Human Security and Climate Change: the Ethical Challenge

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Human Securityand Climate Changethe Ethical
Challenge

• Arthur Lyon Dahl Ph.D.
• International Environment Forum (IEF)
• http//iefworld.org/
• Fifth ECPD International Conference
• Brioni Islands, Croatia
• 30 October 2009

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TemperatureTrends
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Projected Temperature Increase 2100
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We are all responsible for climate change

• Everyone benefiting from the burning of fossil
  fuels
• Everyone involved in land clearing or benefiting
  from land use changes
• How much we are responsible depends on our
  country of residence, lifestyle and consumption
  patterns, with the rich most responsible
• The poor will be the greatest victims of climate
  change, while contributing the least
• This is an ethical dilemma

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Threat to Human Security

• If climate change goes unchecked, its effects
  will be catastrophic on the level of nuclear
  war.
• The security dimension will come increasingly to
  the forefront as countries begin to see falls in
  available resources and economic vitality,
  increased stress on their armed forces, greater
  instability in regions of strategic import,
  increases in ethnic rivalries, and a widening gap
  between rich and poor.
• International Institute for Strategic Studies,
  Strategic Survey 2007 (September 2007)

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Predicted changes in precipitation

• December-February
  June-August
• Percent change 1900-1999 to 2000-2099
• IPCC 2007

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Climate change in the Balkans

• Impacts greater in the south
• Croatia T 1-2 in 2050, 2-3 in 2080 P 2-6
  in 2050, 6-10 in 2080
• FYR Macedonia T 1.5 in 2050, 1.7-3 in 2080
  P -2 in 2050, -2-4 in 2080
• Albania T 1-2 in 2050, 2-4 in 2080 P -4-6
  in 2050, -6-12 in 2080
• Europe's Environment The Fourth Assessment 2007,
  p. 150

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Human Impacts of Climate Change

• Increased damage from extreme weather events
  floods, droughts, cyclones
• Less winter snowfall, water shortages in summer,
  increased wildfires
• Changing conditions for agriculture and forestry,
  shifting fish stocks
• Sea level rise, flooding low-lying areas and
  islands
• Millions of environmental refugees (200-500m)

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A 'perfect storm' by 2030

• UK Chief Scientist (19 March 2009) the world
  faces a 'perfect storm' of problems in 2030 as
  food, energy and water shortages interact with
  climate change to produce public unrest,
  cross-border conflicts and mass migrations

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Effect on the economy

• The Stern Report estimated the annual cost of
  uncontrolled climate change at more than 660
  billion (5 to 20 of global GDP, as compared to
  1 for control measures for greenhouse gases).

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Present institutions have failed to address such
global challenges

• No politician will sacrifice short-term economic
  welfare
• Deep social divisions within societies and
  between countries prevent united action in the
  common interest
• Our present economic system is driving us in the
  wrong direction

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Economic thinking is challenged by the
environmental crisis (including climate change)

• - The belief that there is no limit to nature's
  capacity to fulfil any demand made on it is false
• A culture which attaches absolute value to
  expansion, to acquisition, and to the
  satisfaction of people's wants must recognise
  that such goals are not, by themselves, realistic
  guides to policy
• (based on The Prosperity of Humankind, Bahá'í
  International Community, 1995)

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Climate change is driven by our consumer culture

• - Materialism's gospel of human betterment
  produced today's consumer culture pursuing
  ephemeral goals
• - For the small minority of people who can afford
  them, the benefits it offers are immediate, and
  the rationale unapologetic
• - The breakdown of traditional morality has led
  to the triumph of animal impulse, as instinctive
  and blind as appetite
• - Selfishness becomes a prized commercial
  resource falsehood reinvents itself as public
  information greed, lust, indolence, pride - even
  violence - acquire not merely broad acceptance
  but social and economic value
• (based on Baha'i International Community, One
  Common Faith, 2005)
• Action on climate change must address this
  ethical level

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Moral and ethical challenge

• Mitigation of climate change poses real
  financial, technological and political
  challenges. But it also asks profound moral and
  ethical questions of our generation. In the face
  of clear evidence that inaction will hurt
  millions of people and consign them to lives of
  poverty and vulnerability, can we justify
  inaction? No civilized community adhering to even
  the most rudimentary ethical standards would
  answer that question in the affirmative....
• UNDP Human Development Report 2007/2008, p. 68

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A more ethical economics

• Economics has ignored the broader context of
  humanity's social and spiritual existence,
  resulting in
• - Corrosive materialism on the one hand
• - Persistent poverty among the masses on the
  other
• The ultimate function of economic systems should
  be to equip the peoples and institutions of the
  world with the means to achieve the real purpose
  of development that is, the cultivation of the
  limitless potentialities latent in human
  consciousness.
• (adapted from Bahá'í International Community,
  Valuing Spirituality in Development, 1998)

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We need new economic models that

• - further a dynamic, just and thriving social
  order
• - are strongly altruistic and cooperative in
  nature
• - provide meaningful employment
• - help to eradicate poverty in the world
• (Bahá'í International Community, Valuing
  Spirituality in Development. 1998)
• Only such a system will give the right signals
  for challenges like climate change and
  sustainability

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Justice and Equitynecessary for actionon
climate change

• Only development programmes that are perceived by
  the masses of humanity as meeting their needs and
  as being just and equitable in objective can hope
  to engage their commitment, upon which
  implementation depends
• (based on Baha'i International Community,
  Prosperity of Humankind)

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Collaborative Program on theEthical Dimensions
of Climate ChangeBuenos Aires Declaration on the
Human Dimensions of Climate Change - COP of
UNFCCC 2004. http//rockethics.psu.edu/climate/de
claration.pdf

• An ethically based global consensus on climate
  change may prevent further disparities between
  rich and poor, and reduce potential international
  tension that will arise from climate-caused food
  and water scarcities and perceived inequitable
  use of the global atmospheric commons as a carbon
  sink.

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Faith-based Action Plans for Climate Change

• The Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC)
  and UNDP have invited the 11 major religions to
  prepare long-term action plans on climate change
  and the natural environment
• These will be presented on 2-4 November 2009 at
  Windsor Castle co-hosted by the UN
  Secretary-General and Prince Philip
• see http//www.arcworld.org/

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Ways forward in the Balkans

• Harness all available sources of energy in the
  region
• Reduce environmental impact to sustainable limits
• Accelerate the transition to reduce the shock
• Support global governance mechanisms to manage
  this global challenge
• Build a strong sense of community and solidarity
  within the region and with the outside world
• Share the cost, effort and benefits with equity
  and justice

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An ethical approach will be essential to convince
all of us to act

• Climate change may be the common threat that
  brings governments and peoples in the Balkans to
  work together in their collective interest