ozsw

C.S. (Cristina) Richie, PhD <  >

Environmental bioethics is an ethical response to health and climate change, rooted in philosophy, ecology, and medicine. Environmental bioethics examines the impacts of climate change on health—climate change health hazards and diminished planetary and population health—and the impacts of health care on the environment—carbon emissions, which in 2014, were 2.0 gigatons or 4.4% of world emissions.

The historical understanding of “bioethics” has now become “environmental bioethics.” In 1927, German Fritz Jahr, described bio-ethics as “the assumption of moral obligations not only towards humans, but towards all forms of life.” Later, the principlism of biomedical ethics overshadowed understanding of “bioethics.”

Today, environmental bioethics is an interdisciplinary field that crosses technology, science, social sciences, humanities, law, and policy. It is both practitioner oriented—for instance, physician activism, policy implementation—and theoretical—with intellectual affinity with environmental justice, public health, feminism, religions, and research ethics, among others.

We will meet 3-4 times a year to discuss each other’s work with an aim towards academic impact through publications, grants, workshops, and conferences including the annual OZSW Conference panel.

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