A View upon Environmentalism
Henry Steinberg

Since I've started paying attention to environmentalism in the United States, I've felt that the movement has been fighting a losing battle. Environmental laws are rolling backwards, pollution is increasing, and the public seems less and less aware. The connections between "environmental" issues and those of society, health, politics, and economies are often not made apparent nor are they widely understood on individual, business, and national levels. In a paper called "The Death of Environmentalism," two authors make the claim that environmentalism is dead.(1) When I first read this paper, I found myself sadly agreeing with this statement. However, like many people in environmental fields, I may not have been looking deep enough into what "environmentalism" really is in order to understand its diverse problems and to better foster relevant solutions.

The authors claim that the "environmental movement" does not possess the capacity to significantly alter US policy on the world's most pressing environmental issues such as climate change. While the limited advancements in climate change policy at the federal level support this statement, to claim "Environmentalism is dead" implies a thorough consideration of the entire movement, a consideration absent in "The Death of Environmentalism." Although aspects of their argument may be true, the limits to their narrow approach to "environmentalism" calls for a more thorough, holistic consideration of the movement. If we fail to address the diversity inherent to "environmentalism" we cannot adequately analyze the movement's problems and futures; that is to say•we cannot claim environmentalism has died.

What is meant when one speaks of "environmentalism" and the environmental movement?

To understand the problems and capacity of the environmental movement one must consider the diversity of the movement through its participants, goals and strategies. A holistic consideration of "environmentalism" will bring to light the diverse problems facing the movement. This is necessary to effectively analyze the capacities and future directions of environmentalism. Such an inclusive and comprehensive approach embodies the tenets of Human Ecology; this Human Ecology essay is intended as an emergent example of the broader approach necessary to understand and aid today's troubled environmental movement.

The environmental movement contains a variety of inspirations and objectives and a diversity of voices, goals, and strategies. Despite these differences, these aspects all stem from some sense of environmental concern, be it local or global, societal or ecological. The environmental movement is the national and international NGOs. It is the state groups and the local groups. It is the policy wonks, the radicals, the justice advocates. It is the individuals committed to change on a personal level. It is movements fighting for the climate, forests, oceans, and people. It is producers, consumers, teachers, students, children, and grandparents. The movement is diverse and this must be considered if one is to ponder future and effectiveness of environmentalism.

A diverse array of problems faces the environmental movement in its many forms. Certain problems are a result of goals, strategies, memberships and messaging of the established organizations that are often the public face of environmentalism. In this sense environmentalism may have brought these problems upon itself. Another set of problems stems from societal values and trends that may contradict certain basic tenets of environmentalism. The following is but a brief consideration of some of environmentalism's problems that must be addressed in order to strengthen this faltering, power-starved, and all too ineffectual movement that is environmentalism.

Perhaps the greatest challenges faced by environmentalism are the poor performance of American media, the financial and political power of polluting industries, the external position of environmental values in the cultural identity of consumption ingrained in the US and growing throughout the world, and lastly the economic disparities between societal groups, both domestically and abroad. While the environmental movement may have had the capacity to affect these trends when they were forming in the last century, they are today societal facts with which the environmental movement must contend, understand, and change. These are by no means presented as excuses but rather avenues where creative, sensitive thinking must change the status quo.

Robert Kennedy is correct when he states that "an uninformed public is the bane of democracy."(2) Unfortunately for the United States, the last few decades have seen an unprecedented consolidation of media sources. Most of America's news now comes from a few large corporations, obliged to bolster ratingsand create viewers. This obligation results in less investigative reporting and fewer in-depth stories. Environmental issues, regardless of how they are "framed" and pitched to the media, have received very little media attention, thus leaving the American public uninformed.

Furthermore, due to the inherent nature of capitalism, polluting industries often exercise a significant amount of political power in the United States and abroad. This power stems from extensive industry lobbying, campaign contributions, and advertising, all made feasible through unaccounted-for externalities that harm the environment and contribute to industrial profit. Whereas pollution can help create industrial profit, fighting pollution will rarely if ever create profits to the environmental movement. Even when environmental campaigning raises money or creates income, such profit will likely never be comparable to that of industry. As long as democracy continues to carry a purchase price of high campaign contributions, as is the current practice in the USA, environmental causes will always be at a disadvantage. The environmental movement must contend with this weakness and realize how to increase and apply its strengths.

Furthermore, there is a thriving culture of consumption in the United States where every day the American populace is bombarded with messages of excess, consumption, and material possession. Whereas environmentalism at one time was a bi-partisan issue, the very concept has now become politically and culturally marginalized and relegated as a quaint and trifling issue. Many people believe that to be "environmental" or to have such concerns, their consumption must be curtailed. This notion is the cultural antithesis to an American society that profits corporations and pollutes the mental and physical environment. Resultantly, when the environmental movement is able to communicate their message, whether through media or grassroots channels, it often finds itself expounding upon problems and explaining solutions that many Americans find to be secondary or in fact contradictory to their innate American goals of consumption and comfort.

Yet another external problem facing the environmental movement is the economic disparity between social groups, both in the US and abroad. Perhaps this issue is best summarized by Maree Brown when she says that "people who feel they are becoming extinct care less about the extinction of owls and oak trees."(3) This concept is basic enough•if the here and now is too rough and the environmental issue at hand is not perceived as relevant to the here and now, that issue is perceived to be of little importance. The segregation in memberships and participation in certain environmental movements is a factor of economic disparities, disparities partially resulting from the national desire to achieve and consume.

