Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T04:22:06.492Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Human rights, harm, and climate change mitigation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Brian Berkey
Brian Berkey*
Affiliation:
Department of Legal Studies and Business Ethics, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
*
E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A number of philosophers have resisted impersonal explanations of our obligation to mitigate climate change, and have developed accounts according to which these obligations are explained by human rights or harm-based considerations. In this paper I argue that several of these attempts to explain our mitigation obligations without appealing to impersonal factors fail, since they either cannot account for a plausibly robust obligation to mitigate, or have implausible implications in other cases. I conclude that despite the appeal of the motivations for rejecting the appeal to impersonal factors, such factors must play a prominent role in explaining our mitigation obligations.

Keywords

Human rightsharmnon-identity problemfuture generationsSimon CaneyElizabeth HarmanDavid Boonin
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 47 , Issue 2-3: Special issue: Ethics and Future Generations , 2017 , pp. 416 - 435
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bell, Derek. 2011. “Does Anthropogenic Climate Change Violate Human Rights?” Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 14 (2): 99–124. 10.1080/13698230.2011.529703CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bell, Derek. 2013. “Climate Change and Human Rights.” Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 4 (3): 159–170. 10.1002/wcc.218Google Scholar
Benatar, David. 2006. Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence. New York: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199296422.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boonin, David. 2008. “How to Solve the Non-Identity Problem.” Public Affairs Quarterly 22 (2): 129–159.Google Scholar
Boonin, David. 2014. The Non-Identity Problem and the Ethics of Future People. New York: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199682935.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caney, Simon. 2005. “Cosmopolitan Justice, Responsibility, and Global Climate Change.” Leiden Journal of International Law 18 (4): 747–775.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caney, Simon. 2006. “Cosmopolitan Justice, Rights, and Global Climate Change.” The Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence 19 (2): 255–278. 10.1017/S0841820900004100CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caney, Simon. 2008. “Human Rights, Climate Change, and Discounting.” Environmental Politics 17 (4): 536–555. 10.1080/09644010802193401CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caney, Simon. 2009. “Human Rights, Responsibilities, and Climate Change.” In Global Basic Rights, edited by Beitz, Charles R. and Goodin, Robert E., 227–247. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Caney, Simon. 2010a. “Climate Change, Human Rights, and Moral Thresholds.” In Human Rights and Climate Change, edited by Humphreys, Stephen, 69–90. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Caney, Simon. 2010b. “Human Rights and Global Climate Change.” In Cosmopolitanism in Context: Perspectives from International Law and Political Theory, edited by Pierik, Roland and Werner, Wouter, 19–44. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511761263CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caney, Simon. 2012. “Global Justice, Climate Change, and Human Rights.” In Leadership and Global Justice, edited by Hicks, Douglas A. and Williamson, Thad, 91–111. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1057/9781137014696CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De George, Richard T. 1981. “The Environment, Rights, and Future Generations.” In Responsibilities to Future Generations, edited by Partridge, Ernest, 157–165. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books.Google Scholar
Elliot, Robert. 1989. “The Rights of Future People.” Journal of Applied Philosophy 6 (2): 159–170. 10.1111/japp.1989.6.issue-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, Molly. 2015. “A Harm-Based Solution to the Non-Identity Problem.” Ergo 2 (17): 427–444.Google Scholar
Gosseries, Axel. 2008. “On Future Generations’ Future Rights.” Journal of Political Philosophy 16 (4): 446–474. 10.1111/jopp.2008.16.issue-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IPCC. 2014. Climate Change 2014 Synthesis Report Summary for Policymakers. http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/syr/AR5_SYR_FINAL_SPM.pdf.Google Scholar
Hanser, Matthew. 1990. “Harming Future People.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 19 (1): 47–70.Google ScholarPubMed
Harman, Elizabeth. 2004. “Can We Harm and Benefit In Creating?” Philosophical Perspectives 18: 89–113. 10.1111/j.1520-8583.2004.00022.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harman, Elizabeth. 2009. “Harming as Causing Harm.” In Harming Future People: Ethics, Genetics, and the Nonidentity Problem, edited by Roberts, Melinda A. and Wasserman, David T., 137–154. New York: Springer. 10.1007/978-1-4020-5697-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huseby, Robert. 2010. “Person-Affecting Moral Theory, Non-Identity and Future People.” Environmental Values 19 (2): 193–210. 10.3197/096327110X12699420220590CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kumar, Rahul. 2003. “Who Can Be Wronged?” Philosophy and Public Affairs 31 (2): 99–118. 10.1111/papa.2003.31.issue-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, Lukas H. 2003. “Past and Future: The Case for a Threshold Notion of Harm.” In Rights, Culture, and the Law: Themes from the Legal and Political Philosophy of Joseph Raz, edited by Meyer, Lukas H., Paulson, Stanley L. and Pogge, Thomas W., 143–160. New York: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199248254.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parfit, Derek. 1984. Reasons and Persons. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Shiffrin, Seana Valentine. 1999. “Wrongful Life, Procreative Responsibility, and the Significance of Harm.” Legal Theory 5 (2): 117–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scanlon, T. M. 1998. What We Owe to Each Other. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Shue, Henry. 2011. “Human Rights, Climate Change, and the Trillionth Ton.” In The Ethics of Global Climate Change, edited by Arnold, Denis G., 292–314. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511732294CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woollard, Fiona. 2012. “Have We Solved the Non-Identity Problem?” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 15 (5): 677–690. 10.1007/s10677-012-9359-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar