« Study: Living Wage in L.A. | Main | Report: Second-Generation Immigrants in California »
June 09, 2005
Article: The death of elite, white, American environmentalism
A stinging critique of the Death of Environmentalism, a report by Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus. Advocate Ludovic Blain focuses on the many ways in which the previous two authors left out the efforts and successes of the environmental justice movement, especially those of minorities and women. One paragraph in particular took a nice swing at Ivy Leaguers:
As an organizer for the past 15 years, I've seen the delusional nature of many privileged, white male advocates. They really seem to think that rather than expanding the group of thinkers and doers, all that's required for social change is that they improve their own thinking. "One of the things I learned at Harvard is most people there assume they are the best and the brightest," said Frances Kunreuther, director of the Building Movement Project, a New York-based organization dedicated to helping nonprofits create social changes through movement-building strategies. "They actually believe they got there by merit, so power and privilege are never in the equation."