Abstract
Abstract Among the many “isms” of the 1960s, environmentalism offered one of the most powerful and enduring critiques of consumerism. So the first section of this chapter deals with one of the era’s great ironies: the enigmatic Richard Nixon had one of the greenest records of any president. His administration produced most of the major legislative apparatus, including NEPA, the EPA, OSHA, and the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. Yet Nixon was no environmentalist and also supported the Alaskan Pipeline, the Tennessee-Tombigbee river project, and the Miami airport in the Everglades. His motives were predictably exquisitely political. In the wake of Watergate, the new powers available to environmental organizations shifted leadership from the grassroots efforts of Earth Day to NGOs dominated by professionals. Traditional organizations such as the Audubon Society and Sierra Club assumed more active roles, while new organizations such as the Environmental Defense Fund, Greenpeace, and NRDC promoted more confrontational strategies. The decline of the consumer economy and high unemployment caused a backlash against environmentalism.
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