ABSTRACT
We had emphasized that there is a fundamental gap between scientifi c fi ndings on climate change, on the one hand, and ethical conclusions (for example that we should mitigate climate change), on the other. However, the step needed to bridge this gap does not seem excessively large or diffi cult. Science tells us what consequences we will have to live with in the future if we continue as we have been doing: heat waves and droughts, inundations and rising sea levels, species extinction and the spread of tropical insects-and as a result poverty, famine, migration, disease, and death. These fi ndings already seem to suggest an ethical conclusion: We should avoid climate change. In other words, we have a moral duty to mitigate climate change. Thus the fi rst key question of climate ethics-“Do we have a duty to do anything at all in the face of climate change?”—seems to be easy to answer.
