Vague metaphors like ecological footprint weaken environmental activism

Evidence

Rather than portraying the harmful effects of human practices in vivid, concrete terms, they characterize those practices in metamorphic terms as leaving an “ecological footprint.” We are beginning to witness footprint creep, with the “carbon footprint,” the “decision footprint,” and the “consumption footprint.” — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2699

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: why do we call it ‘footprint’ instead of ‘scar’ or ‘wound’? A piece on how environmental metaphors defang the message.