Climate ethics: with a little help from moral cognitive neuroscience

Carbon emissions threaten the stability of climate systems and change climate dynamics in ways that inflict harm on present and future generations. Therefore, the ultimate moral crux of climate change involves harm avoidance and prevention. Moral cognitive neuroscience, and in particular the dual-process theory, indicates that up, close and personal harm triggers deontological moral reasoning, whereas harm originating from impersonal moral violations, like those produced by climate impacts, prompts consequentialist moral reasoning. Accordingly, climate ethics should be based on consequentialist approaches. Moral cognitive neuroscientific research indicates, in fact, that consequentialism is closer to the moral processes and judgments human beings normally use when faced with issues like climate change that involve impersonal notions of harm.