The Ethics of Climate

Change
Professor Michael Northcott
School of Divinity
The Myth of Now

‘Now people’ are bored by talk

of climate change and do not
believe future predictions of
catastrophe (IPPR)

‘Low carbon’ behaviours are

unfashionable or ‘hypocritical’

Scienctific doom scenarios are

part of the problem
 ‘Climate Porn’ Disables

“Government and green groups should avoid giving the impression

that ‘we are all doomed’ and spend less time convincing people that
climate change is real. The focus should be on the big actions that
people can take to address climate change, like switching to a
hybrid car, fitting a wind turbine or installing cavity wall insulation,
not just the small ones such as turning down the thermostat or
switching off the lights. Climate-friendly behaviours need to be
made to feel like ‘the kinds of things that people like us do’ to large
groups of people.” IPPR 2009
For Anthony Giddens the problem is
that ‘the future has less reality than
the present’

Cost benefit analysis, and economic

discounting make deferral of
mitigation attractive, for individuals,
corporations and governments

Capitalism and industrial materialism

more profoundly exclude the
spiritual hope of paradise
 The Myth of Mechanism
For Lovelock the future is a hot earth

Gaia is warming rapidly in response

to too many people, agriculture and
fossil fuel emissions

Refusal to recognise the problem is

indicative of the belief that the earth is a
machine, amenable to human control

Hence the focus in climate change

science on computer models and
mathematical emissions targets
 The Myth of Scarcity
The American Senate
believes the USA cannot
‘afford’ to reduce fossil fuel
use

Energy is conceived as a
scarce resource and power
over energy sources is the
source of American strength

Wars for oil - and ultimately

water - are the likely
outcome of this perspective

And America continues

gargantuan expenditure on
war
 Carbon Saints and Sinners

Lord May, President, BAAS,

proposes that religious
communities could provide
carbon surveillance

Individuals to be ‘policed’ into

reducing carbon footprint

Ecological ‘saints’ are already doing this

But not most wealthy CO2 +20t sinners -

inc. corporate, governmental & individual
 The Failure of the Scientific Narrative of
Climate Change

Computer models focus more on prediction than

observation

Predictions from present modest changes are resisted

Behaviours most implicated occur in areas least affected

Models suggest emissions targets can guarantee the future

Climate model refutes predictions of wetter Sahel

Africa's drought-prone Sahel region faces "dramatic drying" during the next 50
years because of climate change, according to a new computer simulation.
Although the 'model' contradicts most previous ones, researchers are taking it
seriously as it is among the best at simulating 20th century climate — a test of how
well models can predict future trends.
Moral Case for Strong
Mitigation
• Those who caused the problem suffer the
least
• Those least responsible suffer the most
• Those who can most afford to act are not
• Those who can least afford not to act
cannot afford to adapt without help
Energy for lighting and refrigeration
As an equatorial country where it is dark by around 6.30pm everyday, there is
considerable demand for lighting throughout the year. A variety of fuels are used:
while many will to some extent use light from the open fire, most low-income
homes rely on kerosene in simple wick lamps (around 95% of rural homes are
reported to have access to kerosene, around 90% of whom use this fuel for
lighting), with some use of candles. Grid electricity is available to around 13% of
Kenyan homes - 45% of urban but only 3.1% of rural homes - so makes little
contribution to lighting in low-income rural areas.

For low-income groups, the use of refrigeration and air conditioning are very low.
Where these technologies are used, electricity is the main power source.
Energy for cooking
90% of rural low-income homes rely on wood for cooking, mostly using 3-stone open
fires, with a minority using improved stoves such as the Upesi (typically without
chimneys). Where wood is scarce, dung and crop residues are also used. The second
most important cooking fuel is charcoal, burned in ceramic or metal jiko stoves, but
around 80% of charcoal produced is utilised in urban centres. Although kerosene is
available very widely and used for some cooking tasks mostly on wick stoves, it is not
typically a primary cooking fuel. LPG and electricity are used for cooking mainly by high
income groups, although 8% of urban and 1% of rural low-income households are
reported to have access to LPG (most of which is used for cooking).
 Renewable microgeneration is the obvious solution in
subSaharan Africa where grid access is confined to a few
large cities

