Death and Resurrection: the Future of Environmentalism.

This article discusses environmentalism in the U.S. including the views expressed by leaders, experts and thinkers on the subject. The environmental movement came into reckoning, at a time when government was still considered a positive force in public life. It was the time when the media were more dispersed and more inclined to investigate. It was the time when the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the major statutes protecting air, water, species, and wilderness were created. That consensus has come undone in a quarter century of increasingly bitter cultural warfare. The author is of the view that an effective environmental movement in the future will, first, have to learn how to operate in the political arena at all levels. Many people underestimated the challenges involved in going "from conqueror of the land community to plain member and citizen of it." One has to develop policies to do those logical things to improve the energy efficiency and re- duce the environmental impacts for the future community.