14_Gardiner.indd.pdf

Stephen M. Gardiner argues that climate change presents a "perfect moral storm," hindering our ability to address it effectively due to unique global, intergenerational, and theoretical challenges. This storm comprises three primary "storms":

1. Global Storm: Arises from the dispersion of causes and effects (global impact of local emissions) and fragmentation of agency (lack of centralized global governance). This leads to a Prisoner's Dilemma scenario, where individual nations or entities face incentives to pollute despite collective harm, complicating international cooperation.

2. Intergenerational Storm: Involves weighing current against future generations' interests, with decisions requiring moral assessments of long-term impacts and historical responsibility.

3. Theoretical Storm: Concerns the complexity of climate change, requiring interdisciplinary understanding and ethical considerations across diverse disciplines.

The interaction of these storms creates a vulnerability to "moral corruption," making it difficult to act even if ethical challenges are resolved. Gardiner emphasizes that while ethics plays a crucial role in substantive climate policy, the storm's impact on decision-making processes is equally significant. He highlights the potential for pragmatic politicians to exploit this vulnerability through schemes promising easy solutions.

Gardiner concludes that addressing climate change requires not only solving complex problems but also navigating moral corruption, underscoring the need for robust ethical frameworks in climate policy-making.