A Fortunate Sorrow: the Ethical Upside of Climate Change
by Ray Grigg

Global climate change is a sobering subject. But, like every cloud, it has its silver lining. And this lining is explored by Margaret Somerville, an ethicist who is the author of The Ethical Imagination: Journeys of the Human Spirit, and is founding director of the Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law at McGill University.

Whether humanity intended it or not, we are now on a journey that will probably be the most stupendous in our history as a species. Indeed, the next century will challenge us, individually and collectively, as never before. Somerville chooses to see the beneficial possibilities of this challenge, sketching her ideas in an essay she calls, A Fortunate Sorrow: the Ethical Upside of Climate Change (Globe & Mail , May 1/07).

Her essential message is that the global environmental crisis we face may help us find a "shared ethics for an interconnected world..., some basic human values we can agree on, instead of always focusing on our disagreements...." And, if we find this shared ethic, it might have significant and lasting importance "well beyond climate change". In other words, the common threat we will all experience as citizens of the same planet ˜ an insight that is becoming ever more apparent ˜ will bring us together in ways we could never have imagined. Like the hero's transformative journey in mythology, we will be made wholly new by the experience. Somerville explores eight facets of this transformation caused by climate crisis.

The first she calls "personal identification". We are each involved, whether or not we want to be. This is a global issue impacting every individual. No one is excluded. The situation allows for no dispassionate observers. This forces everyone to be engaged in the problems, solutions and all ethical considerations.

Second, the dangers of climate change are "universal". They cross all "social, cultural, and religious barriers". Everyone is rendered equal by a common threat. This, she says, "openly challenges the intense individualism that has become dominant in contemporary liberal Western
democracies." The forced shift in our ethics from "pro individual to "pro-social" behaviour will require us to make decisions based on our consideration of others rather than just ourselves. Such a "pro-social" shift might even create the co-operation that could speed us toward solutions to climate change.

Third, "climate change problems are not just theoretical and abstract; they are practical and concrete". Their very physical attributes will prevent us from ignoring them or their ethical implications.

Fourth, as Somerville explains, „we can start from an agreement that climate change is alarming, rather than starting from disagreement." This will help us "identify the values we hold in common ˜ something we routinely fail to do ˜ and, as a result, reinforce and promote those values." The effect will be to bind us together in concerns and strategies. Notice the way towns, cities, provinces, states and even countries are encouraging each other toward greater environmental conscientiousness.

Fifth, "earned trust" will become more important than "blind trust." Because climate change affects and involves everyone, the necessary "sharing of information and decision-making" will encourage egalitarianism ˜ perhaps a kind of pan-planet democratization which will undermine the paternalistic thinking of authoritarianism. People will be drawn into involvement because the well-being of themselves and their children will be at stake.

Sixth, the role of science will change. Instead of being a frequent source of ethical dilemmas, climate change will offer a framework to give an ethical direction to science. The quest to alter our behaviour toward the "common good" will give clearer focus and guidance to all our scientific efforts.

Seventh, climate change will be, as Somerville notes, "a powerful reminder of our obligation to hold our world, nature and the natural (including our humanness) in trust for future generations." We are already making this shift from immediate self gratification to a more thoughtful concern for distant tomorrows. We are already asking Somerville's questions: "What do we owe our great-great-grandchildren? What are our obligations to far distant generations? Can the future trust us?"

And eighth, Somerville introduces the notion of "anticipated consent". How will future generations judge the decisions we make or do not make today? Our modern culture has taken the ethical position that our present behaviour is somehow disconnected from the future ˜ we are free to do whatever we want, just as our descendants are free to do whatever they want. Climate change essentially destroys any arguments for ethical indifference. If our present behaviour causes ecological havoc in decades or within a century or two, then we deny countless options to future generations. Indeed, if we render the planet uninhabitable, we may even deny them all options. This sobering awareness imbues our present behaviour with an ethical weight that is impossible to ignore.

Such a newly discovered weight of responsibility is the "fortunate sorrow" that is the "ethical upside" of climate change. As always, we make choices. The difference between our choices of yesterday and today is a dawning environmental awareness which is forcing us to be thoughtful and ethical, for both the present and the future. Like it or not, we can‚t ignore what we now know about our impact on the Earth's ecosystems. Perhaps, by exercising great care and consideration, we can make the best of a bad situation.