Table Of ContentPublic Health Ethics Analysis 4
Series Editor: Michael J. Selgelid
Cheryl C. Macpherson Editor
Bioethical
Insights into
Values and
Policy
Climate Change and Health
Public Health Ethics Analysis
Volume 4
Edited by
Michael J. Selgelid
Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
D uring the 21st Century, Public Health Ethics has become one of the fastest growing
subdisciplines of bioethics. This is the fi rst Book Series dedicated to the topic of
Public Health Ethics. It aims to fi ll a gap in the existing literature by providing
thoroughgoing, book-length treatment of the most important topics in Public Health
Ethics—which have otherwise, for the most part, only been partially and/or
sporadically addressed in journal articles, book chapters, or sections of volumes
concerned with Public Health Ethics. Books in the series will include coverage of
central topics in Public Health Ethics from a plurality of disciplinary perspectives
including: philosophy (e.g., both ethics and philosophy of science), political science,
history, economics, sociology, anthropology, demographics, law, human rights,
epidemiology, and other public health sciences. Blending analytically rigorous and
empirically informed analyses, the series will address ethical issues associated with
the concepts, goals, and methods of public health; individual (e.g., ordinary citizens’
and public health workers’) decision making and behaviour; and public policy. Inter
alia, volumes in the series will be dedicated to topics including: health promotion;
disease prevention; paternalism and coercive measures; infectious disease; chronic
disease; obesity; smoking and tobacco control; genetics; the environment; public
communication/trust; social determinants of health; human rights; and justice. A
primary priority is to produce volumes on hitherto neglected topics such as ethical
issues associated with public health research and surveillance; vaccination;
tuberculosis; malaria; diarrheal disease; lower respiratory infections; drug resistance;
chronic disease in developing countries; emergencies/disasters (including
bioterrorism); and public health implications of climate change.
More information about this series at h ttp://www.springer.com/series/10067
Cheryl C. Macpherson
Editor
Bioethical Insights into
Values and Policy
Climate Change and Health
Editor
Cheryl C. Macpherson
Chair of the Bioethics Department
School of Medicine
St George’s University (SGU)
St George’s , Grenada
W indward Islands Research and Education
Foundation (WINDREF)
St George’s , Grenada
ISSN 2211-6680 ISSN 2211-6699 (electronic)
Public Health Ethics Analysis
ISBN 978-3-319-26165-2 ISBN 978-3-319-26167-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-26167-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016933034
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
T his work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of
the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
T he use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
T he publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the
editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors
or omissions that may have been made.
Printed on acid-free paper
This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature
The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland
This book is dedicated to Sondra Cox; the
memory of Max and Dorothy Hirsch and Jess
Morison; and everyone who instills in young
children a deep appreciation for Mother
Nature and the sustenance she provides for
life, health, and well-being.
Foreword: Climate Change and Health – The
Ethical Imperative
Despite ample evidence that climate change is occurring and is the result of human
activities, agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions has so far proved elusive. The
UN IPCC reports have exhaustively summarised the climate science, current knowl-
edge on impacts and vulnerability, the potential for adaptation and mitigation. The
Working Group III report Chap. 4 outlines some of the ethical challenges posed by
climate change and the policies needed to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions,
but until now arguably the bioethics community has not fully engaged with the ethi-
cal dimensions of climate change. The challenges include the mismatch between
historical greenhouse gas emissions, driven particularly by emissions from the
industrialised countries, and the health and social impacts which are likely to be
borne disproportionately by poor populations who have not yet enjoyed the fruits of
development. Decisions to reduce the risks of dangerous climate change must be
taken in the next few years, and many fossil fuel reserves will have to be left unex-
ploited if we are to avoid high-end pathways of emissions which could result in
global average temperature increases exceeding 4 °C (more over land) by 2100,
compared with pre-industrial times. This implies that development will increasingly
need to be fuelled by renewable energy sources accompanied by much more effi -
cient use of resources to enable development within environmental limits.
C onventional economic analyses, including discounting of future costs of inac-
tion and of the benefi ts which will accrue from policies to reduce climate change
risks, may not be appropriate when risks are large and climate change has the poten-
tial to disrupt the long-term progress of humanity. At the same time many policies
to reduce GHG emissions can result in health and other (co)-benefi ts, for example,
as a result of reduced fi ne particulate air pollution from burning less coal. The deci-
sions about who should pay for adaptation and mitigation measures will be intensely
political, but they also raise profound ethical questions.
vii
viii Foreword: Climate Change and Health – The Ethical Imperative
This book provides a much-needed overview of the ethical dimensions of climate
change including contributions from many leading fi gures in the fi eld of bioethics.
It will be indispensable reading for public health professionals, bioethicists and the
growing scientifi c community interested in the impacts of climate change, the effec-
tiveness of strategies to adapt as far as possible to climate change and to dramati-
cally reduce GHG emissions.
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Andrew Haines
London , UK
Pref ace
Scholarly and practical bioethics work today focuses heavily on the expression of
individual autonomy and the use of emerging technologies in medical practice and
research. The dilemmas and threats posed by climate change receive relatively little
attention in bioethics publications or conferences despite the serious and inequitable
health burdens they impose around the world. Some prominent bioethicists have
expressed concern that in stemming from, and embodying, the norms and interests
of wealthy Western nations, bioethics avoids more diffi cult and far-reaching
population-o riented problems, particularly those involving human rights and injus-
tices. Others question the taxonomy of, and relationships between, bioethics, envi-
ronmental bioethics, environmental ethics, and other specialties. Very few explicitly
address the ethics of climate change, and this book tries to rectify that.
This book aims to attract readers from varied disciplines and precipitate interdis-
ciplinary dialogue about the causes and impacts of climate change and associated
responsibilities and accountability. In the spirit of Van Rensselaer Potter’s global
bioethics, such dialogue may produce interdisciplinary collaborations that integrate
bioethics into disciplines and projects dealing with climate change, greenhouse gas
emissions, and other population-oriented concerns. The outcomes of such efforts
may constructively inform policy determinations about the adequacy and appropri-
ateness of national or institutional responses to climate change and other
problems.
C ontributors to this book were invited to refl ect on whether and how bioethics
might elucidate the causes, impacts, and ethics of the health impacts of climate
change. Their refl ections expose a range of views that are not inherent to environ-
mental or climate ethics, and which are relevant across scientifi c and other disci-
plines. In its early years, bioethics was concerned with ethics pertaining to all living
things. Potter conceived “global bioethics” as encompassing the ethical implica-
tions of connections between humans and other living creatures and systems, and
the opportunities for health and associated responsibilities therein. Bioethicists
working on individual autonomy in medical practice or research seem uninterested
in Potter’s construct of global bioethics although, as this book makes clear, it is
directly relevant to their work and to other disciplines.
ix
