Climate Change as a Moral Issue Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Climate Change as a Moral Issue - Essay Example Climate change has tremendous effect on humanity and it is nowadays the most significant moral challenge that people face. Mother Nature is morally neutral considering the fact that each year natural catastrophes like global warming, tsunami, devastating earthquakes result in millions of casualty. The moral issues lie within the humans by the ways in which we prepare ourselves in defending such disasters and help the victims (Carter n.d.).The change in climate and the environmental challenge as a moral issue deserves a significant amount of discussion (Crompton & Kasser, 2009, p.2) considering the fact that nowadays it is the prime global concern. This paper deals with different aspects of the climatic change as a moral issue and elaborates the role of politics and public in meeting this challenge. Climate change and moral issue The climatic change is inculcated with complex moral troubles, which the present political system is not well adapted to address properly. Many societies are unaware and not well tailored with the variability in climatic change. As a result they are more vulnerable to the devastations of the climatic change that will adversely affect their economic and political indicators which in turn will bring a spillover effect in the international scenario. The climatic change can be viewed as a striking challenge to our moral self. It can be viewed as a paradigm moral problem, however much more multifaceted in nature. The characteristic of a paradigm moral problem is that an individual will harm or make another individual worse off and both the individuals and the damage done that way are identifiable. Again the individuals and the concerned damage are closely linked in terms of time and space. In this case an example may be considered; suppose David intentionally stole James’s bike, in this example the notion of above discussed concept is clear. Here both the individual and the damage are identified and they are also closely linked in tim e and space. But the moral problem related to the climatic change is not so simple and another example will illustrate that, suppose ‘Jack and a large number of unacquainted people set in motion a chain of events that causes a large number of future people who will live in another part of the world, from ever having bikes’ (Jamieson 2007, p.2). In this particular example the identification of the agents causing damage or generating negative externality is not properly identifiable. This refers to the fact that damage caused this way transmits through time and affects future group of people whose numbers can be predicted but cannot be exactly determined at present time frame. Similar to this the climate change affects different groups of people over various time frames and both of them can not be identified with pin point accuracy. More interestingly people are often indifferent or even at dark regarding the future loss incurred through climatic change as that do not dir ectly affect them. Owing to these facts and minimal difference in characteristic with the usual moral problem; the climatic change often does not get considered as a moral problem, which has resulted in common negligence in responding to this problem with utmost urgency (Jamieson 2007, pp. 1-2). Climate Change as a challenge to the Political System Political concerns

International Monetary Fund Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

International Monetary Fund - Article Example According to the agreements the fund is guaranteed to help the members develop economically as well as socially. Article 1 (ii) states, "To facilitate the expansion and balanced growth of international trade, and to contribute thereby to the promotion and maintenance of high levels of employment and real income and to the development of the productive resources of all members as primary objectives of economic policy." Based on this article every member state should enjoy the privileges of economic growth and development. In theory this would be a practical situation but history has show that the Fund itself has several shortcomings and weaknesses. The preliminary signatories to the International Monetary Fund were mainly countries that subscribed to capitalist policies although France was the first country to benefit from the Fund after its inception in 1947. Under the IMF agreement the countries agreed to keep their currencies convertible to the US dollar and the United States agreed to a peg system where the value of their dollar was in terms of gold. Some saw this system as unable to meet the demand of global trading. Also, speculation caused a decrease in the price of gold. There was also a subsequent devaluation of the US dollar. The par value system was discontinued in 1974 and countries were allowed to choose a system that they think was best for their exchange rate. Some saw this decision by the International Monetary Fund as a sign of weakness. "It appeared that the ability of the IMF to regulate world financial conditions was at least greatly diminished, and perhaps finished" (Devries, 1986). (Peet, Born 68). After this change of idea regarding the exchange rate the IMF added a new dimension in dealing with its member countries. It became more involved with the economic policies of the countries. Many countries especially the United States of America and countries in Western Europe had had successive terms of wealth and prosperity so the Fund did not experience a great demand from these countries. The world political situation in the 1970's, however, forced a change on the volume of lending by the Fund. Many countries, especially in the African continent became independent but their new status meant that they needed financial help. Many of these countries lacked the resources and facilities present in the countries in Western Europe. To a large extent a great number was plagued by balance of payment problems. In order to lend assistance to these struggling economies the IMF created the Structural Adjustment Facility in 1986 and replaced by the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility in 1987. This consists of concessionary grants drawn up in collaboration with the World Bank. To qualify for these loans a country has to be in the low-income category. There were a total of thirt y five countries that benefitted from the Structural Adjustment Facility. The recipients are offered lower interest rates with a chance to repay the loan from between five and ten years. As is common with other assistance of the IMF countries benefitting from these loans are required by the IMF to adhere to certain policies. These policies are very restrictive and have forced critics to argue if the Structural Adjustment Facility will bring more harm than good. Firstly, there has to be