Human impact: The ethics of I=PAT

Abstract

Global change, driven by increasing levels of human population, growing consumption by the rich, and poor choices of technologies and social arrangements to supply that consumption, have generated a suite of environmental problems that threaten civilization. This in turn has brought to the fore a daunting array of ethical issues that, sadly, are not being widely addressed. I sample some of these and discuss them in a way that hopefully will generate some of the needed discourse.