Libertarianism and climate change

Libertarianism is a political philosophy that champions individual rights and is suspicious of government restrictions on private property. Many libertarians are skeptical of the scientific basis of belief in anthropogenic climate change. Other libertarians endorse the scientific claims but favor voluntary private-sector efforts at mitigation and adaptation.

Background

Libertarianism is a political philosophy rooted in individual liberty. It stands in contrast to other political philosophies that place the interests of the nation, state, or other collective group above the interests of the individuals composing the group. There is no list of beliefs shared by all libertarians, though they generally oppose the Drug War and military draft, while favoring large tax and spending cuts. The libertarian position is often described as conservative on economic issues and liberal on social issues, but its proponents believe that libertarianism represents a consistent defense of individual freedoms against government encroachment.

Strains of Libertarianism

Historically, many different political philosophies have embraced the term libertarian. Some libertarians do not have strict rules limiting state power but generally favor reducing the size of government in most areas. Economist Milton Friedman (1912-2006) falls into this camp. Another group of libertarians are principled minarchists, who believe that the only legitimate role for the government is to provide judicial, police, and military services for its citizens. The novelist Ayn Rand (1905-1982) was a famous minarchist libertarian.

Other self-described libertarians are more radical anarcho-capitalists, who call for the abolition of the modern state and the privatization of all legitimate government services, including defense from foreign invasion. Economists Murray Rothbard and David Friedman are anarcho-capitalist theorists. Finally, there are libertarians who reject the system of capitalism as it exists today and believe that private property rights can lead to unjust power relations among the capitalists and the common workers. Pierre Proudhon (1809-1865) and Emma Goldman (1869-1940) are examples. However, in modern American political debate, libertarianism is usually associated with support for private property and laissez-faire capitalism.

Libertarianism and the Environment

In mainstream political debate, the libertarian position is often associated with the “pro-economy” forces and opposed to the “pro-environment” groups. For example, if there is a conflict between the livelihood of loggers and the natural habitat of the spotted owl, most libertarians would typically support the former. Despite this tendency, many libertarians embrace defense of the environment but believe that market solutions are more effective than government regulations. Such free market environmentalists argue that air and water pollution are not examples of market failure but rather government failure. Free market environmentalists argue that under the common law, a factory dumping chemicals into a river could be prosecuted by the homeowners living downstream. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, however, British and American courts often threw out lawsuits against big businesses, in order to promote industry.

Libertarians explain environmental abuses using the economics concept of the tragedy of the commons, defined in the essay “The Tragedy of the Commons” (1968) by Garrett Hardin. Historically, when pastureland was treated as common property, herders would routinely allow their animals to overgraze the land, because any individual’s restraint would simply allow another herder’s animals to eat more grass. Only the introduction of private property boundaries (and barbed wire in the United States) eliminated harmful overgrazing. Likewise, libertarians often recommend the introduction of well-defined property rights as solutions to overfishing, water shortages, air pollution, and other environmental problems typically blamed on capitalism.

Libertarianism and Climate Change

In the political debate concerning anthropogenic climate change, most libertarians are skeptical of government solutions, which often involve new government powers and hundreds of billions of dollars. Many libertarians have embraced criticisms of the scientific evidence for anthropogenic climate change, especially as the consensus view is promulgated by a worldwide coalition of governments, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This group of libertarians does not believe continued carbon emissions pose any serious threat and therefore opposes new taxes or regulations because they would impose economic damages with no corresponding benefit.

A smaller but growing group of libertarians endorses the scientific evidence of anthropogenic global warming but supports voluntary, private-sector measures to address the problem. Many in this group rely on the public choice school of economic thought, which demonstrates that democratic systems often lead to unintended consequences. Even if climate change is a serious threat, these libertarians believe, politicians cannot be trusted to implement effective solutions. Instead, they argue that unfettered economic growth will allow mankind to adapt to rising sea levels, higher temperatures, and other possible changes. They also believe that if the situation requires it, the market can provide more extreme remedies such as solutions (mirrors in space, aerosols released into the atmosphere, and so on). Some libertarians argue that by knowingly engaging in greenhouse gas emissions without offsetting them, corporations and individuals violate libertarianism's nonaggression principle, which violates the rights of other people on the planet. For this reason, they oppose allowing greenhouse gas emissions to continue unchecked.

Finally, there are some libertarians who believe the nature of requires a political remedy. Such libertarians usually favor a revenue-neutral approach, in which the revenues raised from a newcarbontax, or from auctioning carbon permits, are used to reduce preexisting taxes.

Context

There has always been a strong emphasis on individual liberty and suspicion of bureaucratic government in American politics. Since Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s, Republican politicians have generally presented themselves as advocates of fewer taxes and regulations on business. Democrats, in contrast, have generally focused on protecting the rights of minority groups and others with little political power against abuses from employers, the police, and other powerful groups. In modern political debate, libertarians have combined both elements of this suspicion of government, emphasizing the freedom of the individual in both the marketplace and public arena. Because most of the proposed remedies for anthropogenic climate change involve more money and power for the federal government, many libertarians have been very skeptical of the growing calls for government-directed mitigation efforts.

Key Concepts

• geoengineering: the intentional production of large-scale changes to the Earth in order to promote human welfare
• laissez-faire: an antiregulation policy that allows markets to operate free of government interference
• private property: an institution through which legal rights to most or all tangible economic possessions are assigned to individual owners
• revenue neutrality: an approach to fiscal policy in which new taxes (such as carbon taxes) are tied with dollar-for-dollar reductions in other taxes, in order to keep the total tax burden constant
• tragedy of the commons: a term describing the perverse collective outcome of self-interested behavior in the absence of property rights

Bibliography

Adler, Jonathan H., ed. Ecology, Liberty, and Property: A Free Market Environmental Reader. Washington, D.C.: Competitive Enterprise Institute, 2000.

Anderson, Terry L., and Donald R. Leal, eds. Free Market Environmentalism. New York: Palgrave, 2001.

Boaz, David. Libertarianism: A Primer. New York: Free Press, 1997.

Dolan, Edwin. “Science, Public Policy, and Global Warming: Rethinking the Market-Liberal Position.” Cato Journal 26, no. 3 (Fall, 2006): 445-468.

Torpman, Olle. "Libertarianism, Climate Change, and Individual Responsibility." Res Publica, 2022, doi.org/10.1007/s11158-021-09514-3. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.

Rothbard, Murray. “Law, Property Rights, and Air Pollution.” Cato Journal 2, no. 1 (Spring, 1982): 55-99.