These problems of media, cultural identity, the power of polluting industries, and economic disparity affect all aspects of the environmental movement. Any examination relevant to environmentalism and the environmental movement must consider these problems together and separately, from many different vantage points.

Aside from external challenges facing the environmental movement, there are also problems the movement has brought upon itself. However, it is nearly impossible to truly inventory the diversity of problems and issues within the entire environmental movement. The "Death of Environmentalism" papers examined national, policy-oriented NGOs and the potential utility of these groups in fighting global issues such as climate change. For this reason, and for the importance of these groups in regards to this pressing global climate problem, it seems relevant to analyze the problems that this aspect of the environmental movement may have brought upon itself. For ease and consistency with other commentary on this topic, I will (perhaps misleadingly) refer to these large, national policy-oriented groups as "mainstream environmentalism." The two largest critiques of mainstream environmentalism are: 1) a supposed lack of a coherent vision and values; and 2) an inability to activate their core membership and supporters.

The first critique centers around the argument that environmentalism is defined too narrowly, promoting narrow policy perspectives with technical solutions. This blame of narrow-minded technical approaches is laid upon organizations and foundations alike. However, it must be considered that for every so called narrow approach by environmental groups to these large-scale issues, there is diverse action occurring from other elements of the environmental movements.

It is claimed that environmentalism hasn't "articulated a coherent morality we can call our own." (4) I disagree, but more importantly I am not sure if the broad and diverse environmental movements should promote a single morality and set of values at all. There is certainly something to be said for coherent messaging around an issue within a campaign to aid public education, but different issues exist, and it is likely that through communicating slightly different values and moralities across the environmental movement we may cast a broader net, and engage communities and individuals whose support benefits the movements in diverse and valued ways.

That said, mainstream environmental messaging needs to be more inclusive and the general relationship between environmental justice groups and large, policy oriented "mainstream" environmental groups provides a clear example of the need for relevant messaging to diverse groups of American people. At the Second National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 2002 the blame for the lack of diversity amongst mainstream environmental groups was placed on "environmental content and pedagogies which don't reflect multiple cultural perspectives, reinforce limited concepts of 'the environment' and environmental protection."(5) They claimed that this creates a limited environmental discourse and thereby does not connect the young and urban population to the mainstream environmental movement. This limited discourse and segregated aspects of the movement highlights ways that aspects of the environmental movement have not sufficiently reached out to each other.

Another accusation against mainstream environmentalism is the failure to activate their base of support,their "core." It is argued that mainstream groups offer their supporters little more than passive, "feelgood" membership. Those that cannot afford a monthly or yearly donation are denied even this superficial level of participation. The mainstream organizations do not offer their supporters participation and impact. This problem must be addressed while at the same time addressing the core values that must be embraced in order to engage societal support.

Clearly environmentalism faces a diverse set of problems and a diverse, complex set of solutions is necessary. Just as an examination of problems necessitates a broad view, so too does the examination of solutions. When considering potential solutions we must consider multiple viewpoints, diverse scenarios, and several potential outcomes.

If an aspect of Human Ecology is an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving, then surely coalition building, broad communication, and diversified strategies present a Human Ecological approach to environmental problems. Ecology teaches us that a species or individual will thrive when conditions are beneficial. In this sense, coalition building and broad communication are necessary so that "environmental" ideas be framed in a manner in which they may prosper in today's social and mental environment.

The environmental movement has a significant amount of work to do in regards to media, public education, public participation, marketplace alternatives, political strategy, grassroots activism, and alliance building. From each of these topics a plethora of possibilities can abound to answer the problems addressed above. However, we must simply remember that when considering problems and answers, we are viewing the situation from our own unique perspective. Due to the multi-faceted nature of our world and society, at every possible chance we should attempt to incorporate multiple viewpoints and possibilities into our analysis. In a time such as ours, when capacities to ruin the environment are growing exponentially and political apathy towards these problems seems to be growing nearly as fast, we cannot waste our time analyzing and strategizing while still wearing our blinders of specialization. Specialized educations train students and professionals to examine single issues until we know them inside and out. However, all too often, we set our frame of examination too narrowly, and we miss important factors that have real effects. If we, as an environmental movement, are to create a better world for ourselves, our children, and our planet, we do not have any more time to wear our blinders. We must look broader. And we must win. 

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1 Shellenburger and Nordhaus "The Death of Environmentalism" at http://www.thebreakthrough.org/images/Death_of_Environmentalism.pdf
2 "Death of Environmentalism Greatly Exaggerated" Spring 2005 http://www.hackensackriverkeeper.org/newsletters/Summer2005/15b_Summer_2005.htm
3 Maree Brown, Adrienne. "Rainbow Warrior" March 2005. The Grist Magazine http://www.grist.org/comments/soapbox/2005/03/15/brown/
4 Shellenburger and Nordhause "The Death of Environmentalism" at http://www.thebreakthrough.org/images/Death_of_Environmentalism.pdf
5 Grass and Agyeman, Second National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, at www.ejrc.cau.edu/summit2/EnviroEducation.pdf