Abstract

There are benefits to organizing an introductory ethics course around the ethical, social, and political questions related to climate change. One topic such a course may fruitfully explore is the issue of whether, when, and how climate scientists should advocate for climate policy. When is scientific advocacy a failure of scientific objectivity, and what are the ethical consequences of scientists attempting to influence policy objectives? This paper lays out a method for using illustrative case studies that helps students understand, first, how scientists interact with policy-makers and the public and, second, the reasons why such activity can—in many actual cases—be seen as ethically unproblematic.