Academic Analysis 1 (1500 words)

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Ethical Responsibilities in the Age of Climate and Change

This question relates to content in Module 2

First, read:

Climate Alarms Ringing, UN Fails to Act

From Pine Beetles to Disappearing Glaciers, NASA Scientists Tell of "Dramatic" Planetary Changes

Sea Level Rise Swallows 5 Whole Pacific Islands

Ethics and Global Climate Change

Climate Change: The Moral Choices

Corporate Power + Climate Change = Genocide

Plus any other sources you choose to use, then comment on the following questions. Please note that there are three questions, each with two parts. Be sure to comment on all six parts.

 1. Do the overdeveloped nations that have contributed most of the atmosphere’s inventory of Green House Gasses (GHG’s) have an ethical responsibility to make the greatest efforts?

a) What specifically should they do to reduce their own emissions?

b) What specifically should they do to actively assist those most affected by, and least able to adapt to, climate change?

 2. Is our climate crisis also a form of cultural aggression — people of one culture destroying the material basis of another. Overdeveloped nations are creating climatic conditions that are melting polar ice and raising sea levels.

a) Does Inuit culture have a right to ice?

b) Do the Solomon Islanders have a right to be above water?

3. The majority world has avoided the costly communications infrastructure of telephone land lines and jumped directly from no telephones to cellular communication. This is called “leapfrogging”.

a) Do the overdeveloped nations have an ethical responsibility to share and subsidize knowledge, technology, and manpower so that the majority world can leapfrog past the use of fossil fuels for the benefit of everyone?

b) What specifically should the overdeveloped nations do in this regard?