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Ethics and objectivity: the case of global warming
Authors: Philip CattonPublication: New Zealand Journal of Forestry, Volume N.Z.J.For. 2006, Issue N.Z.J.For. 51(4) 2007, pp 3-6, Jan 2007
Publisher: New Zealand Institute of Forestry
Abstract: As scientists, we endeavour to be objective concerning whether there is anthropogenic climate change, and if there is, about how significant it will be. But what we ought to do in the face of these findings, is an issue of ethics not science. Question: is there any sense in striving to be objective about that? Answer: emphatically, yes there is. Indeed, a call to be objective in the moral sphere is in its way original to the very possibility of science.