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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... 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 proceeds by looking at the ...
... radical principles . In fact , this is a useful general response to ethical disagreement : on any issue , try to establish ethical conclusions using the least contentious principles possi- ble , to maximize the chances of agreement . I ...
... radical . The authors of the chapters to come can then situate their discussions with respect to this continuum . Some may believe that acceptable recommendations about climate policy can be justified using only widely accepted ...
... radical changes in the practices that threaten to cause global climate change . But others disagree , arguing that while 10 or perhaps 20 per cent reductions in carbon dioxide emissions can be achieved at modest costs , reductions ...
... 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 uni- versally accepted , but it too comes in less and more radical forms . The less ...
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 |