Climate Resistance: The Ethics of 'the Ethics of Climate Change'

Climate Resistance: The Ethics of 'the Ethics of Climate Change'

The first thing to point out is that an 'environmental refugee' is not the same thing as a 'climate change refugee', let alone a human-induced-climate-change refugee. The claim that people are 'already suffering as a result of climate change' is totally unsupported. Climate is a problem for people, regardless of whether it is changing or not. The Red Cross, never mind scientists, however noble their intentions, cannot make the distinction between a human caused climate event, and a 'natural' climate change event. And what is spectacularly absent from this kind of calculation is the extent to which industrialisation - the process which has put distance between environmental effects and human suffering, and which is blamed for causing climate change - has obviously reduced the extent of human suffering. It has brought benefits to a great deal more people than 25 million, and is evidently what is missing from the lives of the vast majority of those 25 million 'climate refugees'. It is this absence of development which is the problem, not the fact of different climatic conditions. But without this form of environmental determinism, Garvey cannot make a case that climate change demands a new ethical perspective on 'equality'.