Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 17 (2):168-188 (2014)
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Abstract |
Moral duties concerning climate change mitigation are – for good reasons – conventionally construed as duties of institutional agents, usually states. Yet, in both scholarly debate and political discourse, it has occasionally been argued that the moral duties lie not only with states and institutional agents, but also with individual citizens. This argument has been made with regard to mitigation efforts, especially those reducing greenhouse gases. This paper focuses on the question of whether individuals in industrialized countries have duties to reduce their individual carbon footprint. To this end it will examine three kinds of arguments that have been brought forward against individuals having such duties: the view that individual emissions cause no harm; the view that individual mitigation efforts would have no morally significant effect; and the view that lifestyle changes would be overly-demanding. The paper shows how all three arguments fail to convince. While collective endeavours may be most efficient and effective in bringing about significant changes, there are still good reasons to contribute individually to reducing emission. After all, for most people the choice is between reducing one’s individual emissions and not doing anything. The author hopes this paper shows that one should not opt for the latter.
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Keywords | ethics of climate change aggregate harm collective duties climate change mitigation Parfit |
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Reprint years | 2012, 2014 |
DOI | 10.1080/13698230.2012.692984 |
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References found in this work BETA
Group Agency: The Possibility, Design, and Status of Corporate Agents.Christian List & Philip Pettit - 2011 - Oxford University Press.
Responsibility and Global Justice: A Social Connection Model.Iris Marion Young - 2006 - Social Philosophy and Policy 23 (1):102-130.
View all 24 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
What’s Wrong with Joyguzzling?Ewan Kingston & Walter Sinnott-Armstrong - 2018 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 21 (1):169-186.
Climate Change, Moral Integrity, and Obligations to Reduce Individual Greenhouse Gas Emissions.Trevor Hedberg - 2018 - Ethics, Policy and Environment 21 (1):64-80.
Psychedelics and Environmental Virtues.Nin Kirkham & Chris Letheby - forthcoming - Philosophical Psychology:1-25.
Individuals’ Contributions to Harmful Climate Change: The Fair Share Argument Restated.Christian Baatz & Lieske Voget-Kleschin - 2019 - Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 32 (4):569-590.
View all 16 citations / Add more citations
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