Torpman, Olle
(2022).
Libertarianism, Climate Change, and Individual Responsibility.
Res Publica. 28
:1
, 125-148
[Research article]
![]() |
PDF
927kB |
Abstract
Much has been written about climate change from an ethical view in general, but less has been written about it from a libertarian point of view in particular. In this paper, I apply the libertarian moral theory to the problem of climate change. I focus on libertarianism's implications for our individual emissions. I argue that (i) even if our individual emissions cause no harm to others, these emissions cross other people's boundaries, (ii) although the boundary-crossings that are due to our 'subsistence emissions' are implicitly consented to by others, there is no such consent to our 'non-subsistence emissions', and (iii) there is no independent justification for these emissions. Although offsetting would provide such a justification, most emitters do not offset their non-subsistence emissions. Therefore, these emissions violate people's rights, which means that they are impermissible according to libertarianism's non-aggression principle.
Authors/Creators: | Torpman, Olle | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Title: | Libertarianism, Climate Change, and Individual Responsibility | ||||||
Series Name/Journal: | Res Publica | ||||||
Year of publishing : | 2022 | ||||||
Volume: | 28 | ||||||
Number: | 1 | ||||||
Page range: | 125-148 | ||||||
Number of Pages: | 24 | ||||||
Publisher: | SPRINGER | ||||||
ISSN: | 1356-4765 | ||||||
Language: | English | ||||||
Publication Type: | Research article | ||||||
Article category: | Scientific peer reviewed | ||||||
Version: | Published version | ||||||
Copyright: | Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 | ||||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||||
Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 6 Humanities > 603 Philosophy, Ethics and Religion > Ethics | ||||||
Keywords: | Libertarianism, Non-aggression principle, Boundary-crossings, Individual emissions, Offsetting, Individual climate responsibility | ||||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-112614 | ||||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-112614 | ||||||
Additional ID: |
| ||||||
ID Code: | 27218 | ||||||
Faculty: | VH - Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science | ||||||
Department: | (VH) > Dept. of Animal Environment and Health | ||||||
Deposited By: | SLUpub Connector | ||||||
Deposited On: | 28 Feb 2022 11:25 | ||||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 28 Feb 2022 11:31 |
Repository Staff Only: item control page