Ethics and Global Climate Change

by French, Peter A.; Wettstein, Howard K.

• ISBN13: 9781119341321
• ISBN10: 1119341329
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2016-10-03
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

The planet is undergoing a global change in climate that has begun to negatively affect populations and is predicted to accelerate in the coming decades. The human beings now on Earth are the first to exist when the climatic dynamics of the planet are scientifically understood. That understanding makes patently clear that the aggregate effects of human activities have a distinct impact on planetary climate and the way humans will live, if they survive, in the future. This appears to be a tipping point time in human history when future climatic catastrophes that threaten generations of humans might be preventable if governments, institutions, and organizations now take mitigating actions. That suggests that the people currently alive on the planet bear a collective responsibility to address the negative human impact on climate.

Author Biography

Peter A. French is the Lincoln Chair in Ethics and the Director of the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics at Arizona State University. Formerly, he held the Cole Chair In Ethics at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and served as Exxon Distinguished Research Professor in the Center for the Study of Values at the University of Delaware. He is the author of seventeen books and has published dozens of articles in the major philosophical and legal journals and reviews, many of which have been anthologized.

Howard K. Wettstein is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. He has taught at the University of Notre Dame and the University of Minnesota-Morris, and has served as visiting professor at the University of Iowa and Stanford University. Wettstein has published articles on the philosophy of language and the philosophy of religion. 

Table of Contents

The Struggle for Climate Justice in a Non-Ideal World Simon Caney 9

Climate Justice Beyond International Burden Sharing Steve Vanderheiden 27

Equalizing the Intergenerational Burdens of Climate Change - An Alternative to Discounted Utilitarianism Darrel Moellendorf Axel Schaffer 43

High Stakes: Inertia or Transformation? Henry Shue 63

Climate Policy when Preference Are Endogenous: And Sometimes They Are Linus Mattauch Cameron Hepburn 76

Two Theories of Responsibility for Past Emissions of Carbon Dioxide Michelle Hayner David Weisbach 96

On Climate Matters: Offsetting, Population, and Justice Elizabeth Cripps 114

Climate Matters Pro Tanto, Does It Matter Alb Things-Considered? Holly Lawford-Smith 129

Climate Matters for Future People Paul Bou-Habib 143

A Reply To My Critics John Broome 158

No Justice in Climate Policy? Broome versus Posner, Weisbach, and Gardiner Alyssa R. Bernstein 172

Anthropocentrism in Climate Ethics and Policy Katie McShane 189

Should We Tolerate Climate Change Denial? Catriona McKinnon 205

A Global Right of Water Tim Hayward 217

Saving Species but Losing Wildness: Should We Genetically Adapt Wild Animal Species to Help Them Respond to Climate Change? Clare Palmer 234

Corporate Responsibility, Democracy, and Climate Change Denis G. Arnold 252

The Ethics of Dieselgate Luc Bovens 262

From the Anrhropocene to the Ecozoic: Philosophy and Global Climate Change Brian G. Henning 284

Flourishing in the Age of Climate Change: Finding the Heart of Sustainability William Throop 296