The Death of Environmentalism

That's the title of this essay in Grist magazine. It's generally very good, though I have some quibbles with it. On the whole, though, excellent. The main thesis is that the environmentalist movement has suffered numerous setbacks because of a narrow-minded focus on what is and is not an "environmental" issue. So, for example, tougher mileage standards were abandoned by environmentalists in the early 1990s in favor of defending ANWR. Meanwhile, of course, the defense of ANWR proved short-lived, whereas strong mileage standards could have eliminated the need for drilling in ANWR in the first place.

Shellenberger and Nordhaus contend this is because ANWR was seen as an "environmental" issue whereas mileage standards were seen as less of one. Where I think they're right on is the narrow conception we all have about environmentalism. Everything is environmentalism these days. Health care, dieting, transportation, urban planning, voting, absolutely everything. We're only going to win if we can make a strong, positive vision for the future. Also, if it works I'd be willing to scare the crap out of people.

On that note, more horrifying global warming news. Basically, no matter what we do at this point we're halfway to major sea level changes. What we do with the remaining time is critically important. Shellenberger and Nordhaus say that we need to think politics and not technical solutions, and I agree. However, one thing worth mentioning is the number of technical advances coming in the next few years that will make our task much much easier.