Donald A. Brown is director of the Pennsylvania Consortium for Interdisciplinary Environmental Policy and former program manager for United Nations Organizations at the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of International Environmental Policy.

Drawing on his own deeply American conscience, Don Brown has put America's indifference to the climate crisis into its most essential context—human ethics. As American Heat illustrates, our response to global warming is corroding our most cherished values. With so much of the debate focused on science and economics, Brown forces us to confront what we are doing to our poor neighbors around the world, to our species at home and, ultimately, to our own children.

• Part 1 Preliminary MattersChapter 2 Absence of Ethical ConcernChapter 3 History of U.S. Participation in Global Warming NegotiationsChapter 4 Environmental Ethics and Global Warming PolicyChapter 5 Global Warming, Ethics, and Foreign PolicyChapter 6 What Is At Stake? Global Warming's Threat to Human Health and the EnvironmentChapter 7 Uncertainty in the Scinece of Climate ChangePart 8 Ethical Analysis of U.S. Excuses for Lack of Action on Global WarmingChapter 9 The Ethical Duty to Reduce Emission in the Face of Scientific Uncertainty about Global Warming ConsequencesChapter 10 U.S. Obligation to Act Even if the Developing World Does NotChapter 11 Ethical Issues Entailed by the Use of Cost-Benefit Analysis—Based Arguments Made In Oppositition to U.S. Greenhouse Gas Reduction ProgramsChapter 12 Ethical Problems With the U.S. Insistence on Its View of the Kyoto Flexibility MechanismsPart 13 Other Global Warming Ethical IssuesChapter 14 An Equitable Allocation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions among NationsChapter 15 Ethical Dimensions of a Greenhouse Gas Atmospheric Stabilization TargetChapter 16 Conclusion: Some Additional IssuesChapter 17 Glossary