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Blackstone's Argument Essay

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Blackstone argued that humans have a right to fulfill their capacities as free and rational beings, and a livable environment is vital to such fulfillment. In other words, Blackstone believed that the possession of a livable environment is something to which every human being has a right to. A weakness of this theory is that it fails to provide any nuanced guidance on several pressing environmental choices. The lack of nuance in the absolute rights approach is problematic when the costs of removing certain amounts of pollution are high in comparison to the benefits that will be attained. Additionally, his theory can lead to absolute bans on pollution, even when the costs far outweigh the benefits. Utilitarianism help answer some of the difficulties …show more content…

Another consideration is to save or ration the natural resources for a later use. In the book, it is stated that it appears that we have an obligation to conserve resources for future generations because they have an equal right to the limited resources of this planet. If future generations have an equal right to the world’s resources, then by depleting these resources, we are taking what is theirs and violating their right to these resources. There are three arguments in regards to future generations’ rights. The first argument is that future generations do not now exist and may never exist, so they shouldn’t have rights. The second argument is that if future generations have rights, then the present must be sacrificed for the future. And the third argument is that because we do not know what interests future generations will have, we cannot say what rights they have. Additionally, John Rawls argues that it is unjust to impose heavy burdens on present generations for the sake of the future, it is also unjust for present generations to leave nothing for the future. Other countries do not have the same claim to resources as the U.S. For example, the United States, European nations, and Japan are among the world’s richest developed nations and the highest consumers of energy. The 6 percent of the world’s population that lives in the United States consumes 25 percent of the world’s annual energy supplies. The 50 percent of the world’s people who inhabit less-developed nations must get along with about 8 percent of its energy supplies. Each person in the United States consumes 15 times more energy than a native South American, 24 times more than a native Asian, and 31 times more than a native

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