What **ethical dilemma** does McKibben present?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

First, let’s restate the question and the options to ensure clarity:
Question: What ethical dilemma does McKibben present?
Answer options:
1) The challenge of convincing politicians to act
2) The need to balance economic growth with conservation
3) The difficulty in choosing the best renewable energy source
4) The moral obligation to take responsibility for damaging the planet

Now, evaluate each option in turn with careful reasoning:
Option 1: The challenge of convincing politicians to act
This option highlights political persuasion and advocacy rather than a core ethical dilemma. While McKibben indeed discusses political action and policy, describing it as a plain outreach challenge misses the deeper moral tension about responsibility for harm and the obligations that follow from it. It focuses on process rather than the ethical burden itself.
Option 2: The need to balance economic growth with conservation
This is a classic sustainability dilemma, combining economics and environmental concerns. It captures a legitimate ethical tension, but in McKibben’s framing the emphasis tends to focus more on accountability and responsibility for harm, rather than a normative balance act between two valued ends. The wording here understates the moral responsibility angle that he stresses.
Option 3: The difficulty in choosing the best renewable energy source
This option centers on technical or efficiency questions about energy technologies. While energy choices matter, McKibben’s ethical framing is broader and more foundational, dealing with responsibility for damage and the obligation to act on climate harm, not picking among technologies.
Option 4: The moral obligation to take responsibility for damaging the planet
This choice directly confronts the ethical issue McKibben emphasizes: recognizing that human activities have caused harm to the planet and that there is a moral duty to address, repair, and prevent further damage. It frames responsibility in a normative sense, which aligns with his call for accountability and collective action against climate change.

Putting these assessments together, the first three options describe important but more instrumental or technical concerns (policy lobbying, balancing interests, technology selection). In contrast, the fourth option foregrounds a principled obligation arising from harm, which captures the core ethical dilemma McKibben presents about moral accountability for planetary damage and the imperative to respond.

Additional nuance: McKibben’s rhetoric often centers on how societies acknowledge responsibility for the harm caused by fossil fuel use and the ethical implications of continuing or failing to act. This strengthens the case for option 4 as the central ethical framing, while the other options describe associated, but subsidiary, challenges within the broader debate.

Therefore, option 4 best aligns with the ethical dilemma McKibben emphasizes, whereas options 1–3 describe related but subsidiary concerns that do not capture the fundamental moral question he raises.

What ethical dilemma does McKibben present?单项选择题

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What **ethical dilemma** does McKibben present?单项选择题