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The threat of intergenerational extortion: on the temptation to become the climate mafia, masquerading as an intergenerational Robin Hood

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Stephen M. Gardiner
Stephen M. Gardiner*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy and Program on Values in Society, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
*
Email: smgard@uw.edu
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Abstract

This paper argues that extortion is a clear threat in intergenerational relations, and that the threat is manifest in some existing proposals in climate policy and latent in some background tendencies in mainstream moral and political philosophy. The paper also claims that although some central aspects of the concern about extortion might be pursued in terms of the entitlements of future generations, this approach is likely to be incomplete. In particular, intergenerational extortion raises issues about the appropriate limits to the sway of central values such as welfare and distributive justice. We should be wary of ways in which such values invite us to buy off, or perhaps to join, an intergenerational climate Mafia.

Keywords

Climate justiceJohn Broomeintergenerational justicemaking the grandchildren payluck egalitarianism
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 47 , Issue 2-3: Special issue: Ethics and Future Generations , 2017 , pp. 368 - 394
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2017

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