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Science Environmental Science

Ethical Choices and Global Greenhouse Warming

by (author) Lydia Dotto

Publisher
Calgary Institute, Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Initial publish date
Oct 2010
Category
Environmental Science, Environmental Policy, Environmental Conservation & Protection
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781554586714
    Publish Date
    Oct 2010
    List Price
    $18.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780889202344
    Publish Date
    Aug 1993
    List Price
    $34.99

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Description

There are many things we can choose to do about climate change, including doing nothing at all. All of them have consequences, many of which will be unforeseen. If we could foretell more accurately what would happen to the climate in the future, our choices might be clearer, if not necessarily easier to make. Unfortunately, predicting future climate change is fraught with uncertainty, and we will be forced to make choices in the face of that uncertainty. To what extent are we motivated in this difficult process by a desire to do the “right thing”? And how do we decide what is the right thing to do? The answer to these questions depends on whose ethical interests are considered.

What is best for a Canadian living in the last decade of the twentieth century—even supposing we could discover what that is—might not be best for a Somali, or for our great-grandchildren, or for the rain forest of the Amazon or the kangaroos of Australia. Decisions about what to do about global warming will therefore be influenced by how much relative weight we give to the ethical interests of Canadians, Somalis, grandchildren, rain forests, kangaroos and a host of other variables. Weighing these competing interests is an exercise in applied ethics. This book examines the role that ethics can and should play in our decisions about how to deal with global warming.

About the author

Lyndia Dotto, science writer and author of Planet Earth in Jeopardy, was invited to attend the conference and write a stimulating book presenting the synthesis of knowledge resulting from the papers and seminar discussions.

Lydia Dotto's profile page