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Libertarianism and Climate Change Libertarianism and Climate Change Olle Torpman Academic dissertation for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Practical Philosophy at Stockholm University to be publicly defended on Thursday 26 May 2016 at 10.00 in hörsal 3, hus B, Universitetsvägen 10 B. Abstract In this dissertation, I investigate the implications of libertarian morality in relation to the problem of climate change. This problem is explicated in the first chapter, where preliminary clarifications are also made. In the second chapter, I briefly explain the characteristics of libertarianism relevant to the subsequent study, including the central non-aggression principle. In chapter three, I examine whether our individual emissions of greenhouse gases, which together give rise to climate change, meet this principle. I do this based on the assumption that we are the legitimate owners of the resources we use in those activities. In the fourth chapter, I question this assumption and scrutinize libertarianism’s restrictions on appropriations of climate-relevant resources, which leads me to distinguish between some different versions of the libertarian view. Toward the end of the chapter, I also examine libertarianism’s answer to the political question regarding how emission rights should be distributed. The fifth chapter investigates libertarianism’s verdicts for mere risks of infringement, as stemming from people’s emissions and acts of appropriations. In chapter six, I investigate the libertarian right to self-defense against both the effects of climate change and other people’s climate-relevant activities. In chapter seven, I discuss two intergenerational issues related to climate change: what libertarianism says concerning future generations and how libertarianism might deal with the problem of historical emissions. The eighth chapter explores the implications of libertarianism regarding collective moral wrongdoing in connection to climate change. In chapter nine, I take a look at the libertarian room for governmental responses for tackling climate change. The tenth and final chapter is a summary. The overall conclusion of the dissertation is that libertarianism recommends that we reduce our emissions and decrease our extraction of natural resources such as forests and fossil fuels. Furthermore, governments are permitted to undertake some quite substantial actions in order to fight the causes of climate change. I end with some bottom-up reflections on what these conclusions might say about the plausibility of libertarianism. I claim that although libertarianism after all manages to explain some of our moral intuitions regarding climate change, it is questionable whether libertarianism’s explanation is better than those offered by alternative moral theories. Keywords: libertarianism, self-ownership, rights, individualism, emissions, climate change, boundary-crossing, infringement, compensation, rectification, appropriation, self-defense, future generations. Stockholm 2016 http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-128935 ISBN 978-91-7649-410-3 Department of Philosophy Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm LIBERTARIANISM AND CLIMATE CHANGE Olle Torpman Libertarianism and Climate Change Olle Torpman © Olle Torpman, Stockholm University 2016 ISBN 978-91-7649-410-3 Printed in Sweden by Holmbergs, Malmö 2016 Distributor: Department of Philosophy, Stockholm University Table of Contents Preface ....................................................................................................................... iii 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 1.1. The Scientific and Political Background of Climate Change ........................................... 1 1.2. The Relevance of Ethics to Climate Change .................................................................... 3 1.3. Why Investigate Libertarianism’s implications for Climate Change? .............................. 5 1.4. Some Terminological Clarifications and the Plan of this Dissertation ............................. 7 2. The Basics of Libertarianism ............................................................................ 10 3. Emissions of Greenhouse Gases ........................................................................ 18 3.1. Do our Emissions Cross People’s Boundaries? .............................................................. 18 3.2. Do our Emissions Cross People’s Boundaries without their Consent? .......................... 23 3.3. Are our Emissions Justified for Independent Reasons? .................................................. 26 3.4. Concluding the Chapter .................................................................................................. 30 4. Appropriation of Climate-Relevant Resources ................................................. 31 4.1. Climate-Relevant Resources and the Issue of Appropriation ......................................... 31 4.2. Lockean Libertarianism .................................................................................................. 36 4.3. Left-Libertarianism ......................................................................................................... 40 4.4. Right-Libertarianism ....................................................................................................... 48 4.5. A Libertarian Allocation of Emission Rights? ................................................................ 55 4.6. Concluding the Chapter .................................................................................................. 57 5. Risks Related to Climate Change ...................................................................... 59 5.1. Libertarian Ways to Account for Risk-Exposures .......................................................... 60 5.2. Concluding the Chapter .................................................................................................. 65 6. Self-Defense Regarding Climate Change ......................................................... 67 6.1. Acting in Self-Defense against Aggressors .................................................................... 68 6.2. Acting in Self-Defense against Innocents ....................................................................... 71 6.3. Concluding the Chapter .................................................................................................. 77 7. Intergenerational Climate Issues ....................................................................... 79 7.1. Reproduction and Future Generations ............................................................................ 79 7.2. The Problem of Historical emissions .............................................................................. 87 7.3. Summary of the Chapter ................................................................................................. 94 i 8. Collective Action and Shared Moral Wrongdoing ........................................... 96 8.1. Shared Wrongdoing in Virtue of Agreement .................................................................. 96 8.2. Shared Wrongdoing in Virtue of Causal Contribution ................................................... 98 8.3. Shared Wrongdoing in Virtue of Implicit Authorization .............................................. 102 8.4. Concluding the Chapter ................................................................................................ 105 9. Governmental Climate Responses ................................................................... 106 9.1. The Libertarian Room for Governmental Interventions in General ............................. 106 9.2. Governmental Interventions against Climate-Relevant Activities ................................ 111 9.3. Concluding the Chapter ................................................................................................ 115 10. Conclusions of the Dissertation .................................................................... 116 10.1. Summary ..................................................................................................................... 116 10.2. Bottom Up: Implications for the Plausibility of Libertarianism ................................. 120 Svensk sammanfattning ........................................................................................... 125 References ............................................................................................................... 131 ii Preface In October 2013, my friend and colleague Daniel Ramöller told me about a graduate course on libertarianism. It was to be given at Lund University at the end of the month. I decided to join Daniel and successfully applied to the course. At the day of our departure to Lund, however, a technical problem had me stuck in the subway on my way to the train station in Stockholm. And once I arrived there, the train to Lund departed right before my eyes. I tried to get on board, but the doors were locked. Daniel was waving from inside the train, leaving me and Stockholm for Lund and libertarianism. I was upset and decided to cancel my enrollment in the course. Luckily, however, Daniel persuaded me over the phone to give it one more try. If he had not done that, I would most certainly never have written this – or perhaps any – dissertation. In- deed, prior to October 2013, the draft to my dissertation was nothing but a mishmash of notes on topics such as moral uncertainty, ethical subjectivism, environmental pragmatism, the value of humanity’s
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