ABSTRACT
‘Global warming raises unique questions about our responsibilities to future generations.’ — Thus begins John Broome’s recent book, Counting the Cost of Global Warming , which argues that we have a responsibility to take action today so that the welfare of future generations is not adversely affected. The argument that Broome makes is a moral one, not one based on self-interest — after all, you and I will be dead and gone by the time that the greenhouse effect makes the oceans rise and alters our planet’s climate in unforeseeable ways. The unborn are powerless, and if we choose to be guided purely by self-interest, we could bequeath them a wasteland without even being around to hear their reproach. Broome argues that our actions must be guided by ethical criteria, and that we must take remedial action to curb the emissions of greenhouse gases. The precise extent to which we do so depends upon how we morally evaluate alternative distributions of ‘well-being’ across generations. Broome does not provide any answers to the question of how much we must curtail greenhouse gas emissions. His purpose instead is to set out a framework, an ethical framework, within which such questions may be addressed.
