Diotima: The Marist Undergraduate Philosophy Journal
binary perspective of seeing the world. One must take a step back and see what impact they will have in the moment as well as the future , which also entails assessing the ramifications of their actions. While cutting down the trees in a rainforest is harming the environment, blowing up the machinery, thus polluting the environment even more with the shards and gasoline left behind, coupled with the anger and aggression this act is surely to stir up in large corporations, may certainly have a worse impact on the environment in the long run. This mentality has been discussed deeply in the philosophical sense of responsibility in regard to climate change. Humans started climate change, so on some level we hold a certain amount of responsibility, but to what extent and at what level does the blame fall? Derek Parfit offers an excellent example of how we should look at our responsibility, defining it as, “It is bad if those who live are worse off than those who might have lived.” 2 “Those” in his statement could be anything from human beings themselves, to members of the natural world, which is why this definition is so well-written: it is all-encompassing. In connection with ecosabotage, those that believe in its morality are only proving that Parfit’s definition will become a reality. The true immoral aspect of ecosabotage is the anger that stems from the action. If ecosabotage is rooted in a sense of responsibility for climate change, and that responsibility is defined by Parfit’s argument, then (1) the person committing ecosabotage cannot harm the environment even if the harm they commit seems as if it is less than what not committing an act of ecosabotage might have, and (2) along the same lines, cannot create any more aggression or anger that will then later cause even more harm done to the environment. Think about it: would it be better for the environment if by committing an act of ecosabotage, the company that owned the machinery that you blew up became irate, started harming the environment even more as a result, and then completely closed off their minds from gaining a deeper understanding of how their actions negatively impact the
2 Derek Parfit, “Energy Policy and the Further Future: The Identity Problem” in Climate Ethics: Essential Readings (Oxford Academic, 2020), 118.
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