Climate defensive harm

FRANCISCO GARCÍA GIBSON

Graz

Seminario; Colloquium Practical and Political Philosophy; 2023

University of Graz

Burning fossil fuels emits CO2, contributing to climate change, which kills people (Carleton et al. 2020). A common form of climate political action are occupations of fossil-fuel power stations. These occupations sometimes manage to stop fuel burning for a day or week (2012 UK example, 2016 Germany example). Occupations transgress property rights of station owners, and harm them economically. Philosophers and lawyers often offer a lesser evil justification for these occupations. The claim is that occupations can bring about sound climate policy, which can mitigate climate change and prevent climate deaths; so even though infringing property rights is wrong, it’s not as bad as letting people die from climate change (Tremblay 2013; Long and Hamilton 2018; Rausch 2019).I argue that a personal defence justification is sometimes also available for these occupations