The death of environmentalism: Global warming politics in a
post-environmental world
By Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus
Released at an October 2004 meeting of the Environmental Grantmakers Association
The impending threat of a dramatically changing climate arguably represents the most fundamental challenge to human systems ever encountered. Despite the scale of the impacts that may occur, however, very little effective action has occurred since climate change first entered the public consciousness in the late 1980s. Globally, Europe has emerged as a leader on the issue of greenhouse gas emissions reductions, with legislated long-term targets that could reasonably be expected to stabilize climate. To learn from the European experience, however, we erroneously scrutinize the content of their policies rather than examining the nature of their politics. Politics, and the core values and beliefs that ultimately shape it, is a critical determinant of successful collective action on climate change.
In the United States, an outmoded environmental movement has claimed ownership of theclimate change issue, using inadequate tactics to stimulate policy responses at the national level. These tactics are characterized by narrow definitions of self-interest and the ‘environment,’ leading us to focus on technical policy proposals rather than core values and a compelling vision for the future. As such, a three-part strategic framework is followed in order to protect that ‘thing’ that we call the environment: a) define a problem as ‘environmental;’ b) craft a technical remedy in response to the problem; and c) sell this policy proposal using tactics such as lobbying and advertising. This approach utilizes key constituencies (such as labour unions and minorities) as simply a means to an end rather than as real allies whose own self-interests are not inconsistent with a vision of the future that includes a stable climate.
A new, more effective approach to facilitating action on climate change entails the following:
- Re-define what is ‘environmental’ to include human systems, thereby aligning the interests of the traditional environmental movement with those held by constituencies focused on labour, public health, trade etc.
- Question common ‘environmentalist’ assumptions that promulgate reductive logic about the root causes of global warming – namely that too much carbon is entering the atmosphere (rather than poverty, trade policies, overpopulation, and other fundamentally unsustainable characteristics of the current global system);
- Articulate a coherent morality, set of core values, and compelling vision for the future that is not is not issue-identified but vision- and value-identified;
- Utilize this vision to build true alliances with labour unions, civil rights groups, and businesses in order to stimulate public-private investment in clean energy technologies;
- Strategically activate core values to propose and implement dramatic, visionary policies that would meaningfully contribute to transforming the public debate on climate change.