Nicholas Kristof believes the environmental movement is in “deep trouble.” In today’s NYT he explains:
environmental groups are too often alarmists. They have an awful track record, so they’ve lost credibility with the public. Some do great work, but others can be the left’s equivalents of the neocons: brimming with moral clarity and ideological zeal, but empty of nuance.
What’s more:
The loss of credibility is tragic because reasonable environmentalists – without alarmism or exaggerations – are urgently needed.
Given the uncertainties and trade-offs, priority should go to avoiding environmental damage that is irreversible, like extinctions, climate change and loss of wilderness. And irreversible changes are precisely what are at stake with the Bush administration’s plans to drill in the Arctic wildlife refuge, to allow roads in virgin wilderness and to do essentially nothing on global warming. That’s an agenda that will disgrace us before our grandchildren.
So it’s critical to have a credible, nuanced, highly respected environmental movement. And right now, I’m afraid we don’t have one.
Kristof’s column was prompted by an essay on “The Death of Environmentalism.” For environmentalist reactions to the essay, see here.
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