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Thanks for posting this, Lawry.
But polls do not support the statement that Americans dismiss
environmental warnings out of hand.
While this quote attacks Doomsday Environmentalism, it ignores the
mainstreaming of ecological awareness. The American public is protective of
more than our beloved national and state parks, increasingly aware of the
linkage between a healthy environment and healthy families, as well as sustainable
commerce. Christina Larsen discusses the evolution of the environmental movement
in a Washington Monthly essay, The Emerging
Environmental Majority. She chronicles the ‘breaking of the
fellowship’ between “enviros” and hunters/sportsmen in the early years of the
movement, but how under Bush 43 policies, hook-and-bullet groups are again
joining forces with ‘greens’, to protect wetlands and public lands from
indiscriminate sell-off to drilling, mining and forest companies.
Environmentalists have learned to play the economics card well. An example of the mainstreaming of environmentalism is the current
issue of ‘high society’ Vanity Fair, The Green Issue, highlighting groups and
individuals. There are thousands of ‘green’ websites and places to shop
green/fair trade/organic. Being
green is not just for Kermit and school kids, it resonates with adult
consumers, and not just the aging hippies among us. The public at large is
increasingly green, if not for heavy-duty scientific reasons, because of concern
for public health issues. Radicalism, or alarmism in this case, yields in the natural course of
events to assimilation and/or moderation. Look at the early feminist movement.
No one burns bras anymore, indeed Victoria’s Secret has tapped into the sexual
revolution with a zeal that the song “I am Woman, hear me roar” couldn’t
imagine. (You may also recall Jimmy Buffet had a song about liberating the USSR
by air dropping $20 bills and the VS catalogue.) Now, if the global lingerie
empire will print their catalogues on recycled paper, we would have another
‘green’ success in the spirit of making progress, not war. But it took
ideological war in the beginning to awaken an ignorant and complacent public to
danger. Raising a fist, burning bras and sounding the alarm is as American as
Paul Revere. It is false to portray all environments as if all Muslims were
Wahabists or all Christians End Timers. Precautionary Principles, better safe than sorry, first do no harm, makes common sense and
that’s why environmentalism has succeeded. If we need proof that business and
science have joined forces to protect natural resources look no further than
GE, BP and other global firms that are changing to stabilize their risk
management, prompted by the very practical and conservative insurance
industry. kwc Larsen: Emerging Environmental Majority http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2006/0605.larson.html Or
contact me for a reader friendly 5.5 page copy Greetings,
everyone, The
problem of course is the greater the legitimate crisis the more those who warn
of it will sound alarmist. This
from Peiser’s list: “Environmentalism is dead. Alarmism - the environmental movement's
basic strategy - has led to this dead end. Not that this history of crying wolf
has chastened contemporary environmentalists. Activists and researchers still
issue dire warnings with mind-numbing regularity. Although such scare mongering
persists, it has reached the point of diminishing returns. Knowing the movement's
track record of false alarms, the American public dismiss dire environmental
warnings out of hand. Thus, on the 37th anniversary of Earth Day, the environmental
movement is looking increasingly long in the tooth. Alarmist environmentalists have
overshadowed moderate, careful researchers, and undermined the credibility of the entire
movement. Until environmentalists cease depending on nightmare scenarios, they
will fail to influence the public at large.” --Piotr C. Brzezinski, The Harvard Crimson, 20
April 2006 |
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