Climate Migration and Moral Responsibility.
Even though anthropogenic climate change is largely caused by industrialized nations, its burden is distributed unevenly with poor developing countries suffering the most. A common response to livelihood insecurities and destruction is migration. Using Peter Singer's "historical principle" this paper argues that a morally just evaluation requires taking causality between climate change and migration under consideration. The historical principle is employed to emphasize shortcomings in commonly made philosophical arguments to oppose immigration. The article concludes that none of these arguments is able to override the moral responsibility of industrialized countries to compensate for harms that their actions have caused.
University of Colorado, Boulder.
Raphael
R
Nawrotzki
Causality; Climate Change; Historical Principle; Immigration; Justice; Migrant; Refugee
Econ Hum Biol. 2005 Mar;3(1):67-96
15722263
Popul Index. 1996 Summer;62(2):181-212
12292019
Popul Environ. 2010;32(2):109-136
21350676
Soc Sci Res. 2009 Jun;38(2):324-37
19756216
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2002 Apr 29;357(1420):609-13
12028796
Science. 2005 Sep 16;309(5742):1844-6
16166514
Wiley Interdiscip Rev Clim Change. 2010 May;1(3):450-461
22022342
Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2010 Mar;4(1):81-7
20389200
Science. 1968 Dec 13;162(3859):1243-8
5699198
Int Migr Rev. 1994 Fall;28(3):539-53
12345794
Bioscience. 1974 Oct;24(10):561-8
11661143
Science. 2007 Jul 13;317(5835):203-4
17626870
Popul Res Policy Rev. 2013 Feb 1;32(1):129-158
23913999
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Aug 10;107(32):14257-62
20660749