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Framing an ethics of climate management for the anthropocene

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Abstract

In addition to carbon dioxide, it is becoming increasingly clear that there are numerous other potent agents of anthropogenic forcing (e.g. methane, ozone, black carbon) at work in the climate system today. The typical ethical framing of climate change has not yet accommodated this complexity. In addition, geoengineering has often been presented as a Plan B that would simply counter unintentional (and positive) anthropogenic forcing with intentional (and negative) anthropogenic forcing. This paper attempts to better address the complexity by outlining an ethical framework for reducing all anthropogenic forcing, a position it labels the 'climate imperative.' The paper considers geoengineering alongside various other anthropogenic forcing activities and discusses what the climate imperative would say about each of them. On this analysis, GHG and black carbon reductions remain a priority. At the same time, the framing reveals a significant ethical difference between geoengineering through solar radiation management and through carbon dioxide removal.

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Notes

  1. Additional framing challenges are discussed by Gardiner (2010) and Scott (2012)

  2. A fourth potentially significant forcing effect comes from the emission of black carbon particles from engine exhaust.

  3. Fully defending this claim would require a lot of work in environmental ethics, work only hinted at here (see Preston 2011).

  4. Arguably it is also embedded in the UNFCCC’s (1992) call to reduce “dangerous anthropogenic interference” with the climate system.

  5. For an application of this to geoengineering, see Keith 2000/1 and Morrow 2014.

  6. The physics and chemistry of combustion engines may well make idealized goals of this kind difficult to attain in practice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy & Program on Ethics and Public Affairs, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana

    Christopher J. Preston

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  1. Christopher J. Preston
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Correspondence to Christopher J. Preston.

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This article is part of a special issue on "Multidisciplinary perspectives on climate ethics" with guest editors Marco Grasso and Ezra M. Markowitz.

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Preston, C.J. Framing an ethics of climate management for the anthropocene. Climatic Change 130, 359–369 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-014-1182-4

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