ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the case of dentist and lion-hunter Walter Palmer to explore a larger pattern of scapegoating rhetoric in environmentalist discourse. Recent years have seen an increase in environmental reports that focus on particularly heinous individual actions instead of on systemic challenges or everyday positive involvement. Social media spread of such stories encourages a scapegoat ecology, in which the problems of environmental degradation are blamed upon a few, in effect exonerating the larger society. The chapter applies a critical/cultural studies reflection on the rhetorical implications of such discourse, drawing upon the literature of environmental communication.
