Losing your moral concepts during climate breakdown

Anh-Quân Nguyen

Environmental Values, 2026, vol. 35, issue 2, 150-168

Abstract: This paper explains the current disorientation climate activists, climate scientists and others struggling against climate breakdown as a loss of moral concepts. The climate movement's moral concepts are gradually becoming unintelligible, even if still used in moral deliberation with others. The paper articulates this loss of moral concepts by (1) showing a loss of embeddedness in moral practice, causing climate activists to be disoriented, and (2) a loss of comprehension through a narrowing of their moral horizons due to the climate crisis limiting the scope of their moral concepts. The paper argues that one way to escape this loss, the path of radical hope, is unavailable to climate activists and scientists, or anyone struggling against climate breakdown.

Keywords: Climate activism; moral values; conceptual loss; radical hope; climate ethics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envval:v:35:y:2026:i:2:p:150-168

DOI: 10.1177/09632719251387471

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