Lifeboats & Trolley Cars

Argument Outline 4

Due Wednesday, November 5.

Don Brown, an environmental ethicist and specialist in environmental law, argues that climate change has moral and ethical dimensions, and he claims that the American public and policy-makers are not taking these dimensions seriously. Brown identifies eight ethical issues related to climate change.

Watch the video or read the transcript of his speech here.

Evaluate one of these issues or the overall question of whether climate change presents a moral problem according to any of the ethical frameworks we’ve developed. You are certainly not required to agree with Don Brown, but you are expected to offer an argument (and a response) supporting your view. You may perform additional internet research, if you wish, but please cite your sources.

Considering the ethical implications of climate change is a new philosophical problem, and one that I think is important to take up. You can read some of my earlier thoughts here.

Hint: narrower problems usually make for more successful arguments because there is less confusion about what the issue is.

If you wish, you can read more about each of these issues in the “White Paper on the Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change”: http://www.webethics.net/padova2008/doc/pdf/edcc-whitepaper.pdf

Here is an associated blog: http://climateethics.org/

UPDATE: The primary link above stopped working on Tuesday, Nov. 14. Here are some alternatives:

My recommendation is that you watch the video on YouTube.

Other options provide more information and argument than the video and include the white paper linked above, a PowerPoint presentation that you can download at the bottom of this page, and the ClimateEthics blog. Let me suggest the first post as an introduction to the issues that would be suitable background for writing the outline, but more ideas are found throughout the blog’s posts.

If you use one of these written sources, you may find it difficult to put the technical language in your own words. But copying without attribution is plagiarism. So always try to put the ideas in your own words, and when you cannot, use quotation marks and an attribution, like this:

“I agree (or disagree) with Dr. Konrad Ott, who has argued that we have a moral duty to “Consider ‘clean coal’ options carefully so that this technology is not adopted before its ability to reduce emissions is demonstrated.” (http://climateethics.org/?p=40)