A Perfect Moral Storm: The Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change

by Stephen M. Gardiner

Climate change is arguably the great problem confronting humanity, but we have done little to head off this looming catastrophe. In The Perfect Moral Storm , philosopher Stephen Gardiner illuminates our dangerous inaction by placing the environmental crisis in an entirely new light, considering it as an ethical failure. Gardiner clarifies the moral situation, identifying the temptations (or "storms") that make us vulnerable to a certain kind of corruption. First, the world's most affluent nations are tempted to pass on the cost of climate change to the poorer and weaker citizens of the world. Second, the present generation is tempted to pass the problem on to future generations. Third, our poor grasp of science, international justice, and the human relationship to nature helps to facilitate inaction. As a result, we are engaging in willful self-deception when the lives of future generations, the world's poor, and even the basic fabric of life on the planet is at stake. We should
wake up to this profound ethical failure, Gardiner concludes, and demand more of our institutions, our leaders and ourselves.

"This is a radical book, both in the sense that it faces extremes and in the sense that it goes to the roots." -- Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

"The book's strength lies in Gardiner's success at understanding and clarifying the types of moral issues that climate change raises, which is an important first step toward solutions." -- Science Magazine

"Gardiner has expertly explored some very instinctual and vitally important considerations which cannot realistically be ignored. --Required reading." -- Green Prophet

"Gardiner makes a strong case for highlighting and insisting on the ethical dimensions of the climate problem, and his warnings about buck-passing and the dangerous appeal of moral corruptions hit home." -- Times Higher Education

"Stephen Gardiner takes to a new level our understanding of the moral dimensions of climate change. A Perfect Moral Storm argues convincingly that climate change is the greatest moral challenge our species has ever faced - and that the problem goes even deeper than we think." --Peter Singer, Princeton University

Genres: Philosophy, Climate Change, Nonfiction, Science, Environment, School

508 pages, Hardcover

First published April 6, 2011

Reviews

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

The issue with this book may be this: readers who are motivated enough to want to understand in gory detail why climate change is such a difficult ethical challenge will already have thought about the basic issues: climate change is a truly global issue; it spans generations--costs come due now, later generations benefit; we don't have ethical frameworks for dealing with problems at this geographic and temporal scale--not even in academia; we're even further from having political institutions adequate to what needs to be done.

Fascinating issues, all of them. But it's tough going to wade through Gardiner's laying it all out in exhaustive, rigorous detail, even though that may be an important task.

I had the book around the house for six weeks or so and got through about half the recommended "quick tour" of the book, and sent it back to the library.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as a requirement for an Ethics and Climate Change class, though it's not technically a textbook. It did make me want to sulk and wallow in pity, though not because I hated reading it. More because Gardiner paints a pretty vivid picture of how it's going to turn out in the next couple centuries, while simultaneously reminding you that the nature of people is so that we are kind of fucked. Regardless, a good read for anybody who's looking for a different approach to climate change, and chalk full of the ethical problems that come with it.

[David Risstrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid academic book that applies philosophy and morality to the often technical discussions about our human role in changing the climate. Stephen Harding regularly identifies areas that the reader can move past, which while I didn't, I appreciated given how turgid moral discussion can be at times.

For someone having done their science honours in climate in 1995 and competing laws and politics and social theory degrees to help answer and act on these issues, I am currently deflated by the chasm between could be and is. Stephen has done the hard work to examine the foundations of our dilemma. Having remained bewildered and concerned about our clear responsibility, opportunity to act and evident unwillingness to deal with the problems we have contributed to, this book visited many issues that have consumed me over the years.

I recommend borrowing this book from a library and see if it helps answer some of the questions asked by many of us who are uncertain if we are humane enough to act humanely. We have confirmed our move into the Anthropocene, where humans undoubtedly have a major influence on the planet's life support systems. If and what we choose to do with our wonderful cultural capacity for influencing things remains uncertain, though the directions are less than positive and likely to secure the death of many of us amidst the Earth's sixth species extinction.

With Extinction Rebellion being one of those citizen responses that thinking people may choose in the face of political sclerosis, books such as this give us a chance to think as well as act. We need to. Hopefully with some moral foundation that gives more of us a chance.

[Graham Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Read in 2014, review from 2023)

Read this in senior year of college. Some depressing lessons about the attitudes and actions that led to the Climate Crisis but they are effective and continue to ring true a decade later. Definitely worth reading still.

[Gene Grossmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Modern ethical approach to a most difficult moral issue.

[Heathyr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely well thought through. It's amazing the sophistication of argument this author can present while remaining super clear. I learned SO much that won't fit in this review :/
This book is a long haul, but worth it.