ABSTRACT
In one sense, “Asian societies versus the United States” seemed a good pairing for comparative analysis; the “dependent variable,” the effect to be explained, seemed dramatically different, since in Asian societies environmentalism is a relatively new phenomenon. Judging from earlier chapters, these movements typically started in the 1970s. In contrast, American environmentalism usually dates its beginnings to the turn of the century; if one includes workers’ health and/or urban sanitary movements, that beginning date can be pushed well back into the 180nineteenth century. Environmental movements in most Asian societies appear largely modest in size and influence. The movement in the United States is huge, composed of thousands of organizations, some with multi-million-dollar budgets and millions of members.
