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Abstract

The American environmental movement has been struggling for more than a year to digest the strong critique offered by Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus in their widely disseminated treatise “The Death of Environmentalism.” Their essay accuses organized environmentalism of framing key issues in overly narrow terms, of failing to connect with everyday public concerns, and of inadequately responding to the challenges of conservative political interests. This article briefly summarizes the essay's key arguments, retraces some relevant history pertaining to the past decade of environmental policy making, and highlights some of the areas in which this work touches on topical issues within the environmental social sciences. The article ends with a brief overview of the other contributions that make up this symposium.

Keywords

American environmentalism environmental movement transition management democratic expertise public ecology death of environmentalism

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References

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Shellenberger, M. , & Nordhaus, T. (2004). The death of environmentalism. Retrieved from http://www.grist.org

13.

Woodhouse, E. , & Nieusma, D. (2001). Democratic expertise: Integrating knowledge, power, and participation. In M. Hisschemöller , R. Hoppe , W. Dunn ,& J. Ravetz (Eds.), Knowledge, power, and participation in environmental policy analysis(pp. 73-96). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

“The Death of Environmentalism”

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