To what extent am I morally culpable for global warming if I purchase a gas-guzzling sport utility vehicle (SUV) despite what we now know about the damaging effects of fossil fuels? To what degree am I morally responsible for the overfishing of bluefin tuna if I persist in eating gourmet sushi despite the well-documented abuses of tuna-fishing fleets? Even if I replace my SUV with a hybrid or even if I curb my appetite for bluefin tuna, climate change will continue unabated, and bluefin tuna stocks will still be depleted to the point of extinction. After all, I am only one among a multitude of people who sustain the SUV or the bluefin-tuna markets. My individual behavior neither makes a difference in changing the final outcomes nor does it control any of the social dynamics harming the environment or global fish stocks. As the saying goes, “It makes no difference whether or not I do it.” By the autonomy, individual difference, control, and complicity principles, I am not accountable for global warming or the imminent extinction of bluefin tuna.

Moreover, even if we were to assume, for the sake of argument, that I am nevertheless still morally culpable for climate change and overfishing, my actual contribution to these market ills is minute relative to the magnitude of these problems and the mass of people who act similarly. My blameworthiness will be correspondingly minuscule.