Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to sketch some of the contributions of the environmental humanities to an understanding of climate change from the perspective of philosophy. Recently, the environmental humanities have become a recognised area of study, encompassing environmental orientations within the humanities. It is noted that, generally speaking, the humanities engage in a critical and reflective stance regarding ways of understanding the world, while the environmental humanities do so in relation to environmental matters. Four key themes, describing the environmental humanities, namely, values and justice, narratives, temporalities, and the culture of nature, are identified. These themes subsequently are further explored by reflecting on the relation of climate change to various types of injustices, the role of catastrophist narratives, the importance of temporal dimensions, and the interaction of cultural conceptions of nature and human capacities to address this phenomenon. It is concluded that the approaches of the environmental humanities may be useful to reflect on how one may live with climate change.