Abstract
In this paper I would like to consider the possibility of accommodating glaciers within normative ethics. Going beyond their mere vulnerability in the unfolding climate crisis, I would like to bring closer attention to the language we use when we talk about them.
I believe this could be a useful entry point for considering how animacy mediated by anthropomorphic language can feed into a presumed or perceived agency. I would like to investigate how useful these concepts can be in extending ethics to include inorganic nature for its own sake.
Can they be used as a basis for a more care-driven way of thinking and relating to nature, without having to rely on categories of consciousness, sentience or even life? I try to address this question through Mel Y. Chen's mapping of animacy, as well as Jane Bennett's vital materialist concept of agency.