Environmental degradation makes law necessary for the preservation of freedom

Evidence

In a complex world, freedom does not necessarily mean no government control. Paradoxically, law may be needed to maximize freedom. The air people breathed was at one time fresh and clean; nothing much had to be done to keep it that way. Streams ran pure and clear; there seemed to be no end to wildlife, trees, and space, or to oil, gas, and coal. Those times have passed. Air and water pollution can kill. The invisible hand cannot prevent this. Only government can. Whether it does it well, or the right way, is another question. — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law, 1524

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly relevant to the trees/environment theme — law as the mechanism by which a society redresses environmental harm its own abundance once masked.
• XREF: connects to: Environmentalism transformed the content of a dozen unrelated fields of American law — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 28; Environmental harm from innocent aggregate action still reduces freedom — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 632; For social individuals, freedom is a positive relation to the environment — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 3668 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Environmental degradation harms present and future citizens non-arbitrarily #corroborates (0.80) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 630
• Environmental harm from innocent aggregate action still reduces freedom #corroborates (0.78) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 632
• Environmental justice is chiefly a political-economic struggle with law as one tool #expands (0.75) — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up, 333
• For social individuals, freedom is a positive relation to the environment #complicates (0.72) — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 3668