Toward a Virtue Based Ethic for Nonessential Greenhouse Gas Emissions
applied on a global scale. A virtuous individual would be strongly disinclined to produce unnecessary emissions and opt for a less GHG-intensive option, such as taking a short shower. A virtue-ethical approach is more often aligned with moral intuition and real-world decarbonization needs, because deontological approaches are too rigid to govern nuanced cases with externalities and utilitarian approaches are made too lenient by privileging subjective emotional experience. Objections Encouraging a virtue-ethical framework grounded in the virtues of justice, compassion, and responsibility to guide decisions related to the morality of individual GHG emissions is likely to attract several objections. If a virtuous person seeks to avoid GHG emitting behaviors, then knowledge of the emission intensity of the alternatives is a prerequisite. For example, if a virtuous individual seeks to reduce the GHG footprint associated with their protein consumption, but they do not know the relative GHG intensity of different protein sources, they presumably cannot make a moral judgement. This could pose challenges to the efficacy of a virtue ethics framework, particularly in communities that are less familiar with the relative GHG impacts of their decisions, or in fields where data is scarce. However, this limitation reflects a societal issue that is nonspecific to individuals. While individuals should not be blamed for practical problems owed to systemic causes of climate issues, virtuous individuals would still seek to educate themselves or push for greater transparency about the GHG impact of their behaviors as a means to the end of minimizing unnecessary emissions. This response would facilitate global decarbonization by resulting in a populace better informed on the GHG impact of
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