Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-m8s7h Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-19T18:25:29.522Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

18 - Ethics

from Section V - Social Ramifications of Climate Intervention

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2022

Wake Smith
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
Get access

Summary

The ethics of climate change are deeply problematical – a “perfect moral storm.” This ethical terrain is characterized by a dispersal of cause and effect, a fragmentation of agency, and an institutional inadequacy. However, the greatest moral pitfall derives from the severely lagged nature of climate change, leading to dire issues of intergenerational equity. Common notions of justice in the climate arena include distributive, reparative, and procedural elements. The precautionary principle is also perceived to be a salient consideration. Ethical challenges particular to climate interventions start with the "moral hazard" or mitigation deterrence reservation as well as the risk of hubris in seeking to engineer the earth system. Some argue that geoengineering shirks responsibility for our emissions and saddles the future with a burdensome climate debt. An alternative though not universally accepted view is that since climate change is likely to have asymmetrical adverse impact on the poor, geoengineering would convey to them asymmetrical benefits. Though ethics would seem to demand not merely societal climate sacrifices but personal ones as well, few among my Yale students or Harvard colleagues have yet to undertake them. I can’t claim to be any holier than they, which is itself a dilemma.

Type
Chapter
Information
Pandora's Toolbox
The Hopes and Hazards of Climate Intervention
, pp. 281 - 295
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Ethics
  • Wake Smith, Harvard University, Massachusetts
  • Book: Pandora's Toolbox
  • Online publication: 24 February 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009008877.018
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Ethics
  • Wake Smith, Harvard University, Massachusetts
  • Book: Pandora's Toolbox
  • Online publication: 24 February 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009008877.018
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Ethics
  • Wake Smith, Harvard University, Massachusetts
  • Book: Pandora's Toolbox
  • Online publication: 24 February 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009008877.018
Available formats
×