Anthropogenic climate change threatens humanity as a whole, making its mitigation a matter of pressing concern. Mitigation efforts at the institutional level are necessary to successfully change the course of climate change, but thus far governments and industries have been ineffective at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A point of philosophical contention is whether individuals have a moral responsibility to reduce their own emissions given the lack of institutional action. I argue that they do by redefining climate change as a collective impact. Individual emitters share collective responsibility for that impact, which translates to an individual duty to reduce their contribution.

人为的气候变化威胁到整个人类，使其缓解成为迫切需要关注的问题。要成功改变气候变化的过程，必须在机构一级进行缓解工作，但是迄今为止，政府和行业在减少温室气体排放方面一直没有效果。哲学上的争论点是，由于缺乏机构行为，个人是否负有减少自己排放物的道德责任。我认为，它们是通过将气候变化重新定义为集体影响来实现的。个体排放者对此影响负有集体责任，这转化为减少其贡献的个体责任。