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The Core Of Adam Frankel 's Sustainability

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At the core of Adam Frankel’s “Sustainability?,” a long list of applications, each application accompanied by a brief description of its function, lies the idea that environmentalism is about acting to feel good, a form of thinking called consequentialism, the aesthetic thought. Morton’s ecological thought refutes consequentalism as a viable method for environmentalism as that form of thought will fail to spark large-scale ecological action. Frankel’s consequentialism is evident as under every description is the title “Why we need it,” emphasis on the “we” (Frankel). Instead of saying “you,” knowing the app is directed at a single reader at a time, the fact that Frankel uses “we” instead of “you” begs the question: who is “we” referring to? By using “we,” Frankel brings the rest of humanity into why a person would “need” to download this app, suggesting that the person needs to download the app because “we,” the rest of humanity, needs the reader to do so; the reader is doing what “we” wants, the reader submitting to the wills of others, the will of the bigger crowd and thus the greater good, making him or her feel as though he or she is a part of something bigger, making him or her feel good as a result of that. Moreover, many of the apps listed in the article have benefits other than being sustainable, such as “feel[ing] more invested in their communities,” being “cool[],” “reduc[ing] gas emissions and fuel costs,” “reward[ing] users for recycling” and other ecological

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