Is There a Sacrifice-Free Solution to Climate Change?

Ethics, Policy and Environment 18 (1):68-78 (2015)
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Abstract

John Broome claims that there is a sacrifice-free solution to climate change. He says this is a consequence of elementary economics. After explaining the economic argument in somewhat more detail than Broome, I show that the argument is unsound. A main problem with it stems from Derek Parfit's ‘nonidentity effect.’ But there is hope, since the nonidentity effect underwrites a more philosophical yet more plausible route to a sacrifice-free solution. So in the end I join Broome in asking economists and policymakers to help make this a reality.

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J. Paul Kelleher
University of Wisconsin, Madison

References found in this work

Reasons and Persons.Derek Parfit - 1984 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.
Reasons and Persons.Joseph Margolis - 1984 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 47 (2):311-327.
The most important thing about climate change.John Broome - 2010 - In Jonathan Boston, Andrew Bradstock & David L. Eng, Public policy: why ethics matters. Acton, A.C.T.: ANUE Press. pp. 101-16.

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