Inaction on Global Warming - as Reckless as Drunk Driving

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CLIMATE ETHICS

INACTION ON GLOBAL WARMING: AS RECKLESS AS DRUNK DRIVING

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   “If you really think the economy is more important than the environment, try holding your breath whilst you count your money” (Dr. Guy McPherson). One of the most challenging issues facing the world today is climate change. When confronting this issue, any action tackles the ethical question of fairness and responsibility for individuals, nations, generations, and the rest of nature on our Earth. “Climate changed has been described as the “perfect moral storm” because it brings together three major challenges to ethical action in a mutually reinforcing way” (Gardiner, Nature). The first challenge is that climate change is truly a global phenomenon. Once greenhouse gases are emitted into our atmosphere, they can have climate effects anywhere on the planet, regardless of the source they stem from. The problem ensuing here is between nation states. Collectively, nations would prefer to limit global emissions to lessen the risk of disastrous impacts. However, when nations, even individuals, act alone they still prefer to continue emitting unhindered.

   The second challenge facing climate change is that current emissions have profoundly intergenerational effects. “Emissions of the most prominent greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, typically persist in the atmosphere for a long time, contributing to negative climate impacts for centuries, or even millennia” (Gardiner, Nature). This also seems unfair, especially considering future impacts will be not only negative, but severe and growing. Also, the time-based dissemination of climate changes raises an ethical collective action problem that is even more challenging than the first issue, generational cooperation.

   The third challenge climate change ethical action is facing the quandary about the moral responsibility and value of nonhuman nature, meaning whether we have an obligation to protect nonhuman animals, exceptional places, or nature as a whole, and what form would those obligations take if we do. These issues provide serious temptations for those in the current generation who contribute heavily to climate change to pass most of the burden of their activities on to people in other parts of the world and to future generations in unfair ways.

   Even after posing these challenges and realizing the scary truth that is in front of us, many Americans do not yet see climate change as an ethical issue. “It is genuinely global and seriously intergenerational, and crosses species boundaries. It also takes place in a setting where existing institutions and theories are weak, proving little ethical guidance” (Gardiner, WP). This issue is new to us as a collective community, there are no specific guidelines on how to handle it. However, it is crucial to keep in mind that without the health of our Earth, the health of individuals will crumble.

   The same moral duty we acquire to be utilized for climate change is essentially based on the concepts we learned as children. While in grade school, we learn to treat others the way we want to be treated. As we age, we learn that we must be careful when participating in other activities—don’t drive after you’ve been drinking, don’t leave a loaded gun around children, etc. These basic moral principles can be applied in thinking about policies to address climate change.

   Those who emit carbon don’t necessarily mean to cause harm, any more than a child playing kickball in the backyard means to knock out a glass window. But it’s not enough to have “good intentions” in this scenario. There is no way to avoid every possible instance where others could be harmed, however, there is an obligation to take reasonable precautions to prevent avoidable damage. It can be difficult to define what are reasonable precautions in certain situations, taking into consideration the risks and the weight of implicating preventative measures. In regard to climate change, the question really is whether we have taken reasonable precautions considering the evidence and resources available to us.

   Along with that question, arises a debate over when the dangers of climate change became evident enough for our society to respond with reasonable precautions. What we do know is, the evidence arrived well before the end of the 20th century. “By then, scientists agreed that greenhouse gases were causing global warming and that continued warming was likely to become dangerous. In fact, in 1992, the world’s nations—including the U.S. under President Bush—signed a treaty acknowledging the risks and the need for action” (Farber).  

   According to the former US vice-president and climate campaigner, Al Gore, “The battle to halt climate change can be won, because the green revolution delivering clean energy is both bigger than the industrial revolution and happening faster than the digital revolution” (Gore, Guardian). Gore also has compared the fight against climate change to the abolition of slavery, the defeat of apartheid, as well as votes for women and gay rights. In these past situations, humanity won.

   “We chose what was right, and now in this case it is clearly wrong to destroy the prospects of living prosperously and sustainably on a clean earth when we bequeath it to our children. It is wrong to use the sky as an open sewer, it is wrong to condemn future generations to a lifetime haunted by continual declines in their standard of living, and give them a world of political disruption and all the chaos that scientists have warned us about” (Gore, Guardian).

   My personal beliefs couldn’t align more perfectly with this statement made by Al Gore. As stated in the opening quote, ‘try to hold your breath while you count your money.’ As humans, we have taken advantage of our planet and are now quickly destroying it. If this path of devastation and destruction continues, there is no one to blame but mankind. The moral responsibility to protect our home planet for ourselves, and future generations, is existent and needs to be handled promptly. “People of conscience need to break their ties with corporations financing the injustice of climate change” (Gore, Guardian).

   With all this being said, in the last decade climate science has made major advances, helping us better understand foreseen difficulties that lie ahead. Renewable energy, such as solar and wind, is cheaper than fossil fuel-based electricity in many parts of the world. Electric cars have even become conventional for some. Although we have seen great strides made, there is still a lot of work to do to work towards the sustainable future our planet needs. The thought to consider is that the only way we are going to continue to make strides is if nations come together, taking on the ethical responsibility to our planet, and work to reduce our overall carbon footprints.