The Green Emperor Gets Naked

Getunderground is publishing a six-part essay that I've written called, "The Green Emperor Gets Naked." Part I starts out with a discussion of the paper "The Death of Environmentalism" submitted by a couple of whipper snappers (Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus; see the video of a panel discussion they took part in at Yale University this year, it's down in the righthand side of their website) out of California to the Environmental Grantsmakers Association last fall. Obviously they were being rhetorical, and everyone's got an opinion about what they really mean (and whether the paper itself has any intellectual merit). But they've done two very important things: 1) they point out that Global Warming requires a much more focused effort by those in the movement; 2) they call into question the notion of what it means to be an environmentalist. The main case S & N make is that we need to integrate environmental issues with those of labor, civil rights, and support of poor.

Part II will be posted in the beginning of October. This is a critique of the notion that we need to frame the global warming debate (ala George Lakoff) within the story of Western economic industrialization (for want of a better term). My main message is that we are at a turning point as a civilization and the next 10-20 years will be crucial in our development. This past five years has been devastating. I'm not sure we want this chaos to continue much longer.

Parts III through VI will come out over the rest of the autumn and deal with the varying contexts in which environmental issues (global warming in particular) are getting played out within society--government, business, the environmental professions (different than environmental groups), and, finally, the lives of good old American consumers.

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