Volume 18, Issue 2, Summer 1996
Leonard J. Waks
Pages 133-148
Environmental Claims and Citizen Rights
I propose a model for the development of citizen rights based on the advance of political and social rights and apply it to contemporary claims regarding environmental rights. In terms of this “claims and attenuations” model, I sketch the roles of environmental philosophers and activists, the media and public opinion, and political insiders in the development of positive rights. I then predict a weakening
of environmental claims and a marginalization of environmental philosophies as environmental claims are secured as positive rights.