policy
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Hydraulic Fracturing: Toward Better Deliberation
When the conversation opened up on the second day of our November workshop, after my presentation on acceptable risk, the project team and the invited participants spent much of the remainder of the morning developing and jotting down ideas for fostering better, more informed and more constructive public deliberation about hydraulic fracturing. Our initial ways… Continue reading
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Hydraulic Fracturing: Images from Under Ground
My tongue-in-cheek comment on the language of hydraulic fracturing was intended to get at the ways in which metaphors and images can affect – and sometimes skew – our understanding of risks and responsibilities. This effect can work in any direction, for or against any particular position, and it can be especially pronounced when the… Continue reading
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Hydraulic Fracturing: The Project
As I have been hinting, I’m currently caught up in a collaborative project on engineering, ethics and policy related to hydraulic fracturing. The idea for the project began to take shape in conversations I was having with my colleague, Chloé Arson, who is over in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech.… Continue reading
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From the Archive: Oil Liberation!
As an over-the-weekend teaser for a couple of posts I’m planning for next week, a somewhat tongue-in-cheek entry from my other blog, The Ethics of Metropolitan Growth, from April 7, 2014. _________ Oil Liberation! A longtime friend posted a link on Facebook to an article bearing the headline: Vast oil trove trapped in Monterey Shale… Continue reading
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Self-Driving Cars: A View from the Sidewalk
I have not been following the hype over self-driving cars closely enough to tell whether it’s a passing fad or something more enduring. As is often the case with emerging technologies that excite people’s imaginations, many claims for the benefits of self-driving cars come across as exaggerated, almost utopian. In any case, benefits are cast… Continue reading
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An Ethicist Walks to Work
A few months ago, something that happened on my morning commute provided an example of moral perception I could use in class later that day: what it’s like to see the ethical texture of an entirely mundane situation. I was walking along North Avenue on my way from the transit station to my office on… Continue reading
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From the Archive: What Philosophers Do
Since I’m in the midst of mid-winter revels, of one kind and another, I’m still drawing from the archives of my other blog, The Ethics of Metropolitan Growth. Today’s revived is from October 9, 2011. It takes up a question that will continue to occupy my mind as I develop this new blog: What should… Continue reading
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From the Archive: On Expertise
As I’m on holiday break, I’m relying on the archives of my other blog, The Ethics of Metropolitan Growth, to keep things moving along with this new blog. I will resume the development of new posts soon. Today’s entry, from May 27, 2011, takes up a question that is still of concern to me, especially… Continue reading