Steve’s current research focuses on global environmental problems (especially climate change), future generations, and virtue ethics.

Steve is the author of A Perfect Moral Storm: the Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change (Oxford, 2011), and co-author of Dialogues on Climate Justice (Routledge, 2023) and Debating Climate Ethics (Oxford, 2016). He is also the editor of the Oxford Handbook of Intergenerational Ethics (Oxford, in press) and Virtue Ethics: Old and New (Cornell, 2005), coordinating co-editor of The Ethics of “Geoengineering” the Global Climate: Justice, Legitimacy and Governance (Routledge, 2020) and Climate Ethics: Essential Readings (Oxford, 2011), and joint co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Environmental Ethics (Oxford, 2016).

Steve has published more than fifty articles, on a diverse range of topics including climate justice, the ethics of geoengineering, the precautionary principle in international law, nuclear protection, Aristotle’s basic and nonbasic virtues, and Socrates’ pessimism about politics.  His work has appeared in leading general journals in philosophy (e.g., Ethics, Ethics & International Affairs, Journal of Political Philosophy, Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, Philosophy & Public Affairs), top environmental journals (e.g., Climatic Change, Environmental Ethics, Ethics, Policy & Environment, Environmental Values), and edited volumes from major publishers (e.g., Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Routledge). A number have been reprinted in standard textbooks and collections.  (For downloads, see ‘Links’.)

Much of Steve’s work has a broad and interdisciplinary audience.  For example, it has been cited by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine’s report on governing geoengineering, the National Research Council’s report on America’s Climate Choices, and the U.K. Treasury’s Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change.  He is also often interviewed by the media, including in the past by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the British Broadcasting Corporation (UK, Brazil, Nigeria), CNBC, China Radio International, Der Standard (Austria), the Guardian (UK), National Public Radio, Scientific American, the Seattle Times, the Sunday Times (of London), Volkskrant (the Netherlands), the Washington Post, and the Weather Channel.

Steve’s past research has been supported by (among others) the Leverhulme Trust and the National Science Foundation. He is currently part of a project on the Ethics of Net Zero supported by the Australian Research Council. He has also served on advisory panels for (among others) the American Geophysical Union, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the National Academy of Sciences.