Nation Topics - Environmental Activism | The Nation

Recipient of the 2010 Goldman Environmental Prize.

Recipient of the 2010 Goldman Environmental Prize.

Recipient of the 2010 Goldman Environmental Prize.

Environmentalists chalk up wins on the ground, putting coal companies on the defensive.

 Conservation is no longer' a cause; it is a crisis. Its features are drawn in taut lines by forces unprecedented in human history, like a human face contorted by foreboding and strain. 

 Ecology has become a very important issue on campuses this season, and this teach-in was the forerunner--a kind of model--for thousands of college and high school colloquia to be held on April 22, dubbed "Earth Day" by the sponsors. 

 Ask Brock Evans, Washington lobbyist for the Audubon Society, what he thinks of the liedown- in-front-of-the-bulldozer approach to 'environmentalism practiced by Earth First!, and he scoffs, "I want to know how many acres they've saved in the last few years." Earth First! founder Dave Foreman's response is, many acres have they given away?" In the sixteen years since the-first Earth Day, the most prominent environmental groups have become more savy and more pragmatic politically as they have blended into the Washington landscape.

Johann Hari's piece "The Wrong Kind of Green" takes mainstream environmental groups to task for selling out their principles, often in exchange for money from the worst polluters.  We invited a range of green groups mentioned in the article to respond to Hari's arguments in this special online forum.

The Nature Conservancy has acknowledged the oil leak in the Gulf, but failed to mention BP. Could it be because the Conservancy has close ties to the oil company? Johann Hari reports on the relationship between conservation groups and corporate cash.