The environmental movement and its critics

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.Springer is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Human Ecology.http://www.jstor.org The history and nature of the new environmental movement in the United States are reviewed. Since understanding of a social movement is enhanced by learning the views and perceptions of outsiders, the continuing debate between the environmental movement and its critics is examined. First, disagreements over the nature and the severity of the so-called environmental crisis are described. Second, the ideological differences between environmentalists and their critics are reviewed, particularly their contrasting views of man, society, nature, and economic growth. Finally, the political critique of the movement is examined, with attention given to the composition of the membership, the alleged superficiality of its proposed solutions to environmental problems, and the alleged discrimination against both poor people in the United States and the poor nations.

From Science to Multiculturalism: Postmodern Trends in Environmental Organizations

“…A measure of national population, from the Arthur Banks Cross National Time Series Data Archive, 52 was used as a control 98 • From Science to Multiculturalism 51.Snow 1992, 49;and Sills 1975; but also seeMorrison and Dunlap 1986. 52.…”

Comment: Elite Values, Popular Values, and Open Space Policy

“…Some of them connect attitudes toward open space with class anxieties. Neuhaus writes (Sills 1975), Conservation has been historically and remains an upper class anxiety. The very rich fret about their game or the preservation of their estates.…”

Ecology and Community: The Nature and Extent of Local Commitment to Environmental Protection

“…Lester (1990) maintains that wealth is a strong predictor of environmental policy. Indeed, numerous studies have found environmental support to be more likely among mid-and upper-class individuals than those defined as lower class (Baldassare 1986;Beckerman 1975;Neuhaus 1971;Sills 1975). Interestingly however, it may not be "wealth," per se, that underlies the phenomenon.…”