Global Warming, Seat Reclining, and the Commons
This article frames the global warming in terms of a problem with our understanding of the commons, and grounds it in the example of someone who leans their own chair too far back on a plane, not considering the larger ramifications to the people sitting behind them. Sirota, the author, is a progressive nationally syndicated columnist and deserves to be read widely. Here is a brief excerpt:
The seat recliner uses the public domain -- in this case, space -- and we have gotten used to using as much of that domain as we can, not just on planes but everywhere. This is our destructive "me" culture: Anything we want in the public sphere, we take or use, with little regard for the overall ramifications......Just like you are assessed no additional fee to lean your airplane chair back and set off a chain reaction of reclining and cabin-wide discomfort, we are assessed no additional fee when we pump carbon dioxide into the air and help wreak planet-wide destruction.
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I meant I have a comment.
Right back at you!
Yeah-- I thought of the SUV argument when I read this. It goes--well the government can't infringe on my rights to buy an SUV and individuals can be left to make their own choices.
The problem is the individual choice here threatens the majority. I think this discussion shortcircuits the consumer as king argument, and forces us to think in terms of the common, the mutual, the interdependent.
New! I liked the article and have a question
I travel by air at least once or twice a year and found the analogy of the reclining seat weak. Passengers actually do pay for a reclining seat. The only passenger that gets a bad deal is the passenger in the last seat of the plane that cannot recline.
Tip of the hat to my Ohio friend,
Chuck