The Ecological Crisis and the Normative Ethics of Being

Abstract

Regardless of the existing polarity as to its causative agents, climate change is a stark reality. We experience it in a variety of ways: global warming, El Niño rains, tropical storms, severe wildfires, melting of glaciers, pollution, depletion of clean water, deforestation and loss of biodiversity. All such forms of ecological crisis, seen from the viewpoint of the normative ethics of being, are rooted in the evil acts of men. This is the ethical truth which we are yet to recognise. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how normative ethics of being can lead people to virtuous character and living within which the discussion of a specific course of (legal) action and policy on climate change would make sense, and attainment of a satisfying ethics of climate change made possible.