Darrel Moellendorf, "Mobilizing Hope: Climate Change and Global Poverty" (Oxford UP, 2022)
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What is the central argument of Darrel Moellendorf’s book *Mobilizing Hope*?
Welcome to the New Books Network.
Hello and thank you for joining us for this episode of New Books in Philosophy, which is part of the New Books Network. I'm Robert Talise and I'm Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. I co-host the program with Carrie Figder, Malcolm Keating, and Sarah Tyson. My guest today is Darryl Mullendorf. Darryl is professor of international political theory and professor of philosophy at the Goethe University in Frankfurt. He's also distinguished visiting professor of philosophy at the University of Johannesburg. Now Darrell works centrally in political philosophy, focusing centrally on issues of global justice, equality, responsibility, and human development. His new book has just been published with Oxford University Press.
Its title is Mobilizing Hope, Climate Change and Global Poverty. To say the least, the news concerning climate change isn't good. The warming of our planet now threatens to trap millions of people in extreme poverty while destabilizing the global order in ways that exacerbate existing global inequalities. mitigation and adaptation strategies, even if adhered to. Might not be sufficient. The situation many think is hopeless. But as the title suggests, in mobilizing hope. Daryl Mullendorf argues that there's not only reason to hope that we might successfully address the climate ki crisis. But also a reason to mobilize hope, that is to act now in ways that can forge the kind of global solidarity that's necessary to meet the challenge.
Now, as usual, there's a lot to talk about, and we will begin as we normally do, that is with our guest. Hello, Daryl. Hi Bob. How are you today?
I'm doing fine, thanks. Thanks so much for um inviting me on to the show. I'm I'm a big fan.
I appreciate that and thank you for writing uh such an engaging book. Um, before we get to it though, you know, d d we usually s begin these uh episodes, as I suppose you realize, um, y by me asking the author of the book to say something uh about him or herself. So can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Oh, let's see. Well, I I grew up in Nebraska and I grew up in I was a young child during the sixties. And so I suppose something about that time must have influenced me. You know, there's a lot of social unrest. I I remember the day after Martin Luther King was assassinated. And I think I I think the the sixties as a young child im impressed me with issues of social justice that must have stuck with me. And by the by the time I got to high school I had a couple of teachers that were quite influential, I think, in sort of setting me in a kind of an intellectual direction. I had I had one teacher who taught me a course on Greek and Roman civilization and encouraged me to read a book by Will Durant called The Story of Philosophy.
Um And that that was really um that was really good advice. Um it really you know, I was really intrigued by the book. And I had another teacher who taught a course on the New Deal called Bosses and Workers and um I took an honors class from him in which he let me read Das Capital. And that of course, again, you know, I just thought, Wow, this is what it you know, reading stuff like this, this is this is this is what education's all about and So I went off to college at at a school that's a great book school, Saint John's College, and I read a lot more sort of, you know, history of ideas, uh, Western Western West western civilization, math, science, philosophy, all of that and I it left me wanting more, but but I didn't w I didn't really want to be a philosopher.
I never conceived of the idea of being a philosopher. I had no idea of of the professionalism of it all and I had no idea of what graduate school to apply to or any of that. I I actually thought I was sort of more of a an eleventh thesis kind of guy. I wanted to change the world and um But um but I thought I should learn more about philosophy before I do that. And so I went off to graduate school and thought I might get, you know, a a a masters of a public administration or business administration or something like that and work for an NGO or a social justice organization and
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the central argument of Darrel Moellendorf’s book *Mobilizing Hope*?
0:01–6:35
2
How does Moellendorf explain the link between climate change and extreme global poverty?
6:35–13:58
3
What are the two main objections to the 1.5°C warming target and how are they addressed?
13:58–22:10
4
What is the ‘anti‑poverty principle’ and how does it shape climate policy?
22:10–29:42
5
How does the book distinguish between risk, moral uncertainty, and epistemic uncertainty in climate decisions?
29:42–37:26
6
What role does ‘solidarity’ play in the responsibility to mitigate climate change?
37:26–45:40
7
How does Moellendorf propose a precautionary principle that balances feasibility and catastrophe avoidance?
45:40–52:39
8
What concrete actions does the author suggest for mobilizing hope against the ‘misanthropocene’?
52:39–1:00:44
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