Most people have protested in the world today with the need of urging the government to change some areas that deserve it. In some cases, the protests may take a negative turn leading to violence. Civil disobedience, which is defined as the disobedience of the law intentionally due to various moral beliefs and principles as well. As a result, there could be non-violent civil disobedience protests. Importantly, civil disobedience is a crime that differs from that whereby an individual commits a crime intentionally. Civil disobedience is a term that first originated following the works of Henry David (Ostas, 2010). The author used the term in one of his writings claiming that he would not pay the tax that was used to fund the war against Mexico in the year 1848. Therefore, this paper focuses on civil disobedience on the civil rights, and the act is justified by the natural law.
The year 2015 had huge impacts on the climate change as it was the hottest year in the history of the world. As a result, the need to act due to the changing climate became urgent. Protests were held for 12 days leading to the unpredicted crisis in the fossil fuel industry due to lowered sales. Most people called for a new climate deal that would give rise to an eventual change in the declining climatic conditions. The move was justifiable since the transition to a clean energy system should be done with immediate effect. Most of the environmental activists and the concerned individuals that were committed to addressing the problem of climate change globally united to put pressure required in the maintenance of force energy providers and implementing policies that will aid in the transition from the use of fossil fuels to clean energy.
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In the world today, most individuals are providing the required leadership by intensifying various actions by civil disobedience worldwide. Besides that, so many activities require being undertaken to solve the problem of the declining climatic conditions. The civil disobedience went to the extent of urging the governments of a variety of states to fail to adhere to the Paris agreement. For the problem of the climate crisis to be solved in an effective manner, most industries should stop using the fossil fuels while the infrastructure should be replaced with the renewable energy that is cheap and clean as well. The civil disobedience aimed at ensuring that states stop harnessing coal, gas, and oil but instead focus on the renewable energy. In the United States of America, the mass action targeted six key areas concerning the development of fossil fuels. Some of the targeted areas include the tar sands pipeline located in the Midwest, the northern Seattle pollution caused by the Shell refinery and the oil drilling conducted in Los Angeles amongst others.
Further, during the civil disobedience, the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) will hold an auction on the fossil fuels with over 100 people urging the manufacturers to keep the fuels on the ground in Denver. Most people during the civil disobedience showed they are concerned in the Shell and the Torso areas of refining oil in the North of Seattle. They claim that the oil harnessing is the largest and an unaddressed source of air pollution in the area and the world as well. Therefore, most of the Protestants gathered in the area to urge the manufacturers to quit harnessing and refining the oil but find other alternative means as this leads to air pollution that has destroyed the global climate (Scheuerman, 2015). On the contrary, in Albany, the bomb trains using crude oil pollute the air in the community contributing to as dangerous climatic change. Thus, most of the activists gathered for a massive action that would help in stopping the dangerous trains from further destruction of the environment.
By the year 2016, My 14, most activists were disappointed with the harnessing of hazardous fuel in California and protested urging the manufacturers to result to renewable sources of energy. Most states in the United States of America endure the threats of the harnessing of the fossil fuels. As a result, on the may 14th, thousands of the residents staged protests demanding a ban on the urban drilling. Los Angeles is a community that is highly polluted since it contains the largest urban oil field in the world today. Thus, most of the residents and activists have targeted the state largely encouraging the ban on the fossil fuels.
The acts mentioned above are acts of civil disobedience since most governments have accepted the process of harnessing of fossil fuels in most of the countries in the world. However, most citizens are not satisfied with the increased use of fossil fuels due to the resulting changes in climate (Bulman-Pozen & Pozen, 2015). As a result, the disappointment led the environmental activists along with other willing citizens to protests against the government's decisions encouraging the use of alternative sources of energy that are not hazardous to the atmosphere. The acts of civil disobedience can be justified by the theories of the natural law. The natural law gives an account of the effects of the first principles of practical reasoning on the morality being considered through the integral directiveness. Notably, the integral directiveness is an articulation of various principles such loving a person as one loves him or herself and doing to others what one would have preferred done to them. The case of the harnessing of fossil fuels has resulted in profits, but it has severe consequences that cannot be changed or reversed. As a result, the extensive use of the fossil fuels is against the moral principles that claim that either the actions carried out by a community or an individual should bring in a greater good for the community. Instead, the harnessing of the fossil fuels results is destructive and causes more harm than good. Therefore, the actions or protests taken by the environmental activists are civil disobedience that can be justified by the natural law.
In conclusion, this paper focuses on civil disobedience. One example of civil disobedience given in this article is the protests held globally urging the government to ban the use of fossil fuels in the world today. Civil disobedience, which is defined as the transgression of the law intentionally due to various moral beliefs and principles as well. As a result, there could be non-violent civil disobedience protests. Importantly, civil disobedience is a crime that differs from that whereby an individual commits a crime intentionally. The civil disobedience protests against the use of fossil fuels took place in early 2016 because of the reports of the fact that the year 2015 was the hottest year recorded in history. Importantly, those protests can be justified by the natural law, which governs actions that are based on morality and its principles. The natural law gives an account of the effects of the first principles of practical reasoning on the morality being considered through the integral directiveness, which is an articulation of various principles such loving a person as one loves him or herself and doing to others what one would have preferred done to them. The case of the harnessing of fossil fuels has resulted in profits, but it has severe consequences that cannot be changed or reversed.
References
Bulman-Pozen, J., & Pozen, D. E. (2015). Uncivil Obedience. Columbia Law Review , 115 (4), 809-872.
Ostas, D. T. (2010). Civil Disobedience in a Business Context: Examining the Social Obligation to Obey Inane Laws. American Business Law Journal , 47 (2), 291-312. doi:10.1111/j.1744-1714.2010.01095.x
Scheuerman, W. E. (2015). Recent Theories of Civil Disobedience: An Anti-Legal Turn?. Journal Of Political Philosophy , 23 (4), 427-449. doi:10.1111/jopp.12055