Biomass
generation
 (Un)ethical Emissions?
A study by Korbetis Reay and Grace
entitled ‘New Directions: Rich in
CO2’ (2006) revealed that in Scotland
an average affluent resident generated
2.56 tonne CO2 yr–1 for work-related
travel within the UK, while the
deprived!area! resident!just 0.31 tonne

A study of US households with an income of $50,000 or

more revealed they consumed an average of 13,131
kWh of electricity each year, resulting in the emission of
7.9tonne CO2; those households with an income of less
than $10,000 consumed an average of 7190kWh of
electricity leading to an annual emission of just 4.3
tonne CO2.
Median weekly (disposable) income in Scotland per household after
housing costs: £302

• The poorest tenth of the population receive 2% of the

country's total income
• The second poorest tenth receive 4%
• The third poorest tenth receive 8%
• The bottom three deciles combined receive 14% - this has
not changed in ten years
• The Solidarity Target aims to change this

In contrast:
• The richest tenth have 30%
• The top three deciles receive over 50% of all income
 Scottish Government economic strategy is to increase ‘social
solidarity’ and

“to focus the Government and public services on creating

a more successful country, with opportunities for all of
Scotland to flourish, through increasing sustainable
economic growth.”
“I now buy food and bring it home – cooked
chicken and things like that, because I’m scared
to use the oven because I know it costs too
much money. I only use the washing machine
twice a week because I’m scared of what it
costs”

“I’m really panicking about the rise in gas and

electricity prices – and food is now a problem
for me too. I am struggling to put food on the
table after paying the bills”
(source: JRF, “Voices of People Experiencing
Poverty in Scotland” 2007)
Scottish Government Policy for the Prevention
of Poverty

•Addressing educational disadvantage and underachievement

•Tackling poor health
•Providing more choices and more chances for young people who are
disengaged or at risk of disengagement
•Tackling worklessness – particularly inter-generational
•Providing the best start in the early years
•Regenerating disadvantaged communities
•Addressing attitudes, perceptions and values

•Improve employability (childcare, skills, economic dev)

•Increase sustained employment and workplace progression
•Joined-up, client centred services
•Support better mental wellbeing and resilience
•Promote benefit take up and support for those who cannot work
•Tackle substance misuse
•Address homelessness
•Reduce offending and re-offending
 This list does not include on it words and phrases like
‘fresh food’, ‘nutrition’, ‘clean air’, ‘clean water’, ‘safe space’

Poverty and the ‘environment’ are more closely connected

than policy makers conventionally understand

Those who can grow their own food, fuel and fibre are
cash poor but independent and skilled for sustainability

Few of such people left in Scotland though the Land

Reform Act has made possible the growth of some
relatively self-sufficient communities in rural areas
National climate change law and international treaty focus
on national per capita average energy emissions

But in Scotland, and globally, the majority of emissions

come from the behaviours of a wealthy minority
 Climate Justice
• The climate crisis calls for equity in the use
of carbon sinks

• Rich consumers (OZ, USA, UAE, Singapore)

emit 25 tons of CO2 p. a. per person

• Poorest (Africa) emit 0.2 - 2 tons of CO2

p.a. per person

• Global sinks can accommodate

approximately 3 tons per person with 6
But even in UK or USA a focus on the average consumer
fails to promote climate justice

It also occasions a sense of injustice

Low emitting non-professionals feel the State is using

climate change to deny them the fewer freedoms they
enjoy
The Morality of Law
The Code of Hammurabi contains
282 laws chiseled on a pillar of basalt
rock. The upper register is a picture
of Hammurabi kneeling in prayer
before the sun god Shamash, the
patron god of justice. The bottom
register contains the Code of
Hammurabi whose stated aim is

"...to promote the welfare of

the people . . . to cause justice
to prevail in the land, to
destroy the wicked and the
evil that the strong might not
oppress the weak."
 What do we value?
• Ethics describes what humans value
• Modern liberal societies put a great priority
on individual freedom - ‘freedom from’
• Traditional societies tend to emphasise
collective action - ‘freedom for’
• Market said to favour individual freedom
• State said to favour collective action
 How do we value?

