Environmental Organizations and Reasoned Discourse PDF
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ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS AND THEORY Environmental Organizations and Reasoned Discourse Richard M. Robinson Environmental Politics and Theory Series Editors Joel Jay Kassiola, Department of Political Science, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA, USA John Barry, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK The premise of this series is that the current environmental crisis cannot be solved by technological innovation alone and that the environmental challenges we face today are, at their root, political crises involving polit- icalvalues.Therefore,environmentalpoliticsandtheoryareoftheutmost social significance. Growing public consciousness of the environmental crisis and its human and nonhuman impacts exemplified by the world- wideurgencyandpoliticalactivityassociatedwiththeproblemandconse- quences of climate change make it imperative to design and achieve a sustainable and socially just society. The series collects, extends, and develops ideas from the burgeoning empirical and normative scholarship spanningmanydisciplineswithaglobalperspective.Itaddressestheneed forsocialchangefromthehegemonicconsumercapitalistsocietyinorder to realize environmental sustainability and social justice. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14968 Richard M. Robinson Environmental Organizations and Reasoned Discourse Richard M. Robinson Business Administration SUNY Fredonia Fredonia, NY, USA Environmental Politics and Theory ISBN 978-3-030-75605-5 ISBN 978-3-030-75606-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75606-2 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such namesareexemptfromtherelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreefor general use. Thepublisher,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinforma- tion in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respecttothematerialcontainedhereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeen made.Thepublisherremainsneutralwithregardtojurisdictionalclaimsinpublishedmaps and institutional affiliations. Cover credit: Evandro Maroni/Stockimo/Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland This bookisdedicatedto Dr.MaryAnnRobinson, AnthonyCiccarelliofthe EPA (retired), The Sierra Club, The Audubon Society, The Friends of the Columbia River Gorge, and The Environmental Defense Fund Series Editors Foreword ’ Introduction One of the distinctive characteristics of Environmental Studies as an academic field is its wide-ranging, interdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary subject matter. The environmental disciplines encompass elements of the empirical–normative divide that separates so much scholarly research today. These topics for study include the natural sciences, politics, sociology, economics, history, philosophy, psychology, literature, ethics, discourses, organizations, and others. All conduct inquiry into the environment and contribute to our environmental understanding and decision-making. To the beginning student as well as the specialized expert, the wide scope and complexity of this field can be bewildering. Most students find refugeandorderinuniversitydepartmentalcategorizationofcoursesand experts seek a disciplinary-based research focus. Nonetheless, the student knows intuitively and the expert knows explicitly that additional rele- vant knowledge and research methods are always being omitted when studying the environment. Such reductionism is necessary in order to achieve some measure of rational control over the particular question or problem being addressed. It is, therefore, rare to find a comprehen- sive and heterogeneous work that exhibits more than one of the envi- ronment’s subfields, and even rarer to combine normative and empirical discourses and methods; ethical theory and descriptive political science; vii viii SERIES EDITORS’ FOREWORD and ethical argumentation with applications to environmental policy advocacy organizations. These observations are prompted by Richard M. Robinson’s ambi- tious and capacious book, Environmental Organizations and Reasoned Discourse, which now enriches the Palgrave Macmillan Environmental Politics and Theory Series (EPT). Robinson’s expansive volume spans several disciplines, discourses, and subject matters typically studied by researchers in isolation in their respective disciplinary silos, significantly limiting their conclusions’ applicability and value. The EPT Series overcomes this research overspecialization and reduc- tionisttrendbecausethevariedsubjectmatteroftheenvironmentrequires an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approach. Consequently, this EPTSeriescontainsempiricalandnormativepoliticalvolumes,ethicaland descriptive political books as well as theoretical and case studies. Robinson’s Environmental Organizations and Reasoned Discourse is an excellent addition to the EPT Series as it admirably represents the all-encompassing nature of environmental studies and problems with: moral social discourse; Kantian ethics; environmental ethics; economics; Rawlsian ethics; utilitarian philosophy; anthropogenic climate change; specific cases of domestic organizations protecting the environment; examination of the discourses on four urgent environmental problems; effectiveness assessments of four environmental organizations and coali- tions; and comparative evaluations