Climate Advocacy Ethical Issues and Challenges of Moral Responsibility

Abstract

Climate change around the world is changing in accordance with the changing environment. The science of climate change confirms that the main cause of this change is caused by human activities. When anthropology tries to understand the concept of climate change, it notices that significant ethical issues surround it and the question of responsibility is important. Some of the ethical issues, including responsibility related to climate change, are discussed in this paper. The research paper examines and reviews some common or traditional notions of individual and collective responsibility in relation to climate change responsibility. Central to the arguments is that individual efforts to reduce carbon emissions will have little or no effect on climate change unless everyone acts. This recognizes the need to propose a different way of affirming moral obligation in climate change. An epistemological theory of ethical relativity is recommended for this. This theory expects agents to act in light of existing knowledge and explains that obligations at the individual level cannot be different from obligations at the collective level if existing knowledge exists in today’s world during climate change. It is concluded that this knowledge-based ethical theory is a viable way of assigning responsibility in climate change, but it is acknowledged that this theory may face some limitations.