Consumer Social Responsibility, Freedom, and the Environment: Why Protecting Individual Freedom Requires Climate Regulation

Author: William Ham, Graduating PPL Fourth Year, Class of 2024

The degradation of Earth’s natural resources looms large in modern social and political discourse. As the projections of environmental scientists grow more dire, it becomes increasingly obvious that we are approaching a decisive, do-or-die moment in the history of our planet. However, many people, especially Libertarians, oppose climate regulation on the grounds of protecting individual freedom, preferring non-regulatory solutions such as consumer activism. In this paper, I argue that climate regulation is, in fact, more conducive to preserving individual freedom than non-regulatory alternatives and that Libertarians who desire minimal state intervention should, counterintuitively, support formal climate regulation. I also highlight how relying too much on consumer movements such as "vote-with-your-dollar" for climate change mitigation risks having a negative environmental impact by crowding out support for government climate intervention.

Key words: Consumer Responsibility, Climate Change, Climate Regulation, Freedom, Libertarianism

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Below you will find a copy of William's full PPL Senior Thesis:

Ham - Consumer Social Responsibility, Freedom, and the Environment.pdf

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