Major polluter inaction gives others moral cover for inaction

Evidence

The three top polluters—China, the United States, and India—are impediments in any path to environmental salvation. To avert further harm to the global climate system, these major polluters must take the lead in devising climate policies that result in substantial reductions in heat-trapping gases. If they do not curb their emissions, others will find justifications for not doing so. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2931

Categorization

• XREF: Directly connects to the vault’s claims about how ordinary people rationalize harmful policy — reciprocal justifications letting everyone disengage. Also echoes the book’s earlier moral-disengagement mechanisms. — connects to: Slow violence’s deferred consequences give polluters profitable cover for inaction — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 109
• ADDENDUM: Links to the sacrifice article’s logic: collective responsibility diffused so no party bears moral weight.