Description
Book SynopsisThe anthropogenous greenhouse effect is in danger of becoming the biggest environmental problem of this century, with enormous negative consequences for mankind. In particular, it threatens to kill hundreds of millions of people. Unfortunately, the economic costs for preventing these consequences, according to traditional economic assessment, are gigantic. In The Greenhouse, Christoph Lumer provides moral evaluations of the greenhouse effect and of some of its alternatives, from utilitarian and welfarist perspectives. Relying on economists'' estimates of the social consequences of the greenhouse effect and on psychological information about influences on subjective well being, business as usual and three more or less severe greenhouse gas abatement options are assessed from the points of view of hedonistic utilitarianism and of welfare ethics, which incorporate components of distributive justice. These evaluations and theoretical considerations about moral duties justify moral obligations to deal now, and seriously, with the greenhouse effect.
Table of ContentsChapter 1 List of Tables Chapter 2 Preface Chapter 3 Aims of this Study Chapter 4 Methodology of the Welfare Inquiry in this Study Chapter 5 Alternative a1: Business as Usual Chapter 6 Alternatives a2-a4: Abatement Options Chapter 7 The Moral Point(s) of View Chapter 8 From Moral Valuation to Moral Obligation: 1. The Conception of a Historical Morality Chapter 9 From Moral Valuation to Moral Obligation: 2. Application to the Greenhouse Effect Chapter 10 References Chapter 11 Index Chapter 12 About the Author
