Environmental Organizations and Reasoned Discourse

This book explores the meaning and role of “fair and reasoned discourse” in the

context of our institutions for environmental decision processes. The book

reviews the roles of our “environmental advocacy organizations”—such as The

Sierra Club, The Audubon Society, the Environmental Defense Fund—in providing

and ensuring that our discourse and decisions are fair and reasoned according to

the criteria of being (i) inclusive of input from all affected, (ii) informed of relevant

scientific and socio-economic information, (iii) uncorrupted by direct conflicts of

interest, and (iv) logical according robust review by uncorrupted judges. These

organizations are described and examined as expressions of “collective imperfect

duty,” i.e. the coordinated duties with environmental direction. The current state

of our discourse is examined in light of this fairness criteria, particularly in

consideration of the cross-border problems that threaten tragedies of the global

commons.