Toward a Virtue Based Ethic for Nonessential Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Toward a Virtue Based Ethic for Nonessential Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Fisher Mallon Duke University
Abstract
Dramatic greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions are necessary to avert the most serious consequences of climate change. Despite the magnitude of this challenge, how individuals ought to regulate their personal GHG emissions is controversial within the philosophic community. This paper argues that it is most appropriate to conceive obligation and assess the morality of individual GHG emissions through a virtue ethics perspective. An individual who embodies the virtues of justice, compassion, and responsibility will have a strong preference to avoid GHG-emitting behaviors when accessible, and less emission-intensive alternatives exist. A virtue-ethical framework is most appropriate to guide moral choices regarding individual GHG emissions because virtue ethics focuses on cultivating traits that will lead individuals to make moral choices “all the time.” This avoids the equity challenges posed when applying a generalizable deontological or consequentialist approach to the diverse contexts in which individuals make decisions with GHG implications. trajectories will cause 250,000 additional deaths per year O bserved and predicted impacts of climate change are ubiquitous; current anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emission
Introduction
Volume VIII (2025) 18
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