"one atmosphere"

We closed out today with a discussion of Singer's ethical views that seemed to hint at some lingering tensions in his argument, and/or in your views of his argument. Since we never reached resolution, I just want to open up a forumhere where you can add comments if you want to think about this a bit more.

To raise again the key question that we did not resolve: are Singer's ethics correct? Another way of putting this is to ask whether his proposal (p. 43-49, but not the section beginning on p. 49 and after) is indeed fair. This would set aside for the moment any questions about the "practicality" of his proposal, both to simplify the issue and because he does the same in the way he structures the chapter.

Singer calls for everyone to have an "equal per capita share" of entitlement to use the atmospheric "sink". Straight up, let's ask ourselves: is it fair to give every individual on earth the same amount of "right to pollute"? Or should some people get more than others? We seem to get different answers to these two questions when we phrase the question differently.

Most seemed to agree that everyone should get the same allotment, or entitlement. (Of course we can disagree on how big or small that allotment is.) On the other hand, it seemed several people found something intrinsically unfair in the prospect of Americans, Canadians, Europeans, etc., being asked to either cut back on pollution disproportionately or prepare to pay out a bundle to non-polluters in poorer countries. These strike me not as two different issues, but as two sides of the same coin.

Let's examine the source of the unfairness. Is it unfair that a North American only gets the same "right to pollute" as someone from a country where there is little or no industry? (I have used Burkina Faso as the generic example here...). Or is it unfair to give a North American a different entitlement from an African? It seems we need to choose one of these options, but that we cannot have both.

It is certainly possible to disagree with Singer on his ethics -- and many seem to. Let's make sure, however, that we don't call his proposal fair on the one hand, and unfair on the other.

What is fair? WWYD?

As I may have misinterpreted people's reactions today, offer some comments here, if you will...