ABSTRACT
This chapter examines that the possibility of abrupt change undermines the usual economic, psychological, and intergenerational causes of political inertia. It implies that there is some kind of fail-safe system that will limit humanity's ongoing infliction of climate change on itself and other species. In short, the standard economic approach looks extremely problematic for long-term impacts of climate change. But perhaps there is a rejoinder. The chapter argues that the problem of intergenerational buck passing (PIBP) is manifest in the case of climate change. It considers three ways in which the improved motivation for adaptation provided by On the Cards may come into conflict with intergenerational concerns. For Open Window to be effective, there have to be enough effects of present emissions that accrue within the window to justify the current generation's action on a generation-relative basis. But this ignores all the other effects of present emissions-that is, all those that accrue to other generations.
