Ethics & Climate Change: The Greenhouse EffectWilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 1993 M08 19 - 199 pages Faced with the prospect of global warming, the anticipated rapid rise in global air temperatures due to the release of gases into the atmosphere, we have two choices of how to respond: adaptation or avoidance. With adaptation we keep burning fossil fuels, let global temperatures rise and make whatever changes this requires: move people from environmentally damaged areas, build sea walls, etc. With avoidance we stop warming from occurring, either by reducing our use of fossil fuels or by using technology such as carbon dioxide recovery after combustion to block the warming effect. Yet each strategy has its drawbacks—adaptation may not be able to occur fast enough to accommodate the expected temperature increases, but avoidance would be prohibitively expensive. An ethically acceptable goal must involve some mixture of adaptation and avoidance. Written by a team of scientists, social scientists, humanists, legal and environmental scholars and corporate researchers, this book offers an ethical analysis of possible responses to the problem. Their analyses of the scientific and technological data and the ethical principles involved in determining whose interests should be considered point to a combination of adaptation and avoidance of greenhouse gas production. They offer assessments of personal, corporate, government and international responsibility and a series of recommendations to aid decision-makers in determining solutions and apportioning responsibility. |
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... accepted to the more radical . This continuum of possible principles is proposed as a help- ful way to analyze responses to the challenge of global climate change and is employed by the authors of later chapters . Hurka's approach ...
... accepted view of the roles of clouds and airborne particles in the radiation budget of the models ( see Arkin 1991 for an overview ) . Thus , Ramanathan and Collins ( 1991 ) have proposed that high cloud veils over " supergreenhouse ...
... accepted , ecological and economic calamity may face the world . Even the smallest estimates imply substantial stresses for vegeta- tion and animals and will call for significant changes in the human econ- omy . The wise course is to be ...
... accepted : it is hard to deny them , and few writers on ethics do . Other principles are more radi- cal . There is , in fact , a continuum of possible principles , from ones that are well grounded and widely held to ones that are more ...
... accepted principles ; others may feel that this simple response fails , and that a correct response to the challenge of global climate change requires a fundamental change in our ways of moral thinking . 1. Consequences : Humans Here ...
Contents
1 | |
11 | |
23 | |
3 Religious Responsibility | 39 |
4 The ArcticA Canadian Case Study | 61 |
5 Personal Responsibility | 81 |
6 Corporate Responsibility | 99 |
7 International Responsibility | 115 |
Efficiency and Ethical Considerations | 133 |
9 Energy Efficiency at Home and Abroad | 149 |
Conclusion | 165 |
About the Authors | 171 |
Bibliography | 175 |
Index | 187 |
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Ethics and Climate Change: The Greenhouse Effect Harold Coward,Thomas Hurka No preview available - 1993 |
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The Life and Death of Planet Earth: How the New Science of Astrobiology ... Peter D. Ward,Donald Brownlee No preview available - 2003 |