Why Don’t We Plan for Climate Change? Reaffirming Planners’ Roles and Ethical Responsibilities in the Climate Crisis

Abstract

This thesis answers the question, how are individual planners’ values and ethics reflected in their decisions about planning priorities in communities with severe climate risks? I conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews with local planners in Western Washington State after severe regional floods in 2021. Many interviewees’ responses suggested an internal contradiction between strong personal beliefs about the importance of climate action versus a reluctance or outright opposition to channeling such beliefs professionally. I urge planners to carefully consider what values and ethics underpin their definitions of the public interest, and how those concepts translate to their roles and responsibilities as professionals in context of climate change. These reflections are important because ultimately, what decisions planners make and how they are made will determine whether communities will survive an increasingly disruptive climate crisis.