ABSTRACT
Since the 1960s, environmentalists have successfully placed the need to protect and manage the environment and natural resources on the political and public agenda. Progress has been made in ensuring the quality of air, water and soil, and in protecting flora and fauna. Environmental organisations have become larger, stronger, better funded and more knowledgeable, and have grown in membership and influence. Yet well financed lobby groups with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo have often opposed environmental objectives. In the media, environmentalists are often portrayed as radicals driven by unrealistic ideals rather than sound science. Sometimes environmentalists are too easily described as opposing technological developments that could support societal and environmental progress. Consequently, for each high-profile victory for the environmental movement, there has been a campaign that has stalled or failed. Too often, contemporary environmentalism has tended to be concerned about a separate ‘thing’ called ‘the environment’ rather than advancing an alternative worldview that integrates society, economy, ecology and equity. Climate change is now the greatest challenge for the environmental
movement. The urgency to reduce greenhouse gases, the slow progress made in achieving binding international commitments, the controversy over the role of nuclear technology, the style of climate change campaigning and the rise in climate scepticism have all caused fractures within the movement. The failure of the environmental movement to achieve meaningful progress in tackling climate change has led some environmentalists to argue that ‘what the environmental movement needs more than anything else right now is a collective step back to rethink everything’.1 So what does the future hold for environmentalism?
