January 13, 2005
1/13 - What you should know about "Environmentalism" and its current ailments
As I took my tongue lashings from the fishermen last weekend I kept thinking, "How am I supposed to defend environmentalism given how sick the movement is?"
And it is ill. Since Mark Dowie's landmark book, "Losing Ground,” in 1995 there has been a spate of books not only criticizing the environmental movement from outside (like Bjorn Lomborg's blockheaded “The Skeptical Environmentalist”), but plenty of major, major ecologists with the very best credentials (like John Terborgh and James Gustave Speth) expressing pessimism for a movement that clearly peaked in the 70's and has been losing its way ever since.
Jason Lefkowitz was talking about it on the Oceana Blog a couple of days ago. Its definitely in the air. I received a number of essays last month criticizing environmentalism from all different sides. As Jason points out, there is a parallel with the unraveling of the Democratic party. And here is a speech by Adam Werbach on, "Is Environmentalism Dead?".
All of which hopefully provides me with a little bit of defense when I occasionally say things that are critical of environmentalism (and end up getting attacked as a traitor by thin-skinned enviros).
