Major consequences of climate change are now predictable to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty. Many of these consequences will be experienced within the next 100 years - on time scales relevant to emergency preparedness, medical responses, infrastructure alteration, financial investments, treaty negotiations, etc. These changes will impact the globe, geographically, socially, politically and economically. Leaders of institutions concerned with law, business, medicine, science, sociology, politics and religion will face the brunt of these changes. In the face of these challenges, their actions must be honorable, moral and ethical.

 

The observation that citizens in poor countries often use practices that are more environmentally sound than their counterparts in rich countries is a moral and ethical conundrum. Clearly, much more can be done at the level of the individual citizen.

 

To stimulate discussion of these issues, Inter-Research Science Center has sponsored seven essay contests. The authors of winning essays will receive US $1000.00 and their articles will be published in Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics. The ESEP issue in which these articles appear will be made available online as an Open Access document - anyone with access to the Internet will be able to read it.

 

There was one contest (open to graduate students - post Bachelors - at any certified university or college) in each of the following disciplines:

 

• Economics/Business
• Law
• Public Health/Medicine
• Environmental sciences
• Engineering
• Philosophy/Religious studies
• Political Science

 

Introduction by Penny Kuhn

 

Subject areas which received winning entries are as follows:

 

Economics/Business

 

Winner: Seth Baum from Penn State University, USA.

Beyond the Ramsey model for climate change assessments

 

Contest Judges: 1. Brendan Moyle a Bio-economist with the department of Commerce at Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand. 2. Hens Runhaar

with the Department of Innovation and Environmental Studies at Utrecht University in The Netherlands. 3. Joel Smith, Vice President of Stratus Consulting Inc. in Boulder, Colorado, USA.

 

Environmental sciences

 

Winner: Sarah Jordaan from the University of Calgary, Canada.

Ethical risks of attenuating climate change through new energy systems: the case of a biofuel system

 

Contest Judges: 1. Virginia Burkett the Global Change Science Coordinator with the US Geological Survey in Louisiana, and an ESEP Editor. 2. Daniel Sandweiss the Dean and Associate Provost for Graduate Studies and professor of Anthropology and Quaternary and Climate Studies at the University of Maine, USA. 3. Hans-Otto Pöertner from the Alfred-Wegener-Institute, Biosciences division, in Bremerhaven, Germany.

 

Philosophy/Religious studies

 

Winner: Paula Posas from the University of Liverpool, UK.

Roles of religion and ethics in addressing climate change

 

Contest Judges: 1. Nancy Tuana, a professor of Philosophy at Penn State University and director of the Rock Ethics Institute in Pennsylvania, USA. 2. Dale Jamison, the director of Environmental Studies, professor of Environmental Studies and Philosophy, and affiliated Professor of Law at New York University, USA. 3. Laura Westra, a professor Emerita (Philosophy) at the University of Windsor and adjunct Professor of Social Science with York University in Toronto, Canada.