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Towards the Ethics of a Green Future

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Towards the Ethics of a Green Future TOWARDS THE ETHICS OF A GREEN FUTURE What are our obligations towards future generations who stand to be harmed by the impact of today’s environmental crises? This book explores ecological sustainability as a human rights issue and examines what our long-term responsibilities might be. This interdisciplinary collection providesabasisforunderstanding the debates on the provision of sustainability for future generations from a diverse set of theoretical standpoints. Covering a broad range of perspectives such as risk and uncertainty, legal implementation, representation, motivation and economics, Towards the Ethics of a Green Future sets out the key questions involved in this complex ethical issue. The contributors bring theoretical discussions to life through the use of case studies and real-world examples. The book also includes clear and tangible recommendations for policymakers on how to put the suggestions proposed in the book into practice. This book will be of great interest to all researchers and students concerned with issues of sustainability and human rights, as well as scholars of environmental politics, law and ethics more generally. Marcus Düwell holds a chair in philosophical ethics at Utrecht University, and is the Director of the university’s Ethics Institute. His research focuses on ethics of human rights, ethics of future generations and bioethics. Gerhard Bos’s research is directed towards the conceptual underpinnings of human rights and the implications for long-term responsibilities. He worked at the Ethics Institute at Utrecht University as a postdoctoral researcher, and coordinated the ESF Research Networking Programme ‘Rights to a Green Future’ (2011–2015). Naomi van Steenbergen divides her research time between moral psychology, ethics and climate justice. She is currently co-editing a book on practical self- understanding. Besides her research and teaching in philosophy, she works as a literary and academic translator. ROUTLEDGE STUDIES IN SUSTAINABILITY For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/Routledge- Studies-in-Sustainability/book-series/RSSTY Transdisciplinary Research and Practice for Sustainability Outcomes Edited by Dena Fam, Jane Palmer, Chris Riedy and Cynthia Mitchell A Political Economy of Attention, Mindfulness and Consumerism Reclaiming the Mindful Commons Peter Doran Sustainable Communities and Green Lifestyles Consumption and Environmentalism Tendai Chitewere Aesthetic Sustainability Product Design and Sustainable Usage Kristine H. Harper Stress, Affluence and Sustainable Consumption Cecilia Solér Digital Technology and Sustainability Engaging the Paradox Edited by Mike Hazas and Lisa Nathan Personal Sustainability Exploring the Far Side of Sustainable Development Edited by Oliver Parodi and Kaidi Tamm Sustainable Modernity The Nordic Model and Beyond Edited by Nina Witoszek and Atle Midttun Towards the Ethics of a Green Future The Theory and Practice of Human Rights for Future People Edited by Marcus Düwell, Gerhard Bos and Naomi van Steenbergen TOWARDS THE ETHICS OF A GREEN FUTURE The Theory and Practice of Human Rights for Future People Edited by Marcus Düwell, Gerhard Bos and Naomi van Steenbergen First published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Marcus Düwell, Gerhard Bos and Naomi van Steenbergen; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Marcus Düwell, Gerhard Bos and Naomi van Steenbergen to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial- No Derivatives 4.0 license. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Dèuwell, Marcus, 1962- editor. | Bos, Gerhard, editor. | Steenbergen, Naomi van, editor. Title: Towards the ethics of a green future : the theory and practice of human rights for future people / edited by Marcus Dèuwell, Gerhard Bos and Naomi van Steenbergen. Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2018. | Series: Routledge studies in sustainability | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017061087 (print) | LCCN 2018015028 (ebook) | ISBN 9781315115788 (eBook) | ISBN 9781138069312 (hbk) | ISBN 9781138069329 (pbk) | ISBN 9781315115788 (ebk) Subjects: LCSH: Environmental ethics. | Sustainability--Moral and ethical aspects. | Human rights. Classification: LCC GE42 (ebook) | LCC GE42 .T68 2018 (print) | DDC 179/ .1--dc23LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017061087 ISBN: 978-1-138-06931-2 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-06932-9 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-11578-8 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Taylor & Francis Books CONTENTS List of contributors vii 1 Introduction 1 Gerhard Bos, Marcus Düwell and Naomi van Steenbergen 2 Why ‘rights’ of future people? 