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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... human and non - human communities . But pure avoidance - reducing warming to zero — would be enormously expensive . An ethically acceptable goal must involve some mixture of adaptation and avoidance . To decide on this mixture we must ...
... human and non - human suffering will result if global warming results in significant climate change , and that therefore all action that can be taken to avoid global warming is ethically required . The chapter pro- poses that if , as a ...
... not naturally adopt energy - efficient products . With regard to ethical responsibilities to both future generations and the non - human environment , the authors maintain that energy efficiency is one of the best strategies to follow ...
... not just as a means to better human lives , but as an end in itself . This marks a radical break with much of traditional Western ethics , which has emphasized the lordship of humans over nature . It is a reforming view , and far from ...
... non - human entities compares with that of humans . How much human sacrifice is ethically required to pre- serve , for example , an Arctic ecosystem ? Welfarist individualism has an answer , at least in principle , to this question ...
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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