The Death Of Environmentalism

It's "environmental" in the sense that whatever change occurs, does so in an indifferent and all-encompassing way, and we have little or no control over the phenomena (meaning, we can't use it to our advantage). At least we in the west can keep such things as poverty relegated (sort of) to specific areas of the globe (read: away from us), and so it can be labelled "manmade".

---
RickW

This is a bad title for the article but first I'd like to make a quick reply to state that 'relegating poverty' is not to other parts of the globe but other geographical locations. Natives (specifically) live in poverty, as does a significant proportion of our population.

However, environmentalism is far from dead, in fact if you know your history since world war two environmentalism is just being born. It has now entered the mainstream, as one example the argument out east is that no new refineries can be built because nobody will allow one 'in their backyard'. While I don't believe that, it is a quick example of something that occurs daily now. Practices, specifically business ones, which would have gone ahead without much thought are now challenged in court. Wal Mart in Guelph is having to exert enormous pressure to get a store built, in the past it would be a foregone conclusion.

Each year on my street I notice fewer and fewer pesticide signs on laws and lawn care companies have be forced to radically change how they do business, and this has all been without ANY government support of the issue.

So this really is one of those areas where it is good news, and far from 'death'. There is no doubt that there are dozens of new challenges, and the media is hard at work to avoid discussing them, but the days are gone when the environment was just someplace to dump garbage.

Sorry! I should have said "out of sight, out of mind". But as far as environmentalism actually thriving, I think the "out of sight, out of mind" critique applies as well. A program on China I was listening to made reference to air so fouled that it was the equivalent of smoking two packages of cigarettes. As we import great quantities of Chinese-produced goods, we have simply shifted our problems to "over there".....which is not a shift at all, from the global perspective.

---
RickW

Quite true.

Thank goodness my ancestors during the last ice age drove around in SUV's.... otherwise we might still have to contend with rabid Wooly Mammoths in Canada. *shudders*

Considering most 'environmentalists' prefer to rid the world of humans in order to achieve their Nirvana - it would be good if that political movement were to die off.

It's only an outlet for people who want to tell other people how they must live anyhow - that's why it got so popular after socialism could plainly be seen as an absolute failure.

Yeah, the people who want to get rid of pesticides because a corporation is making billions while the kids are all getting leukemia are people 'telling other people what to do'. And who needs those people who point out that we're getting cancer from biosolids which are toxic and are sprayed on farmers fields. Oh, and those do-gooders who lobby because PCBM's and other chemicals are showing up in human breast milk at huge rates. Bloody do gooders.

way to shut em up... nice. i totally agree with you, i am thankful everyday that there are people out there that give a shit about something other than the 'almighty dollar.' wish there were more.