The Environmental Impact of Overpopulation
The Ethics of Procreation
Abstract
This book examines the link between population growth and environmental impact and explores the implications of this connection for the ethics of procreation. In light of climate change, species extinctions, and other looming environmental crises, Trevor Hedberg argues that we have a collective moral duty to halt population growth to prevent environmental harms from escalating. This book assesses a variety of policies that could help us meet this moral duty, confronts the conflict between protecting the welfare of future people and upholding procreative freedom, evaluates the ethical dimensions of individual procreative decisions, and sketches the implications of population growth for issues like abortion and immigration. It is not a book of tidy solutions: Hedberg highlights some scenarios where nothing we can do will enable us to avoid treating some people unjustly. In such scenarios, the overall objective is to determine which of our available options will minimize the injustice that occurs. This book will be of great interest to those studying environmental ethics, environmental policy, climate change, sustainability, and population policy.
Keywords
intergenerational equity; species extinctions; procreation ethics; overpopulation; climate change; Direct Moral Standing; Pursuing Gender Justice; Large Families; Capita GHG Emission; Objective List Theories; Etonogestrel Contraceptive Implants; Global Humanitarian Forum; Replacement Level Fertility; Capita Ecological Footprint; Non-identity Problem; Procreative Autonomy; UN; Procreative Freedom; Current Population Size; Reduce GHG Emission; Violating; Future People; Global GHG Emission; Ecological Footprint; Procreative Choices; Population Reduction; Procreative Activities; Reduce Animal Suffering; Moral Cosmopolitanism; Maximin RuleDOI
10.4324/9781351037020ISBN
9781351037020, 9781138489752, 9781032236766Publisher
Taylor & FrancisPublisher website
https://taylorandfrancis.com/Publication date and place
London, 2020Imprint
RoutledgeSeries
Routledge Explorations in Environmental Studies,Classification
Nature and the natural world: general interest
Applied ecology
Environmental management
Environmental policy and protocols
Climate change