Assignment 9: Conservation and Guardianship
Your Question: What do you think Leopold would say about “Cap and Trade”? Would he agree with its goals and methods? Why or why not?
According to Nathan Keohane on ‘Cap and trade,’ “it is a system designed to reduce pollution in the atmosphere by limiting emissions and putting a price on them” (Keohane 1). The “cap and trade” phenomenon works on the fact that to limit greenhouse gas emissions, the emitting companies are given a certain amount of gas they are allowed to emit over a certain amount of money. Since the cap gets strict over time, the more a company emits, the higher the pay, and therefore, emission goes down as companies seek more efficient production processes as they cut on cost. According to Leopoldo, “an ethic, ecologically, is a limitation on freedom of action in the
Struggle for existence. An ethic may also be regarded as a mode of guidance for meeting ecological situations so new or intricate, or involving such deferred reactions, that the path of social expediency is not discernible to the average individual” (Leopoldo 1-2). Leopoldo argues that an ethic ecologically, for instance, an ethic in the environment, may be regarded as guidance for meeting ecological situations. The cap and trade were set to limit gas emissions, causing an environmental concern of global warming. Therefore, the system provides a limitation to freedom of action from emitting companies by allowing them to emit a specified amount of gases based on the amount they have paid. Therefore, for these reasons that the system provides ethics in the environment and that these gases are treated as property that can be traded, I think Leopoldo would agree with the goals and methods of the “Cap and Trade.” Leopoldo argues that “all ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts. His instincts prompt him to compete for his place in that community, but his ethics prompt him to co-operate” (Leopoldo 2). The cap and trade system requires and enhances the community to cooperate with the environment and not compete, which Leopoldo would agree with.