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irrational comments on Not By Empathy Alone - Less Wrong
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I think destruction of the environment, even unpopulated, is indeed not a victimless crime, since it can have various external consequences.
Indeed. Destruction of an environment, in a way that will never affect directly (because they would visit it and delight on the view) or indirectly (because it purifies the air they breath) any sentient being (humans, transhumans or aliens) doesn't call any strong moral judgment to me.
The only reason for which I would make a moral judgment in that case is because I do have a limited form of empathy towards animals, not as strong as towards humans, but that empathy towards animals makes me judge as unethical the destruction of their environment. But then, it's again empathy.
Yeah, there's a distinction there that seems to have gotten lost. Nuking the moon seems about as good an example of environmental destruction without short-term externalities as I can think of, and indeed it doesn't trigger the same moral instincts in me as, say, nuking a national park would.
That doesn't seem to bear directly on the OP's main point, but a lot of the other supporting examples seem to show similarly sloppy reasoning.
Thanks for the link; I didn't know about Project A119. Probably a good thing they didn't do it, though.