Blackwell Reference Online

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Environmental challenges do not wear philosophical name-tags, and the judgment about what kinds of question they raise is more fateful, because more difficult to shake loose from, than any particular answers offered to the questions once assumed. Much philosophical writing about climate change so far has assumed that the fundamental issues are distributive: issues of justice between rich and poor and between present and future. Issues of distributive justice, trans-spatial and trans-temporal, are certainly important, but other kinds of question arise as well.A change in the climate is a profound change, a modification in some of the interacting forces that, in combination with its distance from the sun, give this planet its distinctive environment. What may be harmed by human choices to bring about avoidable changes in the climate depends upon what is morally considerable, the range of things whose interests deserve to be taken into account (see sentientism, meta-ethics). However, since the climate is a planetary-level phenomenon, virtually anything that is indeed morally considerable may well be affected by the extent or speed of climate change. For example, the species that flourish on earth now are species that found a hospitable spot in the climate we have now. Species adapt - some migrate - and speciations are constantly occurring, but natural adaptation and natural evolution ... log in or subscribe to read full text