ABSTRACT
A schism exists between two camps within the environmental movement. On the one side are what the futurist Alex Steffen calls “dark green” groups, such as Greenpeace USA and Friends of the Earth, which seek radical social change to solve environmental problems, most often by confronting the corporate sector. On the other side, the “bright green” groups, such as The Nature Conservancy and the Environmental Defense Fund, work within the market system, often in close collaboration with corporations. Bright greens, meanwhile, dismiss dark greens as out-of-touch radicals who only complicate the environmental agenda with their utopian demands and sometimes extreme tactics, such as liberating mink from fur farms, ramming whaling ships, or burning down genetic engineering labs and crops. Where the pragmatism of bright greens can lead to a perception that progress is being made, dark greens remind people that the problems worsen, that time is limited, and solutions must be bolder than politics and economics may presently allow.
