Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: The current ecological crisis shows that ecological resources, in particular the capacity of the atmosphere to absorb greenhouse gas emissions, are scarce: all humans want to use more ecological resources than is sustainable, and in fact are doing so. Footnote 1 Since we all need these ecological resources to live our lives well, and since, pre-institutionally, they cannot conceivably be understood as the property of a specific person, the allocation and use of ecological resources are deeply political and hence a matter of distributive justice. But how should we deal with the fact that those among whom the ecological resources are to be fairly distributed are simultaneously the creators of new lives and hence the creators of additional human beings, among whom those scarce ecological resources should be fairly distributed? Should it be morally permissible for a person who refrains from procreating to expend the emissions that they prevent by not procreating on additional consumption activities? Is a person who has no children and claims that therefore he is morally permitted to emit more on these other activities than parents justified in making this claim?
Source: The Journal of Value Inquiry
Author: Ingrid Robeyns
Institution: Utrecht University
Language: English
Subfield: Nature and Landscape Conservation
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,780
OpenAlex ID: W3131781284