Climate Change, Liberalism, and the Public/Private Distinction

In an earlier paper (Jamieson and Di Paola 2016) we explored the ways in which anthropogenic climate change and more generally the Anthropocene—this new epoch in which no earthly place, form, entity, process, or system escapes the reach of human activity—puts pressure on some central categories and concepts of liberal democratic theory. In this chapter we focus on one particular distinction that is at the heart of liberal theory: that between the public and the private (henceforth ‘the Distinction’). Our claim is that climate change puts pressure on the Distinction in ways that are difficult for liberals to relieve. Our purpose is not to write an obituary for liberalism, but to articulate some emerging problems and to scout some possible solutions. Liberalism has shown itself to be remarkably resilient, and it may well succeed in rising to these new challenges, even if it is difficult from here to see exactly how. The chapter unfolds as follows. In Section 1 we present some basic facts about climate change and explain the notion of the Anthropocene. In Section 2 we introduce the Distinction and discuss ways in which it has figured in liberal theory. In Section 3 we show how the distinction comes under pressure in the Anthropocene. In Section 4 we consider some options for relieving the pressure. Finally, in Section 5, we draw some conclusions