scholarly journals Climate Change and Justice between Nonoverlapping Generations

1970 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja Karnein
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Intergenerational Relationships ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Intergenerational Justice ◽  
Indirect Reciprocity ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Common Ownership ◽  
Present Generation ◽  
Combat Climate Change

It is becoming less and less controversial that we ought to aggressively combat climate change. One main reason for doing so is concern for future generations, as it is they who will be the most seriously affected by it. Surprisingly, none of the more prominent deontological theories of intergenerational justice can explain why it is wrong for the present generation to do very little to stop worsening the problem. This paper discusses three such theories, namely indirect reciprocity, common ownership of the earth and human rights. It shows that while indirect reciprocity and common ownership are both too undemanding, the human rights approach misunderstands the nature of our intergenerational relationships, thereby capturing either too much or too little about what is problematic about climate change. The paper finally proposes a way to think about intergenerational justice that avoids the pitfalls of the traditional theories and can explain what is wrong with perpetuating climate change. 

The Right to Relocation: Disappearing Island Nations and Common Ownership of the Earth

2009 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathias Risse
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
International Aid ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Recent Proposal ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Common Ownership ◽  
Moral Claims ◽  
The Right

The Right to Relocation: Disappearing Island Nations and Common Ownership of the EarthMathias RisseIn recent work I have tried to revitalize the standpoint of humanity's commonly owning the earth. This standpoint has implications for a range of problems that have recently preoccupied us at the global level, including immigration, obligations to future generations, climate change, and human rights. In particular, this approach helps illuminate what moral claims to international aid small island nations whose existence is threatened by global climate change have. A recent proposal for relocating his people across different nations by President Tong of Kiribati is a case in point. My approach vindicates President Tong's proposal.

scholarly journals Commentary on Part 3: International political and economic structures

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-52
Author(s):  
Colin Farrelly
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Common Ownership ◽  
Aging World

Mathias Risse’s On Global Justice is a unique and important contribution to the growing literature on global justice. Risse’s approach to a variety of topics, ranging from domestic justice and common ownership of the earth, to immigration, human rights, climate change, and labour rights, is one that conceives of global justice as a philosophical problem. In this commentary I focus on a number of reservations I have about approaching global justice as a philosophical rather than an inherently practical problem. To his credit Risse does acknowledge at various stages of the book that a good deal of the applied terrain he ventures into presupposes complex and contentious empirical assumptions. A greater emphasis on those points would, I believe, helpfully reveal the shortcomings of tackling intellectual property rights by appealing to Hugo Grotius’s stance on the ownership of seas, or the shortcomings of tackling health by invoking the language of human rights without acknowledging and addressing the constraints and challenges of promoting health in an aging world.

13. Environmental Taxes and Intergenerational Justice

2021 ◽  
pp. 187-202
Author(s):  
William Abel ◽  
Elizabeth Kahn ◽  
Tom Parr ◽  
Andrew Walton
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
The State ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Environmental Taxes ◽  
Intergenerational Justice ◽  
Current Generation

This chapter evaluates environmental taxes as part of a set of policies to address the threats that climate change poses. These taxes increase the price of activities that are environmentally harmful. In doing so, they discourage such behaviour and raise revenue that the state can use to redress its effects. The chapter embeds these considerations in an account of intergenerational justice, arguing that the current generation has a duty to provide future generations with prospects at least equal to its own. It also examines the objection that the proposed approach allows historical emitters off of the moral hook, showing that the state can adjust environmental taxes to take account of this. Finally, the chapter explores how to amend these taxes so that they are not regressive and that they do not present undue barriers to particularly valuable activities.

scholarly journals Urban climate change, livelihood vulnerability and narratives of generational responsibility in Jinja, Uganda

Africa ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 88 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katie McQuaid ◽  
Robert M. Vanderbeck ◽  
Gill Valentine ◽  
Chen Liu ◽  
Lily Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Weather Patterns ◽  
Present Generation

