A summing-up

Around 1987 the environmental movement began to take on a new character. Metaphorically we might say the seeds that had been planted in the cultural soil had started to take root. The utopian practices which had characterized much of the activity of environmental movements up until then have gradually given way to the somewhat more complicated and diffuse work of instituting and implementing: cultivating and nurturing the seeds that have been planted. As a result the underlying meanings of environmental politics have come to be fundamentally altered. Other interests have had to be taken into account in the launching of campaigns, the development of programs and the taking of initiatives. The terms of discussion have shifted from making particular improvements or pointing to particular environmental problems to integrating environmental concerns into all other kinds of social, economic, and political activities.