Climate Change Law and Aesthetics: A Primer

This chapter reviews the debates relating to the interface of climate change law and aesthetics. Global warming alters the aesthetic properties of nature, and additional aesthetic changes are precipitated by the mitigation and adaptation responses of impacted societies. Domestic legal systems already have a leading role in governing certain disputes that involve strong aesthetic elements, such as the location of wind turbines or seawall defences. The international legal system has established some regimes that explicitly engage with aesthetic values, such as the World Heritage Convention. Ben Richardson maps the views expressed in the growing scholarship on climate law’s encounters with aesthetics. The chapter also weighs different views on why aesthetic experiences might be important to better understanding the dangers of climate change, which mostly lie in the future and thus out of sight and out of mind.