Token environmental gestures breed complacency and can backfire.

Evidence

However, given the increasing scale of ecological destruction, substituting token gestures for genuine lifestyle changes accomplishes too little too slowly. Moreover, halfhearted measures can instill a sense of complacency that defers the adoption of more fundamental changes. Some practices have unintended harmful consequences. For example, people prefer their cars to public transportation but take comfort in powering their cars with biofuel additives—which, as we have seen, imposes hardships on millions of people who can ill afford rising corn prices. As we also have seen, the contribution of biofuels to reducing carbon emissions was greatly exaggerated because of the large amounts of energy needed to convert plants into biofuels. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2955 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Trivial compliance gestures progressively erode moral resistance — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 258; Token advisory processes can serve as pretense for predetermined siting decisions; Behavioral modulation attempts backfire because the activity itself re-confirms the data relation’s power. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 140 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Good-feeling token environmental gestures substitute for and delay real change #corroborates (0.92) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2955