Quico Toro at Persuasion:
I’m a climate activist, but I don’t think climate is the most important thing. Not really.
I care about climate because I care about human flourishing, and an out-of-control climate makes human flourishing very hard. A stable climate is a really important means, but it’s not in itself an end.
That seems like a pretty milquetoast position, but it’s weirdly divisive in climate circles. Much of the climate left seems to want to prioritize climate stability even at the cost of human flourishing. The recently departed Paul Ehrlich (who infamously predicted that the world was facing a “population bomb”) was probably the paradigmatic example of this brand of anti-humanist environmentalism. Anytime you hear people worry about the climate impacts of having children, you’re face to face with this strand of thinking.
That makes no sense to me. I’m for people first, climate stability second.
If your first concern is for human flourishing, the thing to worry about is poverty.
More here.
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