The White Horse Press

Environmental Values

Contents of Volume 15

Other volumes of EV

Environmental Values

Ethics and Climate Change: A Commentary on MacCracken, Toman and Gardiner

Environmental Values 15(2006): 415-422. doi: 10.3197/096327106778226239

ABSTRACT

Climate change is an ethical issue, because it involves the distribution of a scarce resource - the capacity of the atmosphere to absorb our waste gases without producing consequences that no one wants. Various principles might be used to decide what distribution is just. This commentary argues that on any plausible principle, the industrialised nations should be doing much more than they are doing now, and much more than they are required to do by the Kyoto protocol, to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The commentary also responds specifically to some issues raised by MacCracken, Toman and Gardiner, including feasibility, the discount rate, and grounds for pessimism.

KEYWORDS: Ethics, climate change, justice, scarce resources, discount rate

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