Legitimating impotence: Pyrrhic victories of the modern environmental movement

Abstract

The strengths and limitations of the modern environmental movement are assessed, using a contextual analysis, with a framework drawn from pragmatic analysis. Empirical summaries from recent policy-making supported by the movement: in community-based recycling, local toxic waste movements, and water pollution control document the fact that the movement has indeed developed some “sustainable resistance” in policy-making in the U.S. and at the Rio Conference. But it has also ignored those consequences of “environmental protection” which degrade the living conditions for many people of color and other low-income groups. The movement's failure to form enduring coalitions for linking environmental protection to social justice limits the movement's power, by permitting disempowered groups to be mobilized in opposition to environmental protection. We outline an alternative strategy, built around “sustainable legitimacy”, which will require changes in the composition and program of environmental movement organizations.