To what extent should governments be responsible for conserving

the environment?
Thesis:
While environmental degradation and environmental
protection is not the sole responsibility of any entity, governments
hold unique moral responsibilities for the conservation of the
environment.
P1:

Environmental conservation is essential for human welfare.

People entrust governments to protect them and uphold their

welfare.
o Eg: Governments establish armies and healthcare systems
to protect people and ensure a minimum living standard
by which individuals live by.

Climate change is a very serious threat to human welfare.

o Average global sea level is expected to rise 7 23
inches before the end of this century. This is especially
dangerous because half of the worlds population lives
within 37 miles of the sea, and three-quarters of all large
cities are located on the coast. Climate change could
displace up to 250 million people by 2050, according to a
UNCHR report.

Two-thirds of the state is experiencing extreme drought,

and 2013 was the driest year ever recorded in the state of
California. The historic drought has been devastating for
Californias crops.

Changes in weather patterns will mean more hurricanes

and cyclones in the Caribbean, the United States and
Burma, more extensive droughts in eastern Africa,
Australia, southern Europe and parts of China and India,
as well as more devastating floods like those in Pakistan
(in 2010), Brazil and Australia (in 2011), and other parts of
the world

Environmental conservation is the only way to prevent this.

o Sealing off large tracts of land for conservation ensures
that vulnerable ecosystems, such as the Everglades, are
protected from environmental damage in the short-term.
o

P2:

Eg: Environmental policies such as subsidising and

encouraging renewable energy can open research into a
technological revolution which reduces the necessity for
pollutive sources of energy, reducing environmental
damage in the future.

Governments
environment.

are

uniquely

capable

of

conserving

the

Governments are held to unique moral standards because they

are collective entities representing the interest of citizens in
society.
o We grant governments a large scale of powers, eg the
ability to collect taxes, because society entrusts them to
do what is good for them as a whole.
o Consequently, the most effective way of organising a
government is to establish governments as large
collective entities with a full spectrum of powers, with the
ability to implement wide-ranging measures with large
scope and scale.

Government actions influence entire countries. The scope and

scale of government action in conserving the environment is
massive, compared to the initiatives by other smaller entities,
such as individual citizens or community groups.
o Eg: Government policies can regulate corporations and
stop
corporations
from
environmentally-pollutive
practices. No other actor in society has been granted the
authority to do this.

P3:

Eg: Carbon pricing is an effective, large-scale initiative

that only governments can introduce. It strikes a balance
between the economic necessity for pollution and the
harmful effects of pollution by deterring excessive and
unnecessary pollution.

Eg: Only governments can introduce subsidies on

renewable energy and green technology to encourage
more demand for such sources of energy as opposed to
pollutive ones, such as oil and gas.

Comparative any measure undertaken by companies or

individuals will be limited in scale. Eg IKEA stops giving
consumers plastic bags, but the net impact of fewer
plastic bags for the environment is very limited as
opposed to a government tax on plastic bags to deter
using them.

Given that there is no other equally-effective alternative to

government action in conserving the environment, governments
have a moral obligation to do so.

Governments were complicit in environmental destruction.

Governments have fallen to the temptations of lobbyists of

environmentally-pollutive industries instead of standing up for
the public interest.
o Canada: Canadas oil industry successfully lobbied against
proposed greenhouse gas regulations last spring, arguing
a steeply higher carbon cost would drive away investment
while doing little to reduce emissions or quell criticism of

the oil sands. The Canadian Association of Petroleum

Producers lobbied against the Ottawa provincial
government to introduce a set of targets for carbon
emissions, and against proposed fines if companies
exceeded emission targets.

Governments are not inclined to consider the environmental

impacts of policies when these policies provide political
advantages or economic benefits.
o Keystone-XL Pipeline: The US Government supported the
construction of the Keystone-XL Pipeline for seven years.
There were various serious environmental concerns about
the Keystone-XL pipeline. Not only would it increase the
demand and supply of environmentally-damaging crude
oil supplies, it threatened to pollute rivers and release
large quantities of carbon emissions. A major why the US
Government was so supportive of the Keystone-XL
pipeline was because it was popular with rural
constituents due to the economic opportunities it would
bring in terms of jobs and consumer revenue.

Governments are often expected to right the wrongs that they

have committed in the past.
o Eg: Reparations, Affirmative Action
o Governments have failed in their duty to protect human
well-being, and must be held to account.
o People in current generations suffer the consequences of
past governments actions.

Responsibility of Other Actors

P4:

Corporations and individual actions are also culpable for

environmental degradation and are hence responsible for
environmental conservation.

Companies are arguably the biggest contributors to

environmental degradation.
o Economic activity has been the biggest cause of
environmental degradation since the Industrial Revolution.
o

Eg: Koch Industries has been responsible for many

incidences of pollution. In 2000, the EPA fined Koch
Industries $30 million for its role in 300 oil spills that
resulted in more than three million gallons of crude oil
leaking into ponds, lakes, streams and coastal waters.

Individuals remained oblivious to climate change and its

impacts.
o

Eg: Many people are/were blind to the impacts of climate

change, with Pew surveys suggesting up to 50% of people

believing that climate change was not a major global

problem.
o

P5:

Eg: Many people continue to support environmentallydestructive policies, such as fracking as a form of energy,
even though this increases the risks of earthquakes.

Conclusion
Climate change has occurred because of a convergence of
factors economic necessity, an oblivious public, corporate
greed and government negligence. Environmental conservation
requires the efforts of governments, companies and individuals
as well.
Unique moral obligations we place on governments warrant
placing
the
greatest
responsibility
for
environmental
conservation in the future.