Green Distractions? Personal Responsibility and Environmental Protection (Pre-Recorded)

• In Event: Organizing With and Against the State

Abstract

In contemporary American life, a great deal of emphasis is placed on voluntary actions individuals can take to protect the environment and address climate change. Seeking to reduce their “carbon footprints,” many well-intentioned people have (among other things) committed themselves to reducing and recycling their waste, driving hybrid or electric vehicles, using energy efficient lightbulbs, and limiting or even eliminating their consumption of meat. Eager to cater to these eco-conscious consumers, businesses have developed myriad goods that are marketed as being better for the health of both the environment and consumers. Often explicit (or, at least, implicit) in this emphasis on individual action is the belief that such action can enable society to overcome (or at least go a long way toward addressing) the climate crisis and protect the environment.

Many environmental experts, however, argue that this belief is unfortunately unfounded. Pointing to the magnitude of the climate challenge and the high proportion of pollution that comes from industrial (as opposed to personal) activities, these experts contend that individual action does rather little to improve the state of the environment. Some even suggest that efforts to spur personal action can have unintended negative consequences by actually distracting from the sort of systemic change, collective action, and regulation of large-scale polluters that the climate crisis demands. In this view, an emphasis on personal decision-making is a boon to corporations; when environmental protection is seen as mostly the responsibility of individuals, attention is turned away from the actions of industrial polluters.

Although scholars and observers have increasingly recognized these dynamics, little is known about the origins and development of what can be described as the "personal responsibility" frame of environmental protection. And despite speculation about the frame’s potentially perverse effects, no studies to date have systematically assessed its impact on various outcomes of interest — including Americans’ political views and actions, the political tactics and power of environmental advocacy organizations, and, ultimately, public policy and the health of the planet. This paper introduces a study that seeks to fill these gaps by tracing the personal responsibility frame back in time — examining the role that self-interested businesses, well-intentioned environmental advocacy groups, and the structure of U.S. political institutions played in creating and promoting it — and analyzing the multi-faceted ways in which its development has shaped the current state of American environmental politics. The paper discusses the stakes of this debate, lays out a research program designed to address it, and presents initial findings about the origins of the personal responsibility frame.

Author

• Matthew Lacombe, Barnard College, Columbia University