ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the philosophical discipline of climate change ethics. We begin with an analysis of the distinction between ideal and non-ideal ethical theory. As we will see, the distinction is especially illuminating in the effort to find rationally justifiable climate policy. We will ask how climate change ethics fits into the larger field of environmental ethics, how economics provides a challenge to it, whether it is required to make sense of the threats of climate change and, finally, whether it is adequate to that task.