Climate change ethics.

• Jurisdiction: Australia
• Author: Johnstone, Megan-Jane
• Date: 01 March 2013

Images of the catastrophic damage left in the wake of the recent extreme weather events in Australia and elsewhere stand as graphic harbingers of what lies ahead as the world's climate changes.

Regardless of the political disagreements of what 'the' ultimate cause of climate change is, there is a near global consensus among the world's scientists that the climate is warming and this change in climate involves harm--to human beings, to other species (many of which face being wiped out), and to the environment. It is the harms (preventable and otherwise) that are projected to occur in the near and distant futures (and that are already occurring) that places climate change firmly within the domain of ethics. Moreover, as Gardiner (2010) correctly points out, 'at a most general level [...] we cannot get very far in discussing why climate change is a problem without invoking ethical considerations' (p87). He further contends:

If we do not think that our own actions ore open to moral assessment, or that various interests (our own, those of our kin and country, those of distant people, future people, animals, and nature) matter, then it is hard to see why climate change (or much else) poses a problem (Gardiner 2010, p87).

Science versus ethics

Some might counter that 'science has all the answers' and that it is 'drawing a long bow' characterising climate change as an ethical issue, or that the ethical dimensions of climate change are serious enough to warrant attention...