• Judgment of consequences of acts - utility,

cost-benefit sums, instrumentality
• Judgment of acts in themselves - intrinsic
value, duty, law
• Judgment of agents - character, intent,
virtue
 How do we value?
• Law
• Reason
• Sentiment or desire
• Habit
• Tradition
• Parents, siblings, friends
 Who Values?
• Do only persons, or moral agents, value?
• What about potential persons or persons
who are not autonomous agents?
• Why do some persons tend to fail in moral
valuing?
• Do communities or cultures or traditions
value?
• Do animals or species or trees value or have
value?
Whose Values Count?
• If valuing is performed by individual
reasoners do some count for more?
• What makes an individual a reasoner?
• Is a corporation or a State an individual?
• Is a tribe or a village an individual?
• How do we resolve conflicts between
valuers?
When do values count
• Traditional cultures have a strong sense of
ancestry and duties to future generations
and even other species
• Traditional farmer passes on good soil
• Utilitarianism estimates sum of utility of
presently existing persons
• Capitalism prioritises - by discounting -
present benefits over future costs
 ‘Climate Porn’ Disables

“Government and green groups should avoid giving the impression

that ‘we are all doomed’ and spend less time convincing people that
climate change is real. The focus should be on the big actions that
people can take to address climate change, like switching to a
hybrid car, fitting a wind turbine or installing cavity wall insulation,
not just the small ones such as turning down the thermostat or
switching off the lights. Climate-friendly behaviours need to be
made to feel like ‘the kinds of things that people like us do’ to large
groups of people.” IPPR 2009
 Where do we value
• We tend to value persons or objects nearer
to us
• We are not so good at valuing distant
persons, places or objects
• Parable of Good Samaritan suggests we
ought to value those who are connected to
us even distantly by travel
• It furthermore suggests familiarity, kinship,
ethnicity are not ideal basis for valuing
 Thick and Thin

• Tradition-centred ethics emphasises ‘thick’

values such as compassion, common good,
concern for weak, restraint on strong
• Reason-centred ethics emphasises thinner
values such as fairness, non-preferential
treatment, non-harm, third party duties
 Problems with
Autonomy
• Enlightenment philosophers suggest
individual reasoners are autonomous agents
• But as embodied beings we are not born
autonomously
• We do not ‘make ourselves’
• We receive life from others & within limits
• But scientific reason encourages an attitude
of control and eschews limits
 Scientific Reason and
Rational Choice
• Science and technology encourage us to
imagine we make ourselves by our choices
• Consumer culture and capitalism have the
same effect
• Capitalism radicalises the autonomous
reasoner as acting rationally when she
prefers her own interests to others
• Self-interested reasoners are sociopathic
 Climate Change is an
environmental problem
• Being - ‘gaia’ - makes and remakes us
• Gaia challenges liberal autonomy, and
scientific sense of power over ‘gaia’
• Not all environmental goods are amenable
to rational choice
• When they are amenable they are priced so
the rich acquire more of them
Tragedy of Commons?
• Autonomous reason constructs land and
property as fitted to individual ownership
• Climate is not amenable to individual
property rights
• Is it inevitable that commons that are not
‘owned’ will be degraded?
• Garret Hardin’s claim of this inevitably
relies on an individualised conception of
property ownership as absolute
Commons Management
• Forest dwellers, Swiss villagers
demonstrate ancient commons
management practices
• Modern narrative of
autonomous reasoners limits
property management to
market or State
• Non-market institutions not
respected by philosophers or
economists (REDD)
 Causes of AGW

