Mainstream environmental groups legitimize pollution by litigating marginal measures

Evidence

Grassroots environmentalists were distrustful both of government officials and of the businesses that they believed were locating a disproportionate number of polluting facilities in minority communities. Local environmental activists made accusations of “environmental racism” and made claims for “environmental justice,” with the latter ultimately becoming their rallying cry. However, these groups were similarly suspicious of the national environmental organizations. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 550 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Social and moral justifications in the environmental domain are designed to confer moral legitimacy on harmful practices by investing them with worthy purposes. These justifications take a variety of forms: gaining societal benefits or economic advantages in the competitive global marketplace, strengthening national security, protecting the free enterprise system, and curbing intrusive government. National, constitutional, and economic justifications also do heavy duty in promoting production processes that are hazardous to the environment and to human health (White, Bandura, & Bero, 2009). The benefits that industries depict usually are accompanied by dire warnings of the costs to society and human well-being were those practices subjected to governmental regulation or halted altogether. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2630 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Environmental-justice demands originated partly as critique of mainstream environmental groups — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 550; Worthy-purpose framing legitimizes environmentally harmful practices — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2630; Environmental harm is legitimized by framing it as serving national and economic goods (+2 more)

Related

• Worthy-purpose framing legitimizes environmentally harmful practices (similarity 0.86)
• Environmental-justice demands originated partly as critique of mainstream environmental groups (similarity 0.86)
• Environmental harm is legitimized by framing it as serving national and economic goods (similarity 0.84)
• Environmentalists assumed pollution laws would help the poor but never verified it (similarity 0.84)
• Pollution control captures harm at one site only to relocate it onto minority communities (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Environmental-justice demands originated partly as critique of mainstream environmental groups #qualifies (0.85) — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 550
• Worthy-purpose framing legitimizes environmentally harmful practices #expands (0.80) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2630
• Environmental harm is legitimized by framing it as serving national and economic goods #expands (0.75)