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Johns Hopkins University | AS.150.101

Freshman Seminar: Climate Ethics

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It is no secret that the threat of global climate change raises difficult scientific, technological, and policy questions. However the threat of global climate change also raises profound ethical questions. For instance, what do present generations owe future generations? Who if anyone should bear more of the burden of mitigating climate change--rich countries or individuals, those more historically responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, those who currently emit the most, or some other group? What exactly is the right distribution? What do residents of relatively-unaffected countries owe to those displaced by climate change? Are we obligated to accept them as refugees, or is it permissible to refuse them entry? Do those countries most responsible for climate change owe reparations to those most affected by it? Do oil companies? Although these and other ethical questions have figured less prominently in public debate and discussions by policymakers in recent years, they are arguably more important because more fundamental: after all, it is ultimately our ethical stances that determine which scientific, technological, and policy questions we think matter and how we think about them. In this class, we will focus on these and other, related ethical questions raised by the threat of global climate change, connecting them where possible with related questions in political philosophy, ethics, and policy.

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