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So, this is rather a simple question to ask but a complex one too:

'If you don't like the smog, move out of California' is Peikoff's response to the 'Not In My Back Yard' group, who complain about pollution yet choose to live in the city. But what about actions which happen in the city, or in many cities, but effect the whole world? Can one even apply 'legality' to situations like that?

I'm thinking, obviously, of the AGW claim, whatever it even means. For the purposes of argument, let's suppose, rather than the rather vague, 'Human actions will cause some kind of change to the environment creating some kind of negative effect for everyone', that it means, I dunno, that sea levels will rise or something. India will be flooded because we all drive SUVs.

What can we say, legally or morally about this? Can we, first, apply legality to what a group of individuals do? And what about the fact that in India, they must produce pollution if they are to greatly industrialise too?

But abstracting it more away from what India is or is not also doing - what can we say about the collective actions of a large group of people, that create environmental changes which are not necessarily bad but which still cause disruption to human lives. Now, mass flooding is no minor disruption, but if AGW were causing India to flood in ever greater amounts each year, could anyone be held responsible, or would it be right to say that they should just adapt and move, as the environment will change with time, whether we cause it to change or not?

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