Climate Change and Wild Animals: Key Ethical Perspectives

Authors

• Clare Palmer Texas A&M University

Abstract

Climate change is already having significant impacts on wild animal species and individuals.While not all these impacts are negative, many individual animals will suffer declines in their welfareand some will die, and many species will move towards extinction, as the climate changes. From anumber of ethical perspectives, these negative impacts of climate change matter. This paper will outlinethree such perspectives: those that emphasize the value of species, those that are primarily concernedwith individual animals’ welfare, and those that focus on climate injustice. Each of these perspectivesappears to require an ethically-informed policy response to negative climate impacts on wild animals.However, I’ll suggest, such different ethical perspectives don’t always agree on what the best practicalresponse actually is. This may make it more difficult to construct ethical policy and legal frameworks torespond to climate change in the context of wild animals.