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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... tion 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 prob- lem . Their ...
... tion : about the biological effects of warming in different regions , about the economic effects of different avoidance measures , about the prospects for new technologies . But it also raises ethical issues . In chapter 2 Thomas Hurka ...
... tion ) a limited shared resource justly allocated among states . Van Kooten picks up Danielson's contention that so long as the atmosphere is seen to be an open - access , unlimited resource no one person , country , or corpo- ration ...
... tion . The rise may have come from melting of glaciers and from thermal expansion of the average ocean water column . These estimates are very uncertain , as are predictions that the rise of sea level will accelerate . Par- ticularly ...
... tion and evaporation , the smallest figure coming from the Canadian Cli- mate Centre model , which has much spatial detail . This range of uncer- tainty is too great to be useful as a basis for planning adaptation strate- gies . As ...
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 |