"The Effects of Climate Change"

Have you ever thought about how you are personally effecting the climate change? How about, how your negative contribution to the climate change causes deaths of other civilians? Are the people in our “wasteful, limitlessness, creative destructive” society responsible for those deaths because we didn’t take a stand to change our environment for the better? I honestly have never felt so guilty. In John Broome’s article, he proposes ethical questions regarding climate control. Some believe that we should focus on today and worry only about now, while others argue that future lives are important and that we need to take a stand now to save them. Recently, this past year I have been bothered by all the natural disasters that have taken place and killed hundreds. The earthquakes, hurricanes, storms, blizzards have all been extreme. I don’t know if I am just becoming more aware of them because I am getting older or are they happening more frequently? Many people argue that these natural disasters cannot be controlled because it is Mother Nature and that’s why they are called “natural”. However, after reading this article my mind is thinking how much are these disasters really “natural”, has our society and past generations destroyed the climate so much that all this is happening now, and if we don’t do anything to slow down the climate change is it just going to get worse? I know all the questions I am suggesting have nothing to do with the money market piece of this article. However, after Broome’s article this is all my mind can think of.

In regards to the money market, I have come to the conclusion that our generation is selfish. I personally do not think people in today’s world would give up the luxuries of their lives in order to prevent something that may or may not happen. I don’t think people’s ethical judgments are intentionally negative, however, that is the way it looks. John Broome answered that for us in his fourth paragraph. “Sometimes you cannot avoid harming someone, and sometimes you may do it accidentally without realizing it.” (12) But now if I don’t do something to change my personal contribution to greenhouse gases I have this thought in my mind that I am responsible for a death of another person in the future because of my selfishness. Maybe Broome is right; maybe we just don’t truly believe that we are harming our world THAT bad. If economists did something without the people’s consent regarding money percentages, I think that would be the only way change would happen. I personally don’t think our materialistic society would be willing to just give up things they’ve had every day. Maybe it just needs to be snatched out from under us.