This assessment of the environmental community may seem severe. However, the proof is in the results, or more accurately the lack of them. There are a lot of reasons why environmental issues aren’t carrying the political weight they should. The failure to adequately communicate the important message that our political leaders need to enact and follow responsible environmental policies is at the top of the list. The best way to build coalitions and political power is to do so in a non-political way. Establishing areas of agreement and common ground because it’s the right thing to do is where this effort has to start. Someone has to be willing to take the first step towards building the bridges necessary to gain consensus. If not, we will spend election cycle after election cycle staring across the aisle at people who share common interests but just can’t get past other political differences to address them.

There is a real “I believe in science” element to this approach. That goes as much for trusting that following good sound principles will yield positive results in the end as it does for believing that reason and fact will eventually win the day. In the face of the political nonsense that we see every day this may seem like a tremendous leap of faith. However, the elements of success are all there, they just need to be put together in the right way. This evaluation of environmentalists is hard because it has to be. The environmental community needs to raise its level of performance in the political arena by seizing the opportunities that are there. The forces that benefit from exploiting our resources and degrading the environment have certainly learned to communicate in a politically effective manner. If the environmental community does not learn to match these skills there will be consequences. Failure is not an option.