Showing 1 - 6 of 6
Gates' 'truth' about climate change
Oped, Peter Singer, Published on 14/11/2025
» Ahead of this year's United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), now underway in Belém, Brazil, Bill Gates, who chairs and funds the foundation that bears his name, released an essay entitled "Three tough truths about climate". The first of these truths is: "Climate change is a serious problem, but it will not be the end of civilisation."
Will humans survive the next 100 years?
Oped, Peter Singer, Published on 24/08/2024
» In May, experts from many fields gathered in Montenegro to discuss "Existential Threats and Other Disasters: How Should We Address Them." The term "existential risk" was popularised in a 2002 essay by the philosopher Nick Bostrom, who defined it as referring to risks such that "an adverse outcome would either annihilate Earth-originating intelligent life, or permanently and drastically curtail its potential".
FTX saga shows not all ends justify means
Oped, Peter Singer, Published on 30/11/2022
» In the wake of the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, and amid reports that FTX's founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, diverted billions of dollars of clients' funds, some observers have linked the alleged financial malpractice to ideas widely held within the "effective altruism" movement, which Mr Bankman-Fried says inspired him. More specifically, they point to the ethical view that the end justifies the means.
Research ethics on non-human subjects 'lacking'
Oped, Peter Singer, Published on 12/10/2022
» In August, Springer Nature, the publisher of 3,000 academic journals, including the "Nature" portfolio of the world's most influential science journals, announced new ethics guidance for its editors, addressing the balance between academic freedom and the risk that publication of some research will harm specific groups of humans. The guidance also mentions, though much more briefly, research using animals.
Don't be a bystander to mass famine
Oped, Peter Singer, Published on 16/08/2022
» In March 1964, The New York Times reported that 38 witnesses saw or heard a brutal, drawn-out, and ultimately fatal attack on a woman called Kitty Genovese, but none did anything to help her or even summoned the police. The report was later shown to be erroneous, but the "bystander effect" is real. As many psychology experiments have shown, an individual is less likely to come to the aid of another if they can see that other people who could help are not doing so.
When vaccination is a 'crime'
Oped, Peter Singer, Published on 10/03/2021
» On Dec 29 last year, Hasan Gokal, the medical director of the Covid-19 response team in Harris County, Texas (which includes Houston, the fourth-largest city in the United States by population), was supervising the administration of the Moderna vaccine, mostly to emergency workers. The vaccine comes in vials containing 11 doses. A vial, once opened, expires in six hours and unused vaccine must then be thrown away.