The White Horse Press

Environmental Values

Contents of Volume 15

Other volumes of EV

Environmental Values

A Perfect Moral Storm: Climate Change, Intergenerational Ethics and the Problem of Moral Corruption

Environmental Values 15(2006): 397-413. doi: 10.3197/096327106778226293

ABSTRACT

The peculiar features of the climate change problem pose substantial obstacles to our ability to make the hard choices necessary to address it. Climate change involves the convergence of a set of global, intergenerational and theoretical problems. This convergence justifies calling it a 'perfect moral storm'. One consequence of this storm is that, even if the other difficult ethical questions surrounding climate change could be answered, we might still find it difficult to act. For the storm makes us extremely vulnerable to moral corruption.

KEYWORDS: Global warming, tragedy of the commons, game theory, global environment

This article is available online (PDF format) from Ingenta Journals. Access is free if your institution subscribes to Environmental Values. Reprints of this article can be ordered from ingenta or the British Library

Contact the publishers for subscriptions and back numbers of Environmental Values.

THE WHITE HORSE PRESS
1 Strond
ISLE OF HARRIS HS5 3UD, UK
Tel: +44 1859 520204