A Climate for Justice
Nancy Tuana nods emphatically when asked if it was difficult to decide what to attend at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP-12) in Nairobi, Kenya, last November. Besides the proceedings, attendees can visit myriad side events, such as panel discussions, research project reports, and paper presentations.
One of the more significant side events was the presentation of the White Paper on the Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change written by participants of the Collaborative Program on the Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change, a partnership of seventeen institutions and representatives from academic and non-governmental organizations worldwide. Penn State's Rock Ethics Institute was one of the initiators of this program and serves as its Secretariat. As Director of the Rock Ethics Institute, Tuana was one of the lead authors of the paper that cites ethics and justice as critical in the world's approach to climate change.
"We're arguing that climate change raises a series of ethical issues having to do with violations of human rights," says Tuana. "Distributive and procedural justice must be an essential part of international negotiations seeking any comprehensive solution to this massive problem."
The paper considers the ways nations justify not reducing their emissions to a level representing their fair share of safe total global emissions. The paper contends that those nations that defend their inaction on emissions by citing scientific uncertainty, cost to the their national economy alone, lack of action by other nations, or the strategy of waiting for new, less costly technologies to be invented, are acting unethically.
"We want to provoke a broader discussion of who should be held responsible for climate change mitigation as well as reparations for unavoidable damages," she explains. "Ethical considerations must be taken into account to achieve a fair and humane response to climate change. Nations are unlikely to agree to a global solution unless it is perceived as just. For this reason, understanding what justice requires of nations on climate change has practical consequences for achieving a global solution to climate change."
She explains that some of the people in the world who are most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions are in countries that are the least likely to be harmed by climate change. Yet some countries that do not have a history of high greenhouse gas emissions, such as many of the countries in Africa, are often more vulnerable than industrialized countries that have high emissions, like the United States and several countries in Europe, because they don't have the economic and social means to easily adapt.
"Intergenerational justice issues are another set of ethical concerns," she continues. "It's not our generation that's going to get hit the hardest by climate change. It's our children and their children who will experience the worst impacts of climate change. We're talking about justice issues that include future generations. We have to think about and address this issue."
One of the most difficult aspects of dealing with climate change is the fact that we all share the same atmosphere, regardless of how much each individual country is polluting. Decisions are being made that have a global impact, Tuana says, but in many instances, the people who are most impacted do not have a say in those decisions.
"One response to climate change currently being explored by geo-engineers involves the use of aerosols to mitigate the climate impacts of greenhouse gasses," she says. "Aerosols injected into the atmosphere reflect sunlight back into space and add to cloud condensation, making them longer lasting and more reflective, which lowers the global temperature. But any country that decides to use technology like this is not just changing their weather, they are changing weather everywhere. Is that acceptable without getting agreement from all nations?"
Although the United States lags behind other countries in climate change legislation as a whole, individual states and organizations are developing their own initiatives. Penn State, for example, is taking steps to reduce its own environmental footprint. The University's is a critical first step, says Tuana.
"The University has committed to lower overall emissions by 11.5 percent," she says. "The first step is learning what exactly you're emitting and the sources of your emissions, and then you can begin to access how to make changes."
The Rock Ethics Institute is also developing graduate-level curricular modules in the environmental sciences, work sponsored by a grant from the National Science Foundation. These modules, which deal with ethical issues of sustainability, risk assessment, data analysis, and more, are currently being piloted at Penn State. The Institute will bring the modules to other universities in summer 2007.
To heighten awareness of the ethical issues surrounding climate change, the Rock Ethics Institute is hosting a series of events in the month of April designed to stimulate dialogue with Penn State faculty, staff, and students, as well as the wider community. These events will include a series of panels on the topic of religion and climate change; a Common Ground Lobby Talk on the topic of "Climate Change, Climate Justice;" and the 2007 Richard B. Lippin Lecture in Ethics by Dr. Richard Alley on climate change and ethics.
For more information about these events, see the Rock Ethics Institute Web page.
This story courtesy of Penn State's LAzine
Last modified: 04/04/08 | Contact Webmaster
