I want to write a diary about the current state of health of the environmental movement...a look back at its origins, an overview of how it has evolved, and a clinical assessment of where it currently stands. It's a big topic, and I don't want to go off half cocked and do it an injustice. If you care about this issue, and have given it some thought, I'd appreciate one or two lines, either here in via Kosmail, as to how you view the lay of the land, and how best to actually measure the trajectory of the environmental movement over the past 40 years.
Polling? Party platforms? Legislative accomplishments? Membership in groups such as Sierra Club?
Some questions I have initially are:
Has environmentalism morphed from "Save the planet" to "Think globally, Act Locally" and on to "Not In My Backyard"?
Have the aims of the movement become to diffuse? To esoteric? To non-inclusive?
Have too many unpopular causes been championed in the past?
Have changing demographics, and changing lifestyles among subsequent generations, contributed to environmentalism's seeming decreased relevance?
Is the movement doing just fine, and I'm just imagining all this?
Are there better questions to ask?