The Controversy: The Role Of Ethics And Politics In Climate Change

Society in the modern age has shown an increasing interest in climate change. A vast number of people believe the climate scientists and their information proving that climate change is a real thing. Despite the overwhelming evidence proving that climate change is not only real, but is impacted by humanity, many refuse to believe it. This is especially prevalent in the political world, where some politicians seem to want to focus on obtaining the vote of the people that are deemed “climate change deniers”. This has led to a discussion about how ethical these politicians really are. Ethics can be defined as moral principles that govern the behavior of a person or activity. Based on historical evidence, there is a question as to whether or not

The modern political environment has shown people that care for the environment, and accept the research provided by scientists suggesting that man-made climate change is a real issue. According to some people, the action all begins with the people attempting to make a change in the world around them. Hoffman states that people and governments have to take a step back and look around the world view to determine future action. He believes that, “...we need to rethink our ethics to keep pace with our technological abilities. Does mowing the lawn or driving a fuel-inefficient car in Ann Arbor, Mich., have ethical implications for the people living in low-lying areas of Bangladesh? If you accept anthropogenic climate change, then the answer to this question is yes, and we must develop global institutions to reflect that recognition.” (Hoffman). These institutions that are developed all begin with the government, as different committees are made to help the population of the world. Hoffman believes that people should not focus on their neighbors, but also look for people across the world as people to care for, especially when it comes to their environment. Hoffman goes on to say that the environmental issue is, “an issue of global ethics and governance on a scale that we have never seen, affecting

Some people believe that politicians and ethics should not be related, and believe that climate change is an issue that should be brought up more towards the side of the individual. Thinking about the larger scheme, Purdy shows the difficulty of making a decision as quickly as some people believe it should be. According to Purdy, “…most political decisions are tradeoffs, and the hardest are often tragic. So if the ethics of responsibility, or integrity you might also say, was often in practice a kind of ethics of purity… what help is that in a time of political torpor and ambiguity?” (Purdy 8). The insanity that comes with politics makes it difficult to take action without impacting another group of people negatively. Chakrabarty gives a prime example of the danger of making a rash choice for governments that are not just the U.S. The action taken by some people, “would seem unacceptable to governments and business around the world; without coal, on which China and India are still dependent on to a large degree (68-70 percent of their energy supply), how would the majority of the world’s poor be lifted out of poverty in the next few decades and thus be equipped to adapt to the impact of climate change? Or, would the world, scrambling to avoid the tipping point of the climate, make the global