In controversies on global warming, one issue that keeps coming up is whether it is anthropogenic, whether the world getting warmer is our fault. So far as I can tell, the question is almost entirely irrelevant to the controversy, reflects a confusion between moral and practical arguments. Suppose the cause of global warming is not human action but changes in solar activity or some other external factor. Suppose also that the consequences of global warming will be catastrophic. Finally suppose that there is something we can do to prevent global warming, say raising the albedo of the earth with orbital mirrors, high altitude pollution, or whatever. Isn't the argument for doing it precisely the same as if we were causing the warming' Hence isn't 'whose fault is it' an irrelevant distraction' Of course, the questions of causation and prevention are not unrelated. If we are causing global warming that suggests one possible way of preventing it ' stop whatever we are doing that causes...
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