One of the more disappointing things about 'the environmental movement' has
been that 'it,' whatever 'it' is, has squandered the advantage of the
political high ground by the inclusion of every 'new age,' 'feel good,'
issue to come down the pike. I was involved in the first 'environmental
summit' held in Berkley by the Nixon Administration and even then there were
'street theater' people in attendance. The movement came right at the end of
the Vietnam War protest (circa 1970) and took on a lot of the trappings of
the anti-war movement. Now we see that the inclusion of such things as
'Animal Rights,' 'Ecopsychology' (whatever that is), Anti-nukes, anti-GMs,
Anti-WTO, Anti-war, Vegetarianism, and the list goes on, has made the
'environmental movement' into no movement at all. There was a survey done by
Gallup in the late 1970s which predicted that a President of the United
States would be elected *primarily* on environmental issues within a few
years. Now we are seeing that environmental issues are not even on the
screen in terms of why and how people vote, at least in the USA.
There is a spark of hope because of groups like Environment2004
http://www.environment2004.org/index.php but it may be too little and too
late.
Steven
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