Comments on: Moralising about Climate Change Part 2

By: Paul Currion

Paul Currion — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:09:00 +0000

The moral case by itself won’t change much – what I meant was that an explicit moral case is often seen by those who don’t share it as mere preachery. Maybe the trick is to harness the moral sense to things that make practical sense to people (and I’m aware that there might be a false distinction between ‘moral’ and ‘practical’, now that I think about it).

The food prices will affect western consumers, though, as will the rising price of oil itself, and so on. I think there are factors which will limit our choices before we drive off the edge of the cliff, but obviously not everybody will realise it until it’s too late.

Go and listen to some Rick Astley, it’ll cheer you up. Possibly.

By: Matthew Slater

Matthew Slater — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 14:58:00 +0000

I agree that the moral case for environmental behaviour has to be made more forcefully, though people can and do always make exceptions for their own behaviour. A lot of people claim to feel guilty about flying, but that doesn’t mean fewer flights are being made.
So making the moral case isn’t going to change much. Humans will only respond when the consequences are in front of their faces. The recent doubling of food prices does not effect most western consumers, and even the quadrupling of oil prices has little effect on demand.
To use the driving-towards-the-cliff-edge analogy, civilisation will be incapable of an appropriate reponse until it finds itself in freefall.