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Books
The Ethics of the Climate Crisis by Robin Attfield
Lucy Weir thinks about climate ethics with Robin Attfield.
Robin Attfield, an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Cardiff University and a key figure in environmental ethics, begins The Ethics of the Climate Crisis (2024) by laying out in clear, quantitative detail why the climate, pollution, and biodiversity crises require our urgent attention. As he says, the IPCC has warned that we have only until 2025 – this year! – if we are to have a chance of keeping global temperatures to a 1.5°C rise. But the book’s central concern is how those responsible for the detrimental impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution can be held to account on the basis of an agreed set of ethical principles, for the benefit of present and future humans and other species.
Having laid the groundwork, we begin to see Attfield’s characteristically meticulous approach to detailed ethical questions swing into action.
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