US Environmental interest groups and the promotion of environmental values: The resounding success and failure of earth day

Abstract

The US environmental movement has borne a number of fruits, from an array of legislative accomplishments to a new, widely commemorated holiday ‐ Earth Day. Theoretical insights based in literatures on symbolic politics, collective memory, political socialisation, and the sociology of time suggest that the regular observance of this holiday inserts environmental values into the national consciousness on a regular basis, socializes children and adults, and unobtrusively legitimizes environmental interest groups. However, Earth Day demonstrates the US environmental movement's limitations and problems. A number of environmental groups consider the holiday's very popularity to be its own undoing, as corporate and business groups use Earth Day as an opportunity to define themselves as supportive of the environment. Drawing from textual sources and a survey of US environmental group leaders and staff, this article demonstrates how the holiday has proved to be a mixed legacy, reflecting the schisms permeating American environmentalism.