A Global Framework: International Aspects of Climate Change (Features‪)‬

While it may seem that science contributes only marginally to international law, it was in fact a scientist, Garrett Hardin, who proposed a framework four decades ago that illuminates most of the international policy issues of climate change. Hardin's widely cited 1968 article, "The Tragedy of the Commons," is much more than a description of the inevitable destruction of public, unregulated, and finite resources, a phenomenon well-known since ancient times. It also offers insights into how one might manage such resources and suggests an ethical approach relevant to the difficult problems of international responses to climate change. Anthropogenic climate change epitomizes the subtitle of Hardin's article: "The population problem has no technical solution; it requires a fundamental extension of morality." This subtitle was inspired by an earlier and equally influential article on the control of nuclear weapons by Jerome Wiesner and Herbert York, who admit the limitations of purely scientific or technical modes of thinking in regards to today's changing world. In other words, the global climate challenge is an intractable international commons issue that requires an international framework through which an economically feasible solution can be created. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]