MODULE 6: Do our choices matter?

Agenda

1. final review page (under construction)
2. Recycling follow-ups
3. Just one person problem -- Jamieson
4. Preview--for Monday, Hourdequin, another solution to the just one person problem. drawing on Confucian ideas
   

_________________________

Recycling follow ups

• Dallas Recycling Award!
• Republic Services (tours!)
• Plastic has a very low recycling rate (5%)
• Some plastic does get recycled -- milk jugs, detergent bottles, soda bottles
• Paper, glass, and aluminum have much higher recycling rates compared to plastic
  
  
  
  
  
• Collected waste that's not recycled can ....
• go to a landfill
• get exported to poor countries and improperly dumped 
• Reduce, reuse, recycle

_________________________

As just one person, can I make a difference?

CASE 2: RECYCLING COKE CANS

Lots of people recycling coke cans --> far  fewer new cans

One member of this crowd recycling -->  fewer new cans

Yes I can make a difference!

_________________________

Dale Jamieson, Reason in a Dark Time: Why the Struggle Against Climate Change Failed--and What it Means for Our Culture (2014)

CASE 3: REDUCING GHG

• skip Sunday drive
• fly less
• turn down heat and air conditioning
• buy electric car
• ride a bike

Jamieson....

Lots of people do these things --> less warming, less flooding, lives saved 

One member of the crowd doing these things --> less warming, less flooding, lives ??????????

Jamieson's argument questioning individual effectiveness

1. Collectively, mitigation efforts are effective
2. It doesn't automatically follow that my mitigation effort is effective
3. The cumulative model doesn't apply.
4. The threshold model doesn't apply.
5. There aren't any other models. THEREFORE,
6. My mitigation effort may not be effective.

_________________________

The two models

• these are models of the efficacy of one person in a group that has an impact

Cumulative model--"every relevant input produces a relevant output" (Jamieson p. 3)

1. 1000 torturers (let's not contemplate!)
2. Go Fund Me --1000 people give $10 apiece to someone who lost their job and needs living expenses
3. My $10 allows them to buy groceries
4. Applies to coke can recycling
5. Jamieson--atmospheric science rejects this model for mitigation efforts

Threshold model-- "no effect occurs unless a specific level of collective contribution is achieved" (Jamieson p. 3)

1. Go Fund Me -- 1000 people give $10 apiece o someone who needs to buy a car for $10,000
2. I'm the first donor; my $10 doesn't buy anything but gets us closer to the threshold
3. Jamieson--atmospheric science rejects this model for climate change related behaviors

He explains these judgments on p. 4

Jamieson: "For all practical purposes climate change damages are insensitive to individual behavior." (p. 4) 

Note: a simple way of expressing his point is "my effort is just a drop in the ocean, so tantamout to doing nothing"....but he doesn't exactly say that!

_________________________

Suppose my mitigation efforts have no impact. Should I still make the effort?

What would Utilitarians say?

Jamieson:  there are good ethical reasons to make mitigation efforts even if they're not impactful

I. Adding meaning to your life

•     trying adds meaning, even if you don't succeed

II. Virtue matters independent of impact

III. Respect for nature

WORKBOOK