Jonathan H. Adler (ed.), Climate Liberalism: Perspectives on Liberty, Property and Pollution. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023. 373 pages. USD 139.99 (hardcover)

Across the globe, many significant environmental challenges exist, but man-made climate change may be the most widespread and potentially dangerous. For decades, many scholars, policymakers, and activists have discussed ways to address air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and climate change. However, scholars in the classical-liberal tradition have understudied and underemphasized the issues surrounding climate change. Of course, many classical-liberal scholars have worked on this topic, but a conspicuous gap in the literature remains for such an enormous social issue (for just a few examples, see Adler, 2012; Anderson and Leal, 2015; Jenkins et al., 2020; Ostrom, 2012, 2014).

The edited volume Climate Liberalism: Perspectives on Liberty, Property and Pollution helps to fill this gap. A variety of contributors discuss pollution- and climate-related issues from a classical-liberal perspective using multidisciplinary approaches, including philosophy, law, economics, and political science. The volume is a useful resource for understanding practical approaches for addressing climate change while also focusing on “preserving individual liberty and maintaining a free and dynamic economic marketplace” (p. 2).

Find the full article here.