9 Marcus Düwell and Gerhard Bos 3 Risk and rights: how to deal with risks from a rights-based perspective 28 Lukas H. Meyer, Fabian Schuppert, Harald Stelzer and Adriana Placani 4 Looking into the future: finding suitable models and scenarios 48 Joachim H. Spangenberg 5 Pathways for future generations in existing legal human rights provisions 66 Elina Pirjatanniemi 6 Political representation of future generations 79 Danielle Zwarthoed 7 Intergenerational justice in the context of developing countries 110 Adrian-Paul Iliescu, Ileana Dasca˘lu, Thierry Ngosso and Naomi van Steenbergen 8 Climate economics and future generations 131 Klaus Steigleder vi Contents 9 Motivational aspects of a politics of sustainability 154 Dieter Birnbacher 10 Governance towards a green future 167 May Thorseth and Fabian Schuppert 11 Ethics of a green future: a research agenda 191 Marcus Düwell and Karsten Klint Jensen Index 201 Political bodies, agreements and legal documents 206 CONTRIBUTORS Dieter Birnbacher is Professor Emeritus of philosophy at the University of Düsseldorf, Germany. He is a member of the Central Ethics Commission of the Bundesärztekammer (German Medical Association) and a member of Leopoldina, National Academy of Sciences. His publications include books on action theory, ethics, medical ethics and environmental ethics as well as on Wittgenstein and Schopenhauer. Gerhard Bos’s research looks at the conceptual underpinnings of human rights and their implications for long-term responsibilities. He coordinated the ESF Research Networking Programme ‘Rights to a Green Future’ (2011–2015). He is currently co-editing a number of books, including Human Dignity in Philosophy and Applied Ethics – China and the West (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). Further relevant publications include ‘A Chain of Status: Long-term Responsibility in the Context of Human Rights’, in G. Bos and M. Düwell (eds), Human Rights and Sustainability: Moral Responsibilities for the Future (Routledge, 2016). Ileana Dasca˘lu holds a PhD in philosophy from the University of Bucharest, Romania, with a thesis on equality of opportunity in an intergenerational context. She is currently a lecturer at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Bucharest, working on political philosophy and philosophy of education. Marcus Düwell is Director of the Ethics Institute of Utrecht University, the Neth- erlands. He is a member of the board of Utrecht University’s Institutions of Open Societies, editor-in-chief of the journal Ethical Theory and Moral Practice (Springer) and vice-president of the Helmuth Plessner Society. Recently, he directed bigger research projects on human dignity as foundation of human rights, Western and Chinese concepts of human dignity, practical self-understanding, future generations and viii List of contributors climate ethics. He is co-editor of the Cambridge Handbook of Human Dignity (Cam- bridge University Press, 2014); Human Rights and Sustainability (Routledge, 2016); and author of Bioethics: Methods, Theories, Domains (Routledge, 2012). Adrian-Paul Iliescu is a Romanian philosopher, doing research in the analytic (Wittgensteinian) tradition in political philosophy and applied ethics. His most important book is Wittgenstein: Why Philosophy Is Bound to Err (Peter Lang, 2000). Among his more recent papers are ‘How Is Equality Possible? An Analysis of the Idea of Intrinsic Equality’, Transylvanian Review, 32(1) (2013); and ‘The “Missing Link”: Polarization and the Need for “Trial by Jury” Procedures’, in D. Birnbacher and M. Torseth (eds), The Politics of Sustainability: Philosophical Perspectives (Routledge, 2015). He currently focuses on social justice and intrinsicalism. Karsten Klint Jensen is a PhD and Associate Professor of philosophy at Umeå University, Sweden. His research lies primarily in ethical theory and applied ethics. A dominant theme has been the interface between ethics and other disciplines, e.g. economics, decision theory, animal welfare studies, environmental science, risk assessment and risk perception studies. He has participated in several major national
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