Michael Shellenberger, cited here a few weeks ago for his resistance to "complaint-based activism," has been shaking things up for the past few months with The Death of Environmentalism (PDF), a paper he wrote with pollster Ted Nordhaus. They basically take environmentalists to task for focusing on narrow policy goals at the expense of a larger, popular movement. (Rick Johnson does a nice job of summarizing the 37-page paper on ONE/Northwest's blog.)
The other week the paper hit the mainstream media in an article by Joe Garofoli of the San Francisco Chronicle. I was struck by the disdainful tone of environmental leaders who take issue with Shellenberger and Nordhaus's conclusions:
"[Shellenberger and Nordhaus] didn't say anything that leaders in the environmental movement haven't been saying for years," [Sierra Club President Carl] Pope said. "The only thing they did was give it a title...that the media started paying attention to."
Well, that's called good marketing, Mr. Pope. Or call it successful advocacy. Call it whatever you want, but if you've been saying it for years, why has the Sierra Club, with its multi-million dollar budget, failed to get the message out?
Whether you agree or disagree with their conclusions, Shellenberger and Nordhaus are clearly successful innovators, stirring the pot, pissing people off, and getting the word out.