Volume 45, Issue 4, Winter 2023
ISEE 2022 Special Issue
A. S. Arridge
Pages 403-425
https://doi.org/10.5840/enviroethics202382863
Should We Blow Up a Pipeline?
Ecotage as Other-Defense
Ecotage, or the destruction of property for the sake of promoting environmental ends, is beginning to (re)establish itself both as a topic of public discussion and as a radical activist tactic. In response to these developments, a small but growing academic literature questions whether, and if so under what conditions, ecotage can be morally justified. This paper contributes to the literature by arguing that instances of ecotage are pro tanto justified insofar as they are instances of effective and proportionate self- and/or other-defense. Having elucidated and defended its central claim, this paper concludes by briefly considering some other morally relevant features of ecotage that might tell for or against its overall justification in particular cases.