Global Warming, Air Pollution and Libertarianism by Walter Block

I have been asked a series of very interesting, important and challenging questions by a loyal reader of LewRockwell.com who will remain anonymous. My thought is that these queries of his, and my responses to them, might prove to be of interest to the general readership of this web site. My answers follow these marks << and are in italics.

He begins here:The problem I have is Global Warming.Let’s ignore any scientific debate and just accept, for the sake of the argument, that emissions of carbon dioxide cause changes to the climate and those changes cause things like rising sea levels that damage property and could potentially lead to the extinction of mankind on the Earth.<< Ok. I’ll try to deal with this contrary to fact conditional, at least arguendo.I have read your essay “Environmentalism and Economic Freedom: The Case For Private Property Rights”<< Bless you, bless you. Those are the sweetest words an author can read. Here is the full cite on that publication, Block, Walter E. 1998. “Environmentalism and Economic Freedom: The Case for Private Property Rights,” Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 17, No. 6, December, pp. 1887-1899, which can be found here or here.I can see that if I were emitting a pollutant that caused damage to the property of another the case is quite clearly an invasion of property rights and easily dealt with.<< Yes, yes, that is basic libertarian theory regarding trespass.I am not so sure about carbon dioxide. Clearly this is not a pollutant per se and does not cause any direct damage to property. If emitting carbon dioxide onto another’s land was an invasion of property rights then surely we would all have to stop breathing…..

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via Global Warming, Air Pollution and Libertarianism by Walter Block.