Climate change Web site is launched

STATE COLLEGE, Pa., Oct. 25 (UPI) -- A new U.S. Web site has been launched, designed to allow quick responses to ethical issues that arise during the climate change debate.

The Web site (ClimateEthics.org) is sponsored by the Pennsylvania State University Rock Ethics Institute, in conjunction with the Collaborative Program on the Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change.

"Climate change poses historically unprecedented challenges and profound ethical questions (and) also new opportunities for global innovation and cooperation," said Professor Nancy Tuana, the institute's director. "ClimateEthics.org will be an important resource for realizing these opportunities."

Associate Professor Donald Brown, the project's coordinator, said by enabling policy makers, researchers and other interested members of the public to access ethical commentary quickly and easily, the site will foster better understanding of the myriad ethical issues entailed by climate change.

"Climate change raises thorny ethical issues," said Brown. "Policymakers must understand that every approach to climate change may raise different ethical dimensions. That better understanding can allow them to craft policies that are ethically supportable and seen as just by others around the world who must cooperate in a global solution to climate change."