Ethical Challenges in the Climate Crisis: Thomas Pogge’s Perspective and the Challenges for Global Cooperation (original) (raw)

Climate protection as an ethical challenge

Studia Ecologiae et Bioethicae

Mitigation of the global climate change is one of the most important challenges facing humanity in the 21st century. It will require significant changes in the economy, consumption, the style of life. However, the climate protection is also an ethical problem. It is a problem of responsibility for the climate – the common good of all creatures. This article discusses selected ethical issues that are related to the implementation of climate policy. It was indicated that the acceptance of research results indicating human responsibility for climate change is a prerequisite for active climate action. It has also been found that the common but differentiated responsibility of individual countries is primarily due to their historical greenhouse gas emissions. It also results from the fact that most of the significant negative impacts of climate change will occur in the poorest countries, whose share of greenhouse gas emissions is very small. The rejection of human responsibility for clim...

The Ethical Adventures of climate Change:

There seems to be many ethical dilemmas, in regards to finding a sustainable solution to climate change. It has been suggested, the crux, of most of these climate change ethical dilemmas, is how we live now within our world. As a result, this essay argues that there needs to be a global, conciseness process that tackles Climate Change, from an ethical consensual, co-evolutionary, systems orientated, sustainable development ethical perspective. So that then there is a better understanding, how we can live and cope with the crisis of climate change at present and in the future.

Climate Change: The Moral and Political Imperatives

In the United States, there has been lots of talk over the past several years concerning climate change, and the subject has, extraordinarily dangerously, become both a political and ideological football. While the science of climate change has been accepted by most people with some acquaintance with the subject (that is, most such people have little or no reason to harbor real doubt concerning the overwhelming scientific consensus), it has, nevertheless, been held in suspicion by many on the political right. There is no time for the arguments of deniers. The world’s peoples and governments must commence personal and institutional changes that will allow humanity to mitigate the worst damage that climate change may cause, while avoiding the dangers of environmental romanticism that will only serve to delay progress toward that end. In this monograph, I range across a number of concerns, from the need for change at the personal level, to new ways of understanding and teaching ethics, to the need for a global authority to enforce climate agreements. Key Terms: Metanoia and Climate Change; Apocalyptic Cosmopolitanism; Ethicology; Climate Change Authority; Ethicological Imperative

PART I: Climate Change – Our Approach 2A Ethical Frameworks and Intertemporal Equity 2A.1 Ethical frameworks for climate change

The 'consequentialist' and 'welfarist' approach − the assessment of a policy in terms of its consequences for individual welfare − that is embodied in standard welfare economics is highly relevant to the ethics of climate change. In Section 2.3, we described the standard approach to ethics in welfare economics i.e. the evaluation of actions in terms of their consequences for consumption by individuals of goods and services. We emphasised that 'goods and services' in consumption were multi-dimensional and should be interpreted broadly. In this appendix we examine that approach in a little more detail and compare it with different ethical perspectives of relevance to the economics of climate change. For many applications of the standard theory, the community is defined as the nation-state and the decision-maker is interpreted as the government. Indeed this is often seen as sufficiently obvious as to go unstated. This is not, of course, intended to deny the complexities and pressures of political systems: the results of this approach should be seen as an ethical benchmark rather than a descriptive model of how political decisions are actually taken. Nevertheless, questions such as 'what do individuals value', 'what should be their relation to decisions and decision-making', 'what is the decision-making process' and 'who are the decision-makers' arise immediately and strongly in the ethical analysis of climate change. These questions take us immediately to different perspectives on ethics. Economics, together with the other social sciences, has in fact embraced a much broader perspective on the objectives of policy than that of standard welfare-economic analysis. Amartya Sen 1 , for example, has focused on the capabilities and freedoms of individuals to live a life they have reason to value, rather than narrowly on the bundles of goods and services they consume. His focus is on opportunities and the processes that create them, rather than on outcomes only. Similar emphases come from discussions of equity 2 (with its focus on opportunity), empowerment 3 , or social inclusion 4. While such perspectives are indeed different, in practice many of the indicators arising from them would overlap strongly with the areas of focus in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and other indicators commonly used by international institutions. Indeed, the MDGs were the outcome of analyses and discussions which themselves embraced a range of ethical approaches. Impacts of climate change on future generations and other nations raise very firmly questions of rights. Protection from harm done by others lies at the heart of many philosophical approaches to liberty, freedom and justice. 5 Protection from harm is also expressed in many legal structures round the world in terms of legal responsibility for damage to the property or well-being of others. This is often applied whether or not the individual or firm was knowingly doing harm. A clear example is asbestos, whose use was not prohibited 6 when it was placed in buildings with the worthy purpose of protecting against the spread of fire. Nevertheless insurance companies are still today paying large sums as compensation for its consequences.

Cosmopolitan justice, responsibility, and global climate change

2005

Abstract It is widely recognized that changes are occurring to the earth's climate and, further, that these changes threaten important human interests. This raises the question of who should bear the burdens of addressing global climate change. This paper aims to provide an answer to this question. To do so it focuses on the principle that those who cause the problem are morally responsibleforsolvingit (the 'polluterpays' principle).

Climate Change: A Challenge for Ethics

English through Climate Change, 2012

Climate change – and its most dangerous consequence, the rapid overheating of the planet – is not the offspring of a natural procedure; instead, it is human-induced. It is only the aftermath of a specific pattern of economic development, one that focuses mainly on economic growth rather than on quality of life and sustainability. Since climate change is a major threat not only to millions of humans, but also to numerous non-human species and other forms of life, as well as to the equilibrium and the viability of the very planet, addressing it is of dire importance. In this chapter it will be argued that addressing the threat of climate change is primarily a task and a challenge for ethics, since the stabilization and gradual amelioration of the situation requires abandoning an up to now dominant model of life, longestablished customs and a so far cogent system of moral values. It will be further maintained that this for ethics might – or, even, should – become a new categorical imperative, since preserving the viability of the planet is a fundamental moral duty not only towards the existing members of the moral community, but also towards future generations. The chapter provides a glossary of the most important terms used in the text presented in the first part. It also provides different exercises aiming either to further consolidate student understanding of these terms or / and strengthen student grammatical and syntactical skills.

Ethical perspectives on climate change and implications for global mitigation responses

This paper argues that much of the problems facing global mitigation mechanisms against climate change are derived from contrasting ethical and moral positions on the main issue of responsibility. Specifically, these competing attitudes handicap the fulfillment of any promises and commitments to combating anthropogenic climate change. Additionally, this paper suggests that successful mitigation mechanisms ultimately need to be founded on an individual responsibility, morality and respect for nature.