The Ethics of Climate Change: An Introduction systematically and comprehensively examines the ethical issues surrounding arguably the greatest threat now facing humanity. This second edition has been updated and includes two new chapters on climate change and capitalism and climate change and law. Williston addresses important questions such as:
- Has humanity entered the Anthropocene epoch?
- Is climate change primarily an ethical or an economic issue?
- Can capitalism be reformed to prevent climate catastrophe?
- What are the moral failings of international climate diplomacy?
- What are the main causes of political inaction and climate denial?
- Should tort law be used to sue those responsible for climate change?
- What are intragenerational and intergenerational justice?
- Is geoengineering an ethically justifiable response to climate change?
Featuring case studies throughout, this textbook provides a philosophical introduction to an immensely topical issue studied by students within the fields of applied ethics, global justice, sustainability, geography, and politics.
Introduction: Code Red
1. The Basic Science
2. What is Climate Change Ethics?
3. Precautionary Policy
4. International Justice
5. Intergenerational Justice
6. Jurisprudential Issues
7. Nature in the Anthropocene
8. Individual Duties
9. Climate Change Denial
10. Geoengineering
11. Capitalism and the Climate Crisis.
Glossary
Index
Biography
Byron Williston is professor of Philosophy at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada. He is the author of Philosophy and the Climate Crisis: How the Past Can Save the Present (2020), also available from Routledge.
Praise for the first edition:
"Williston's The Ethics of Climate Change persuasively shows how analytic philosophy can break free from the contemporary American Disenlightenment and contribute to the values and virtues of a sustainable future." - Martin Schönfeld, University of South Florida, USA
"Williston has provided an admirably clear, concise, and well-informed introduction to climate ethics that does not shy away from taking positions. This is an excellent introduction to the subject, both for students and for anyone concerned with one of the most profound challenges of our time." - Dale Jamieson, New York University, USA
"An exceptionally comprehensive and judicious exploration of an ominously important cluster of issues, embedding rigorous but lucid philosophical arguments in the non-ideal political realities of the fraught international negotiations. Williston probes insightfully and in a delightfully lively style – I know of nothing else this engaging for introductory or intermediate students." - Henry Shue, University of Oxford, UK
