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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... animal life . For example , by our use of oil and coal to fuel cars and produce electricity we are adding some three billion tons of carbon to the atmosphere each year . This is like adding new panes of glass to the greenhouse . And ...
... animal rights to ecosystemic or environmental rights . The rights approach has a further aspect : that compensation is owed when a rights - violation occurs . This consideration is relevant when asking who should bear the costs of ...
... animal species ( with the exception of ocean fish populations ) . In each domain — notably the fisheries- it is difficult to disentangle climatic impact from the perva- sive actions of humankind . Not until larger climatic changes have ...
... animals and will call for significant changes in the human econ- omy . The wise course is to be prudent and to act in our common defence . My personal concern about this issue is heightened by my belief , shared by many students of ...
... life that could adapt to a slower warming may be destroyed by one this rapid . This will be bad both on an individualist environmental view — where individual animals will suffer or find their natural life - activities Ethical Principles ...
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 |
Other editions - View all
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 |