Climate Change and Human Well-Being
The climate change case asks how utilitarians should evaluate actions whose effects extend far in the future. From a utilitarian perspective, climate change is morally important because of how it affects the well-being of future and present people, as well as other sentient beings. If contributing high emissions creates some benefit for the present generation, but causes much greater harm to future generations, then utilitarians would say that we have a moral reason to reduce emissions. The main ethical question of this case is whether the well-being of future generations should count just as much as the well-being of people alive today. This case also raises a deeper question about the value(s) of nature: whether we have obligations to preserve the natural world itself, or only obligations to protect sentient beings from harm.