Are we morally required to reduce our carbon footprint independently of what others do?

Abstract

Our civic duty to work towards a political solution to the problem of global warming might also provide us with moral reasons in favour of reducing our carbon footprint in conspicuous ways. The earth’s carbon sinks are an unowned or commonly owned resource. Due to our carbon-intensive lifestyles, the earth’s carbon sinks are overused: they are unable to absorb a sufficient amount of greenhouse gases to keep the earth’s climate stable. The scientific evidence suggests that governments around the globe are urgently required to come together to work out and implement policies that will effectively reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted. The key problem with this way of looking at things is that it does not match the reality of how an increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases leads to the occurrence of harm. Finally, it is possible that at least some harms grow more or less continuously worse as the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere increases.