of three leading international envi- ronmental organizations’ activities involving three international environ- mental issues. Robinson deserves great commendation for the depth and breadth of environmental analyses contained in this book. We are honored that Robinson’srichworkincorporatingitsmanyenlighteningfactualdescrip- tions and creative ethical arguments about the environment as well as its focus on environmental organizations and their role in the socio-rational process joins the EPT Series. The Structure of Robinson’s Volume and Its Themes Environmental Organizations and Reasoned Discourse begins by empha- sizing the essential moral nature of “reasoned social discourse” that is to be used in judging progress in environmental preservation and restora- tion. The author identifies four criteria for the ideal norms of social SERIES EDITORS’ FOREWORD ix discourse: (a) inclusivity, (b) full information, (c) logic, and (d) the absence of conflicts of interest. Robinson asserts our age is characterized by “obfuscation” of these moral standards that harms our environmental progress. He introduces Kantian constructivism for assessing our social environmental discourse in order to detect its flaws (Chapter 1). Section 2 of Robinson’s work addresses the nature of environmental duty. It starts by applying the Kantian categorical imperative in order to pursue the “moral community” where the fundamental Kantian concept of “moral duty” is present and explicated (Chapter 2). The author then proceeds to apply the idea of moral duties to the environmentincludingtheglobalcommunity.Thischapterintroducesthe relevant portionsof the philosophyof JohnRawlsandhiscriteriafor “fair andreasoneddiscourseanddecisions”tobeusedbyRobinsoninassessing environmental discourse (Chapter 3). Finally, in the second section of his volume, Robinson discusses the philosophy of community and environmental ethics. He does so by proposing the central role to be played by environmental advocacy orga- nizations as “collective imperfect [Kantian] duties” in order to lead to “fair and reasoned” environmental decisions. In in this chapter he also discusses the leading American philosophers’ views of nature, thinkers: Emerson, Thoreau, Muir, Leopold, etc. stressing the goal of preserving nature (Chapter 4). The third section of the Robinson work is devoted to environmental discourse. It begins with definitions of the concepts of “economic effi- ciency” and “equity” in our society’s environmental discourse as well as the key idea of “externality” in economics. Robinson explains how these conceptsarevitaltoenvironmentaldiscourseanddecision-making.Acase study of The Water Resources Council and its standards used by The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in its environmental projects is used as an illustration (Chapter 5). The fundamental construct of “tradeoff” in economics is used in the next chapter to examine potential conflicts between environ- mental values and industrial production needs, including how such conflicts impact future generations and—unusually for such discus- sions—“people at a distance,” or internationally. Robinson proposes ways to think about and resolve tradeoff dilemmas. In addition, this chapter contains an appendix on utilitarian philosophy’s detrimental role in the rhetoric of environmental discourse to its deficiencies, according to the author (Chapter 6). x SERIES EDITORS’ FOREWORD Resolving environmental disputes to achieve Rawlsian “fair and reasoned” solutions is examined next by describing how Robinson’s Kantian and Rawlsian framework may establish agreements to remedy environmental problems now and in the future (Chapter 7). Section 4 of this volume focuses on how our environmental organiza- tionscanresolveenvironmentalissuesandwhattheyneedinordertoplay this important role for society. The first chapter in this section confronts the urgent contemporary problem of anthropogenic climate change and the attempts to moderate its harmful effects. The chapter probes the controversy between climate scientistsand“deniers.”Thisclimatechangedisputeprovidesthecontext for Robinson to assert his primary thesis that environmental advocacy organizations are essential to our reasoned environmental discourse and decision-making. This illustration of an environmental problem and our response to it serves as evidence for Robinson’s main claim that such organizations can contribute to the successful mitigation of the dire socio-environmental problem of climate change (Chapter 8). The next chapter elaborates upon climate change by introducing the concept of “collective imperfect duty” and how environmental organiza- tions tackle this pressing environmental challenge to humanity. Three advocacy organizations are selected by Robinson to support his theoretical insights: The Wilderness Society, The Sierra Club, and The Environmental Defense Fund. He writes: These organizations promulgate environmental expertise into the public sphere, and provide the scientific and socio-economic information and expertise necessary for social discourse to be “reasoned”. But this “collective imperfect duty” also asserts the “noble nature” of declaring the immorality of environmental destruction and does so in our public discourse thereby marking the discourse “reasoned” (Chapter 9). Next, Robinson examines the current state of environmental discourse andwhetheritisfairandclear.Heassessesthediscoursesurroundingfour
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