The Environmental Movement in a Hostile Context

Abstract

The article explores the survival and maintenance of the environmental movement in a risk-laden post-totalitarian society. Russia's rapidly changing society has an anti-ecological bias, since the economic transition has been carried out in such a way as to cause both the overexploitation and waste of human and natural resources. In the course of this transition the anti-ecological context has been reproduced and reinforced on three levels: historical-cultural, macro-social and local. The author describes the social context of the environmental movement, and the root causes of the hostility within this context to the movement. The article proposes an explanation for the negative attitude towards the movement on the part of both the Russian state and its citizens. The response by the movement to the hostility has had three main consequences: the movement is losing its ability to function as a producer and distributor of environmental values; it has become less rooted within Russia; and it has become more westernized and globalized, integrating itself into the global environmental community.