The article from The Economist in the url below captures the "tragedy of the commons" element of the climate change problem very effectively. First, a statement of the obvious:
"The vast majority of readers of The Economist would recoil at the idea of stealing from a poor Malian goatherd or a struggling Bangladeshi farmer. Next to none would countenance murdering such a person. They would feel little differently if they committed these crimes as part of a mob, rendering the responsibility diffuse. Nor would they feel much better if their actions were only likely, but not certain, to do blameless strangers serious harm: they would not scatter landmines in a populated area, for instance."
Second, the author extrapolates the metaphor to incorporate the very real nature of climate change:
"How, then, should we think about readers' (and your correspondent's) responsibility for global warming? Almost every human activity involves some emissions of greenhouse gases. Global warming is already harming the livelihoods of many people, including lots of poverty-stricken goatherds and farmers. At the extremes, the increasing frequency and intensity of droughts, floods, storms and heatwaves brought on by global warming is killing people—a tragedy that will get worse as the planet bakes. Are rich Western consumers thus conniving in theft and murder?"
While establishing individual culpability is challenging (and, perhaps, a red herring), it is real in a very tangible way:
"… during the course of their lives, wealthy Western consumers generate a lot of emissions. Estimates of the damage done vary widely, but none concludes it is insignificant."
Specifically?
"In 2011, John Nolt, a philosopher at the University of Tennessee, estimated that a typical American, born in 1960, would be responsible for enough greenhouse gas emissions over his or her lifetime to cause between one and two deaths. John Broome, another philosopher, things the typical Westerner shortens a human life by six months. Either way, it is a grim thought. And that is only the average. Drive a gas-guzzling car, heat or cool a big house or fly a lot and your rap sheet gets worse."
Happy Halloween, everyone.
David
David Chandler
© Sage Publications, 2023
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The Green Man's Burden: The Moral Philosophy of Climate Change
December 23, 2023
The Economist
Late Edition – Final
39-41