• Fossil fuel extraction and burning

• Farmed animals
• Deforestation
• Cement making
 Fossil Fuel Extraction
• Principal agents?
• Oil and coal companies rely on modern
legal account of their rights as autonomous
individual agents
• But individual persons who consistently
harm others are perceived as pathological
• Law restrains pathological persons who lack
conventional moral skills or virtues
Focus on Emissions and
Nations
• National emissions targets encourage
movement of dirty activities to less
regulated domains
• Nations treated as autonomous individuals
in treaty negotiations
• International relations shaped by narratives
of autonomous choosing reasoners
Markets and Alienation
• Markets in carbon alienate responsibilities
from individuals to a ‘black box’
• Conventionally markets favour strong over
weak, rich over poor
• They also valorise anonymity and efficiency
• Hence extensive fraud in carbon markets
Disembedded Economy
• Market relations gradually disembed
economic transactions from local and
communal institutions and relationships
• Cap and trade affirms this disembedding
• Mitigation & adaptation require
reconnection of ethics & economy in
households, neighbourhoods, cities, regions
 Carbon rationing?

Carbon pricing in some domains - if it reduces fossil fuel

use - lowers fossil fuel price in other domains

It will not reduce total global extraction of fossil fuels

What is needed is globally agreed rationing of coal

extraction

And globally agreed rationing of oil and gas extraction

Not country by country but corporation by corporation

Personal carbon
rationing would
highlight current
inequities in
carbon use

Markets in
carbon rations
would transfer
money value
from rich to
poor
 For many in Scotland fossil-fuelled
consumption means unemployment and
poverty as their jobs have disappeared
to China and India

Climate justice at home

and overseas?
 Transition as a Moral
Project
• Transition towns are attempting to
relocalise the economy
• Locally sourced fuel, food, fibre bring moral
agency back in to economic and exchange
relationships
• They also recover local agency over natural
resources and employment opportunities
Reweaving the
Connections
Blind market exchanges hide
ecological and people costs of
consumption

We are not autonomous

consumers

We are ‘members one of

another’
 Reweaving the
Connections
• Global economy hides the connections that
sustain techno-capitalist lifestyles
• Moral agency undermined in daily life
• Fair trade, local food, energy conservation,
transition towns involve efforts to recover
individual and shared agency
• And they recover political and economic
agency from grids, networks & supply chains
Growing food, living in touch with the seasons, also
promotes mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing

Bridgend
Community
Health
Allotments,
Edinburgh
 Celebrating Plenitude
Locally sourced food promotes good work, composting,
reduced waste, lower emissions from food production
Connecting Flourishing,
Energy & Equity
• Energy a principal source of deep inequality
• Deep inequality a principal source of
misery
• Policy could connect social justice and low
carbon living between and within nations
• But fairness requires unequal treatment
between rich and poor (markets don’t!)
 Overcoming Mechanism

Muscle substituted for machine power promotes better

public spaces and greater wellbeing
Recovering Agrarianism
• Adam Smith says food should not be
subject to law of comparative advantage
• A local food economy grows jobs and
improves health of land and people
• In Scotland transition from animal rearing
to forestry would transform job
opportunities in rural areas, reduce carbon
output from farming, and prevent flood
 Walled Towns?
• In Middle Ages towns without walls were
always at risk of attack and pillage
• In 21st century economies without walls are
undefended against unequal competition
• In deeply unequal societies the rich rely on
fences to defend themselves from the rest
• But there are no walls in the atmosphere
• And so without moral restraint the weakest
will go to the wall
Governments should not simply indicate public
preferences but also offer leadership in shaping public
priorities on important issues. Global political leadership
has paid too much attention to the need for consumption-
led economic growth and too little to issues of equity and
fulfilment of basic rights. Global taxation and trade
regimes foster a global culture that results in a global
luxury market of cosmetics of around US$25 billion (which
is part of a broader cosmetics market worth $200 billion)
and a global pet-food market projected to grow to $40
billion by 2010. This spending would comfortably fund
basic social protection for low-income countries.!
Even without climate change, the case for clean
power, electric cars, saving forests, energy efficiency,
and new agriculture technology is strong.

Climate change makes it unanswerable.

A low-carbon economy will mean less pollution. A low

carbon-diet (especially eating less meat) and more
exercise will mean less cancer, obesity, diabetes, and
heart disease.