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The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030 (United Nations, 2015). Among all the goals, the SDG 13 mainly concentrates on the climate action.

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Utilitarianism holds that the action should provide the greatest happiness for all those affected by the action (Shaw et al., 2020). The countries in the Amazon forest region violated this theory. They didn’t take into account the interests of all mankind, but only focus on the economic development of their own countries, which will bring long-term damage to the entire planet. Moreover, although deforestation will bring benefits to local people in the short term, it will also be difficult for local people to survive in the future due to climate change. Therefore, from a utilitarianism perspective, the development of the Amazon region should not come at the expense of the environment.

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Today, the ethical problems during the countries’ developing process are being recognized as more important by people, and it is important for us to balance the ethical problems and the economic growth during the developing process.

This paper mainly focuses on the deforestation in Amazon forest due to their incorrect way of developing the economy. The problem is analyzed mainly based on utilitarianism, contractualism and the criticism of capitalism. Also, the problem is related to the UN SDG 13: Climate action.

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Flores, B. M., Montoya, E., Sakschewski, B., Nascimento, N., Staal, A., Betts, R. A., Levis, C., Lapola, D. M., Esquível-Muelbert, A., Jakovac, C., Nobre, C. A., Oliveira, R. S., Borma, L. S., Nian, D., Boers, N., Hecht, S. B., Steege, H. T., Arieira, J., Lucas, I. L., Marengo, J. A., Gatti, L. V., Mattos, C. R. C., & Hirota, M. (2024). Critical transitions in the Amazon forest system. Nature, 626, 555-564. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06970-0

UNSDG. (n.d.). United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/

Shaw, W. H., Barry, V. E., Rodrigs, M., Issa, T., & Muntean, D. (2020). Moral issues in business (13th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Le Pargneux, A., Chater, N., & Zeitoun, H. (2024). Contractualist tendencies and reasoning in moral judgment and decision making. Cognition, 249, 105838. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105838

Guerrero, O. A., Guariso, D., & Castañeda, G. (2023). Aid effectiveness in sustainable development: A multidimensional approach. World Development, 168, 106256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106256

UNESCO. (2019). The ethical challenges of climate change. The UNESCO Courier, 2019(3). Retrieved from https://en.unesco.org/courier

Longobardi, P., Montenegro, A., Beltrami, H., & Eby, M. (2016). Deforestation Induced Climate Change: Effects of Spatial Scale. PLoS ONE, 11(4), e0153357. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153357

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The deforestation of Amazon forest showed the sharp contradiction between economic development and climate action. Analyzing this issue from the perspective of ethics, we find that the essence of the problem is the contradiction between capitalism and utilitarianism. The capitalism pursues the interests of a small number of people, while utilitarianism pursues the maximization of the interests for all. In addition, combined with the concept of contractualism, we can find that, as there are more and more new problems in country’s development process, it is difficult to abide by the previous contract forever. In order to achieve SDG 13, these contradictions must be resolved. According to Omar A. G (2023), the international aid is necessary in realizing SDG goals. In the future, in-depth analysis of reasonable international aid methods will be of great value for the achievement of SDG goals.

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The ethical challenges of climate change

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“The ethical challenges of climate change”

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“The ethical challenges of climate change”

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In the magazine "The ethical challenges of climate change" by the UNESCO Courier (2019), the authors explore the lesser-known attitude to ethical problem and economic development. The articles mentioned Mendeleev's prophetic warnings against the monopolization and overexploitation of natural resources, which remain relevant in the context of modern environmental challenges, especially in the context of Amazon forest zone.

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According to the UNSDG website, the goal of SDG 13 is to "Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts by regulating emissions and promoting renewable energy." This includes strengthening resilience and adaptive capacity, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and promoting renewable energy. Achieving SDG 13 is crucial for the sustainability of our planet and the well-being of future generations.

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“Critical transitions in the Amazon forest system”

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“Critical transitions in the Amazon forest system”

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The article “Critical transitions in the Amazon forest system” was published on Nature in 2024. The authors include Bernardo M. Flores, Encarni Montoya, Boris Sakschewski, etc. The study focuses on analyzing the negative impact of the Amazonian forests’ deforestation.

The Amazon forest was originally of great importance. It contains over 10% of Earth's terrestrial biodiversity and stores carbon equivalent to 15 - 20 years of global CO2 emissions. However, it now faces a risk of collapse. About 17% of the remaining forest area has been degraded by human activities like logging, and slash-and-burn practices and increasing fires due to rainfall variability also contribute to its degradation.

The affected forest has a significant impact on the climate. As the forest degrades and experiences mass mortality, it accelerates climate change through carbon emissions and feedbacks with the climate system. Also, there would be more CO2 emission due to the fire.

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The operates under capitalism is termed a profit or market system (Shaw et al., 2020). The actions of people in the Amazon region are just under this system: In order to increase the area of cultivation and thus increase profits, they cut down and burn trees. At the same time, in order to reduce costs, they do not invest in environmental protection equipment or spend money on climate protection. However, according to Shaw, this capitalist approach will only benefit a small number of people. This reflects the huge damage to the environment caused by the excessive pursuit of profits in capitalism.

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Deforestation Induced Climate Change: Effects of Spatial Scale

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“Deforestation Induced Climate Change: Effects of Spatial Scale”

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“Deforestation Induced Climate Change: Effects of Spatial Scale”

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In the study by Longobardi et al. (2016), the authors utilize a global climate model to investigate the impact of deforestation on climate change across different spatial scales and latitudes. They find that deforestation in high latitudes leads to a decrease in global surface air temperature (SAT), while low latitude deforestation results in warming. The research highlights the complex interactions between soil carbon dynamics and other climate subsystems in response to land cover change, emphasizing the importance of understanding these relationships to address climate change effectively.

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森林砍伐导致气候问题 further

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The deforestation of the Amazon region is not conducive to the realization of SDG 13. This climate-damaging practice has a negative impact on climate action. It also makes us realize that many SDGs are actually contradictory. For example, for some underdeveloped regions of Africa, SDG 8 (economic growth) seems to be a more urgent goal. However, it is very likely to pose a threat to the climate if the country wants to develop the economy in a short term.

As a result, we cannot force less-developed regions to stop economic development in order to protect the environment, because this is inhumane. A more effective way is, let some developed countries to provide assistance to developing countries so that they can achieve economic development at a lower environmental cost. For example, some countries with mature technologies can provide them with soilless cultivation techniques, environmental protection equipment, etc. In this way, less countries will damage the climate, and the world will also become more united.

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Contractualism is fundamentally about acting according to what would be agreed by rational agents (Le Pargneux et al., 2024). If we apply contractualism to the example of the Amazon region, we need to criticize some countries for breaking the contract. This is because, in the Amazon rainforest, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and many other countries signed the United Nations Climate Convention in the 20th century. In essence, the contracts between countries are to clarify the responsibilities and obligations of different countries, and all countries should abide by them. However, it is clear that those countries in Amazon region are not fully fulfilling their commitments by protecting the climate. Therefore, maybe we need more monitoring methods or other solutions.