%0 Journal Article
%T Climate Change and the Ethics of Individual Emissions: A Response to Sinnott-Armstrong
%A Ben Almassi
%J Perspectives : International Postgraduate Journal of Philosophy
%D 2012
%I 
%X Walter Sinnott-Armstrong argues, on the relationship between individual emissions and climate change, that ¡°we cannot claim to know that it is morally wrong to drive a gas guzzler just for fun¡± or engage in other inessential emissions-producing individual activities. His concern is not uncertainty about the phenomenon of climate change, nor about human contribution to it. Rather, on Sinnott-Armstrong¡¯s analysis the claim of individual moral responsibility for emissions must be grounded in a defensible moral principle, yet no principle withstands scrutiny. I argue thatthe moral significance of individual emissions is obscured by this critique. I offer a moral principle, the threshold-contribution principle, capable of withstanding Sinnott-Armstrong¡¯s criticisms while also plausibly explaining what¡¯s wrong with gas-guzzling joyrides and other gratuitous emissions-producing individual acts.
%K climate change
%K practical ethics
%K emissions
%K moral thresholds
%U http://www.ucd.ie/philosophy/perspectives/resources/issue4/Perspectives%20Vol4_%20Ben_Almassi%20Climate%20Change%20and%20the%20Ethics%20of%20Individual%20Emissions-%20%20A%20Response%20to%20Sinnott-Armstrong.pdf