AbstractThere is an urgent need to understand lived experiences of climate change in the context of African cities, where even small climate shocks can have significant implications for the livelihoods of the urban poor. This article examines narratives of climate and livelihood changes within Jinja Municipality, Uganda, emphasizing how Jinja's residents make sense of climate change through their own narrative frames rather than through the lens of global climate change discourses. We demonstrate how the onset of climate change in Jinja is widely attributed to perceived moral and environmental failings on the part of a present generation that is viewed as both more destructive than previous generations and unable to preserve land, trees and other resources for future generations. A focus on local ontologies of climate change highlights how the multiple, intersecting vulnerabilities of contemporary urban life in Jinja serve to obfuscate not only the conditions of possibility of an immediate future, but the longer-term horizons for future generations, as changing weather patterns exacerbate existing challenges people face in adapting to wider socio-economic changes and rising livelihood vulnerability. This form of analysis situates changing climate and environments within the context of everyday urban struggles and emphasizes the need for civic participation in developing climate change strategies that avoid the pitfalls of climate reductionism. The article draws on more than 150 qualitative interviews, generational dialogue groups, and creative methods based on research-led community theatre.

Climate Justice. A Contractualist Perspective

2010 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Rinderle
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
General Welfare ◽  
Principle Of Justice

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to question the utilitarian hegemony in recent discussions about global climate change by defending the possibility of a contractualist alternative. More particularly, I will raise and try to answer two questions. First: How can we justify principles of climate justice? As opposed to the utilitarian concern with maximizing general welfare, a contractualist will look at the question whether certain principles are generally acceptable or could not reasonably be rejected. Second: What do we owe to future generations in these matters? Three principles of climate justice are suggested: a sufficiency principle securing basic human rights, a principle of justice giving each generation a right to realize its conception of justice, and a principle of reciprocity requiring us to take responsibility for the reception of benefits and the causation of harm.

Indigenous Belief Systems, Science, and Resource Extraction: Climate Change Attitudes in Ecuador

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd A. Eisenstadt ◽  
Karleen Jones West
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Systems Science ◽  
Core Beliefs ◽  
Traditional Beliefs ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Combat Climate Change ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Climate Change Attitudes

Indigenous people around the world have been particularly vocal about climate change as a challenge to their cosmovision—or traditional worldview—resulting in demands for protection of the earth as part of their core beliefs. Is this because indigenous people are the most vulnerable, and feel the impact of climate change more directly? Or is it because of the centrality of the earth to their traditional beliefs? Using survey evidence from Ecuador, we examine how indigenous cosmovision, science, and vulnerability influence the belief that climate change exists. On the basis of one-on-one interviews with indigenous leaders in Ecuador, we argue that both traditional beliefs and Western science inform citizen views of climate change. We discuss the implications of these findings, arguing that rather than competing with science, the Kichwa-based cosmovision complements Western scientific efforts to combat climate change. We also find that proximity to oil extraction is an important determinant of belief in climate change in Ecuador, suggesting that conceptualizations of vulnerability should be tailored to the particular experiences of individuals.

Cosmopolitan Justice, Rights and Global Climate Change

2006 ◽  
Vol 19 (02) ◽  
pp. 255-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Caney
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Normative Argument ◽  
Climate Change Damages

The paper has the following structure. In Section I, I introduce some important methodological preliminaries by asking: How should one reason about global environmental justice in general and global climate change in particular? Section II introduces the key normative argument; it argues that global climate change damages some fundamental human interests and results in a state of affairs in which the rights of many are unprotected: as such it is unjust. Section III addresses the complexities that arise from the fact that some of the ill effects of global climate change will fall on the members of future generations. Section IV shows that some prevailing approaches are unable to deal satisfactorily with the challenges posed by global climate change. If the argument of this paper is correct, it follows that those who contribute to global climate change through high emissions are guilty of human rights violations and they should be condemned as such.

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