Climate change is genuinely global, dominantly intergenerational, and takes place in a setting where our prescriptive theories are weak. This “perfect moral storm” poses a profound challenge to ...humanity. This book explains the storm, how it makes sense of our current malaise, and why better ethics can help. This book argues that despite decades of awareness, we are currently accelerating hard into the climate problem in a way that defies standard explanations. It claims that this suggests that our current focus on the scientific and economic questions is too narrow, and that the tendency to see the political problem as a traditional tragedy of the commons facing nation states is too optimistic. Instead, the key issue is that the current generation, and especially the most affluent, are in a position to pass on most of the costs of their behavior (and especially the most serious harms) to the global poor, future generations and nonhuman nature. This tyranny of the contemporary is a deeper problem than the traditional tragedy of the commons. Moreover, the book argues that this diagnosis helps to explain both the past failures of international climate policy (e.g., the “shadow solutions” of Kyoto and Copenhagen), and the current push towards geoengineering. Part of the solution, it argues, is better public ethics. We must work harder on articulating both the ethical problem, and moral constraints on solutions. In addition, there is a role for “defensive” moral and political philosophy, aimed at preserving the quality of public discourse.
From a Nobel Prize–winning pioneer in environmental economics, an innovative account of how and why "green thinking" could cure many of the world's most serious problems—from global warming to ...pandemics Solving the world's biggest problems—from climate catastrophe and pandemics to wildfires and corporate malfeasance—requires, more than anything else, coming up with new ways to manage the powerful interactions that surround us. For carbon emissions and other environmental damage, this means ensuring that those responsible pay their full costs rather than continuing to pass them along to others, including future generations. In The Spirit of Green, Nobel Prize–winning economist William Nordhaus describes a new way of green thinking that would help us overcome our biggest challenges without sacrificing economic prosperity, in large part by accounting for the spillover costs of economic collisions.In a discussion that ranges from the history of the environmental movement to the Green New Deal, Nordhaus explains how the spirit of green thinking provides a compelling and hopeful new perspective on modern life. At the heart of green thinking is a recognition that the globalized world is shaped not by isolated individuals but rather by innumerable interactions inside and outside the economy. He shows how rethinking economic efficiency, sustainability, politics, profits, taxes, individual ethics, corporate social responsibility, finance, and more would improve the effectiveness and equity of our society. And he offers specific solutions—on how to price carbon, how to pursue low-carbon technologies, how to design an efficient tax system, and how to foster international cooperation through climate clubs.The result is a groundbreaking new vision of how we can have our environment and our economy too.
A discerning analysis of the future effects of climate
change on Russia, the major power most dependent on the fossil fuel
economy. Russia will be one of the countries most affected
by climate ...change. No major power is more economically dependent on
the export of hydrocarbons; at the same time, two-thirds of
Russia's territory lies in the arctic north, where melting
permafrost is already imposing growing damage. Climate change also
brings drought and floods to Russia's south, threatening the
country's agricultural exports. Thane Gustafson predicts that, over
the next thirty years, climate change will leave a dramatic imprint
on Russia. The decline of fossil fuel use is already underway, and
restrictions on hydrocarbons will only tighten, cutting fuel prices
and slashing Russia's export revenues. Yet Russia has no
substitutes for oil and gas revenues. The country is unprepared for
the worldwide transition to renewable energy, as Russian leaders
continue to invest the national wealth in oil and gas while
dismissing the promise of post-carbon technologies. Nor has the
state made efforts to offset the direct damage that climate change
will do inside the country. Optimists point to new
opportunities-higher temperatures could increase agricultural
yields, the melting of arctic ice may open year-round shipping
lanes in the far north, and Russia could become a global
nuclear-energy supplier. But the eventual post-Putin generation of
Russian leaders will nonetheless face enormous handicaps, as their
country finds itself weaker than at any time in the preceding
century. Lucid and thought-provoking, Klimat shows how
climate change is poised to alter the global order, potentially
toppling even great powers from their perches.
A revelatory study of how climate change will affect
individual economic decisions, and the broad impact of those
choices Selected by Publishers Weekly as
one of its Top Ten books in Business and ...Economics for Spring
2021 It is all but certain that the next century will be
hotter than any we've experienced before. Even if we get serious
about fighting climate change, it's clear that we will need to
adapt to the changes already underway in our environment. This book
considers how individual economic choices in response to climate
change will transform the larger economy. Using the tools of
microeconomics, Matthew E. Kahn explores how decisions about where
we live, how our food is grown, and where new business ventures
choose to locate are impacted by climate change. Kahn suggests new
ways that big data can be deployed to ease energy or water
shortages to aid agricultural operations and proposes informed
policy changes related to public infrastructure, disaster relief,
and real estate to nudge land use, transportation options, and
business development in the right direction.
Environmental problems – particularly climate change – have become increasingly important to governments and social researchers in recent decades. Debates about their implications for social policies ...and welfare reforms are now moving towards centre stage. What has been missing from such debates is an account of the history of the welfare state in relation to environmental issues and green ideas.
A Green History of the Welfare State fills this gap. How have the environmental and social policy agendas developed? To what extent have welfare systems been informed by the principles of environmental ethics and politics? How effective has the welfare state been at addressing environmental problems? How might the history of social policies be reimagined? With its lively, chronological narrative, this book provides answers to these questions. Through overviews of key periods, politicians and reforms the book weaves together a range of subjects into a new kind of historical tapestry, including: social policy, economics, party politics, government action and legislation, and environmental issues.
This book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of environmental policy and history, social and public policy, social history, sociology and politics.
The feeling of optimism that followed the COP 21 Paris Conference on Climate Change requires concrete action and steadfast commitment to a process that raises a number of crucial challenges: ...technological, political, social, and economic. As climate change worsens, new robust leadership is imperative. This title examines why a close collaboration between the EU and China may result in the necessary impetus to solidify a vision and a roadmap for our common future in the Anthropocene.
The Urgency of Climate Change addresses a pivotal challenge for the sustainability of our planet. This topic was selected for the inaugural conference in 2015 of an annual series on the Integrity of ...Creation. The essays in this collection were selected in a peer-reviewed manner and appeal to a general audience. The chapters move from general to more specific points of view, with a discussion at the end of each section addressing the global impact of climate change. The first section sets the Context for the discussion, explaining that the climate is an indispensable common good. The part on Science emphasises that empirical reality must guide any analysis of the climate as a matter of basic knowledge and comprehension. A crucial implication is whether the climate is sufficiently robust for the Earth to flourish for millennia ahead, as discussed in the part on Sustainability. In turn, these sections raise pivotal questions, regarding Ethics about social obligations for the planet to flourish and regarding Religion to foster global stewardship. Finally, this alignment of Ethics and Religion around the problems related to Science and Sustainability leads to the final section on Law that considers policy possibilities to effectively engage Climate Change.
This book explores the different methodologies and data used to understand climate's effect on food security. It explains the nature of the climate threat, ways that crops and farmers might respond, ...and the potential role for public and private investment.
This book brings together research on various aspects of environmental migration in the context of international law, with a particular focus on the emergence and development of regulation in the ...field of environmental migration at the global and regional levels. It discusses a theoretical framework for international regulation of environmental migration, analysing the notion and legal status of environmental migrants, categories of environmentally displaced persons, problems of legal regulation in the field of environmental migration at the international level, as well as specific circumstances of international labour migration induced by environmental factors. The annexes here bring together the most important international acts governing various aspects of forced and labour migration. As such, the book will appeal to international law experts, students, post-graduate students, researchers, and the general reader interested in international migration law.
