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. |
From inside the book
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... earth possible , but our tampering is setting the thermostat too high , endangering human , plant , and 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 ...
... earth , the Arctic , are analyzed by Harvey Buckmaster in chapter 4. The stress on the Arctic ecosystem caused by global warming is predicted to be greater than in the rest of Canada . An anticipated warming of 8-10 ° C would result in ...
... earth , future generations , and the non - human elements of the environment . The chapter relies heavily on the evidence and argu- ment of Lovins and Lovins ( 1991 ) . For current generations everywhere , it is argued , the quality of ...
... earth's surface seems to be in progress . Many people think that this warming , which will be discussed in section 2 ... earth's surface , temperatures would be 33 ° C colder than they are today : the earth would be largely uninhabitable ...
... earth by satellite . We are currently taking the pulse of the atmosphere more often than a patient can expect in a hospital's intensive care unit . This was far from being the case in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries , when ...
Contents
1 | |
11 | |
2 Ethical Principles | 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 |
175 | |
187 | |
Other editions - View all
Ethics and Climate Change: The Greenhouse Effect Harold Coward,Thomas Hurka No preview available - 1993 |
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References to this book
The Life and Death of Planet Earth: How the New Science of Astrobiology ... Peter D. Ward,Donald Brownlee No preview available - 2003 |