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Document Details : Title: Global Warming and the Critique of Culture Author(s): OKSANEN, Markku Journal: Ethical Perspectives Volume: 21 Issue: 4 Date: 2014 Pages: 539-563 DOI: 10.2143/EP.21.4.3062019 Abstract : The Fifth IPCC Assessment Report Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability states that climate change will compromise ‘culture and identity’. The present article aims to provide an account of what the cultural dimensions of climate change are from a normative point of view. The climate is warming because of human activities, and this is dangerous for humankind. The issues of human responsibility and related policies are typically addressed in terms of two rival viewpoints that emphasise either individual or collective responsibility. Consequently, at the centre are either individuals and their actions and omissions or those social aspects of human life that are governed by legally recognised entities and by formal rules including laws and public policies. Instead of limiting the attention to human individuals or legal entities, this article considers the cultural implications deriving from the ethical considerations of anthropogenic climate change. Culture has a life of its own beyond purely individual action and coordinated collective action based on formal, often written, rules. This is so because cultural dimensions are not fully within any individual’s command and because some of these dimensions ought not to be regulated through formal laws and decisions in a liberal-democratic society. In other words, there is a need for cultural critique that paves the way for adaptive changes in collective behaviour. |
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