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7 - Parenting the planet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2011

By
Sarah Krakoff
Edited by
Denis G. Arnold
Sarah Krakoff
Affiliation:
University of Colorado Law School
Denis G. Arnold
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Charlotte
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Summary

In our time, for the first time, one human species can be envisaged, with one common technology on one globe and some surrounding “outer space.” The nature of history is about to change. It cannot continue to be the record of high accomplishments in dominant civilizations, and of their disappearance and replacement. Joint survival demands that man visualize new ethical alternatives for newly developing as well as over-developed systems and identities. A more universal standard of perfection will mediate more realistically between man's inner and outer worlds than did the compromises resulting from the reign of moral absolutes; it will acknowledge the responsibility of each individual for the potentialities of all generations and of all generations for each individual, and this in a more informed manner than has been possible in past systems of ethics.

– Erik Erikson

INTRODUCTION

The Earth is under our thumb. Global warming is the latest example of how human activity has reached every nook and cranny of the Earth's natural systems, but it is not the only one. The effects on the ozone layer, the collapse of fisheries throughout the world, and the accelerated species extinction rate, among many other phenomena, indicate the planetary scope of human impacts. As Nobel Prize winner Paul Crutzen has put it, we have entered the “Anthropocene,” the era of ubiquitous human influence on the Earth's geological systems.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Ethics of Global Climate Change , pp. 145 - 169
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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References

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  • Parenting the planet
  • Edited by Denis G. Arnold, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
  • Book: The Ethics of Global Climate Change
  • Online publication: 11 April 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511732294.008
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  • Parenting the planet
  • Edited by Denis G. Arnold, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
  • Book: The Ethics of Global Climate Change
  • Online publication: 11 April 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511732294.008
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Parenting the planet
  • Edited by Denis G. Arnold, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
  • Book: The Ethics of Global Climate Change
  • Online publication: 11 April 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511732294.008
Available formats
×