Climate Change, Ethics and Human Security

Approaches climate change as an issue of human security and ethical obligation, arguing for a more equitable and sustainable future.

Karen O'Brien (Edited by), Asunción Lera St. Clair (Edited by), Berit Kristoffersen (Edited by)

9781107695856, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 12 June 2014

246 pages, 4 b/w illus. 5 tables
24.4 x 17 x 1.3 cm, 0.4 kg

Presenting human security perspectives on climate change, this volume raises issues of equity, ethics and environmental justice, as well as our capacity to respond to what is increasingly considered to be the greatest societal challenge for humankind. Written by international experts, it argues that climate change must be viewed as an issue of human security, and not an environmental problem that can be managed in isolation from larger questions concerning development trajectories, and ethical obligations towards the poor and to future generations. The concept of human security offers a new approach to the challenges of climate change, and the responses that could lead to a more equitable and sustainable future. Climate Change, Ethics and Human Security will be of interest to researchers, policy makers, and practitioners concerned with the human dimensions of climate change, as well as to upper-level students in the social sciences and humanities interested in climate change.

Foreword Heide Hackmann
Preface Karen O'Brien, Asunción Lera St. Clair and Berit Kristoffersen
Part I. Framings: 1. The framing of climate change Karen O'Brien, Asunción Lera St. Clair and Berit Kristoffersen
2. The idea of human security Des Gasper
3. Climate change science and policy in the South Pacific, as if people mattered Jon Barnett
Part II. Equity: 4. A 'shared vision'? Why inequality should worry us J. Timmons Roberts and Bradley C. Parks
5. Fair decision making in a new climate of risk W. Neil Adger and Donald R. Nelson
Part III. Ethics: 6. Ethics, politics and the global environment Desmond McNeill
7. Human rights, climate change and discounting Simon Caney
8. Climate change: a global test for contemporary political institutions and theories Stephen Gardiner
Part IV. Reflexivity: 9. Linking sustainable development with climate change adaptation and mitigation Livia Bizikova, Sarah Burch, John Robinson and Stewart Cohen
10. Global poverty and climate change: the responsibility to protect Asunción Lera St. Clair
11. Security for whom? Social contracts in a changing climate Bronwyn Hayward and Karen O'Brien
12. Towards a new science on climate change Karen O'Brien, Asunción Lera St. Clair and Berit Kristoffersen
Index.

Subject Areas: Meteorology & climatology [RBP], Environmental economics [KCN]