Ethics of Environmental Guilt and Shame

Abstract

Chapter 7 articulates the ethics of intentionally inducing environmental guilt or shame. It considers two competing views: Martha C. Nussbaum’s argument against shaming individuals because of their dignity and the ease with which shamers can abuse power is echoed in the work of the few environmental ethicists who have considered environmental shaming. Jennifer Jacquet’s support of shaming, especially collectives, in an era of climate change given the urgent need to act, offers a counterpoint. These concerns of dignity, power, and expediency are joined by others, including the injustice of the disproportionate shaming of certain groups, especially women, and the unique challenges of shaming collectives in the most prominent types of environmental shaming, environmental marketing and naming-and-shaming campaigns. The risks of shaming are so great that it cannot be used lightly, even as its benefits and apparent inevitability among humans suggests that it cannot be completely ruled out.