environmental philosophy given

Today I have given a lecture on environmental philosophy in the cross-faculty course "Bærekraft og grønn omstilling" (Sustainability and green transition) (SV100) at University of Stavanger. Some 15 people attended.

Two meetings and a bachelor thesis graded

Today I have attended two meetings - one on the establishment of a Network for welfare research (with Vice rector for research, research director, and faculty director), and one on digital registration for Ph.d. courses. I have also graded a philosophical bachelor thesis with a scholar at University of Oslo.

Terra conference attended at UiT; paper on biosemiotic relationality presented

Yesterday (half day - as I arrived from Germany mid-day) and today I have been attending the (small) conference "Terra: Complex relations and dependencies on the Earth", held at University of Tromsø as the second conference in the series "New Frontiers in environmental philosophy" and arranged by the UiT environmental philosophy research group. Today I presented my invited paper "Implications of the relational nature of living beings for agency, autonomy and moral status", with some 15 people attending.

Terra invited presentation in Tromsø scheduled for June 7th

On June 67th and 7th I will attend the conference "Terra: Complex relations and dependencies on the Earth", in the New Frontiers in Environmental Philosophy" conference series held at University of Tromsø. On Friday June 7th at 13.00-14.00 I will present my invited presentation "Implications of the Relational Nature of Living Beings for Agency, Autonomy and Moral Status".

Articles cited in Korean environmental philosophy article

Three of my articles are cited in

Nasoo, Kim 2013. Understanding the concepts of co-life and umwelt in an environmental educational perspective [p. 12 Tønnessen 2010c, p. 26, p. 28 Tønnessen 2003 [2009b]]. Environmental Philosophy (The Korean Society For The Study Of Environmental Philosophy) 16: 1–34.

The article, which is in Korean (but with an English abstract), refers to my concepts "bio-ontological monads" and "conceptualized umwelt experience".

Three journals suggested as publication channels

A few days ago I suggested a few new publication channels to Cristin, the Current Research Information System in Norway - all academic journals:

Environmental Philosophy

Pakistan Journal of Historical Studies

lo Squaderno

Review of Vetlesen´s The Denial of Nature

My review of The Denial of Nature has now been published.

Reference:

Tønnessen, Morten 2016. Arne Johan Vetlesen. The Denial of Nature. Environmental philosophy in the Era of Global Capitalism. Routledge 2015. Book review. Environmental Philosophy 13(2): 319–322.