The banality of environmental degradation (Hannah Arendt, Hanna Pitkin, Margaret Canovan)

Drawing on the writings of Hannah Arendt, this dissertation provides an alternative perspective on our environmental crisis and what might be done to address it. Central is Arendt's concept of "the banality of evil" which, I argue, may be taken out of its original context and applied to environmental degradation. Accordingly, I emphasize the banality of environmental degradation---the idea that problems like global warming, air pollution and water pollution are largely the product of countless, seemingly innocuous---but ultimately ruinous---acts by millions of ordinary individuals. Like Arendt's "banality of evil," this idea underscores the fact that monstrous deeds do not require evil motives, and that momentous problems do not always have momentous causes. Instead, ordinary people behaving in ordinary ways may produce extraordinary evil. This dissertation also draws on Arendt's critique of modernity and, here, builds on the work of two Arendtian scholars, Hanna Pitkin and Margaret Canovan. I use Pitkin's writings to argue that environmental degradation signals an apolitical condition of society---one in which members "live together" but do not necessarily "act together," thereby failing to take responsibility for the long-term and large-scale consequences of their combined behavior. Through Margaret Canovan, I argue that environmental degradation may be viewed as another manifestation of two trends that, according to Arendt, characterize the modern world: "reckless optimism" and "reckless despair." Finally, this dissertation challenges the popular notion that we should evaluate environmental theories and approaches according to whether they are anthropocentric or ecocentric. The more crucial dimension for critique, I argue, is whether they are political. To highlight the significance of an Arendtian perspective on environmental degradation, this dissertation provides an Arendtian-inspired critique of both the four major radical environmental theories (ecocentrism, ecoanarchism, ecosocialism and eco-Marxism) and the four major reform approaches (administrative rationalism, economic rationalism, ecological modernization and sustainable development). It shows that all harbor elements that are apolitical and antipolitical. Lastly, I conclude by arguing that the environmental justice movement is one the best exemplars of an Arendtian approach to solving environmental problems.