Abstract
Building on research in anthropology and philosophy, one can make a distinction between type I and type II energy ethics as a framework for advancing public debate about energy. Type I holds energy production and use as a fundamental good and is grounded in the assumption that increases in energy production and consumption result in increases in human wellbeing. Conversely, type II questions the linear relationship between energy production and progress by examining questions of equity and human happiness. The type I versus type II framework helps to advance public debates about energy that address broad questions of profitability, regulation, and the environment, and in the process poses fundamental questions about the reverence for energy growth in advanced technological societies.
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Acknowledgments
C. Mitcham’s work on this paper was supported in part from Contract/Grant No. 1032966 between the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the work.
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Mitcham, C., Rolston, J.S. Energy Constraints. Sci Eng Ethics 19, 313–319 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-013-9446-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-013-9446-3