From Individual Climate Guilt to Collective Ethical Action with Dr Alexis Shotwell

Philosopher and professor Dr Alexis Shotwell joins Moral Footprint host Jeni Miles to explore ethical living in an imperfect world.

Discover why the concept of "carbon footprint" was created by corporations to shift climate responsibility to individuals and how to move beyond eco-guilt toward meaningful collective action.

We discuss ethical consumption challenges, the myth of purity in sustainable living, and practical approaches to environmental ethics without perfectionism.

Alexis shares insights on transforming climate anxiety into solidarity, the importance of care work in creating sustainable communities, and how fiction helps us imagine alternative futures. Learn strategies for navigating ethical dilemmas and embracing imperfection as a pathway to more effective collective change and climate justice.

Resources and people mentioned

• Against Purity by Alexis Shotwell
• Alexis is currently writing a book with Killian Yorg called 'An Ecology of Morals’. Read a recent joint article about Moralizing on The Conversation
• Jo Walton, friend and science-fiction writer who says that science fiction is not helping us practice for the future that will come. It's helping us practice to be surprised by the future, to generate a future that was not predicted by the current situation.
• Alan Sears, a sociologist who talks about the neoliberal deskilling of collectivity (The Next New Left)
• Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows
• Braiding sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• Wages for Housework by Emily Kallaci
• Ruthanna Emrys - A Half-Built Garden
• The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin
• Claudia Card - philosopher whose work suggests we’re implicated in evil when the actions that are taking place are going to definitely cause unbearable harm.
• Memoir of a Race Traitor by Mab Segrist