MANY PEOPLE BELIEVE that wealth and power have corrupted mainstream environmental groups and made them ineffective. Moreover, they argue that the American public is tiring of environmental issues and suggest that the environmental movement will weaken unless environmentalists discover new ways of presenting their positions and generating support.

National versus local

In fact, some critics suggest that mainstream environmental groups have already harmed the environmental movement. Mark Dowie argues that when social movements give way to bureaucracy, they run the risk of self-destructing. He quotes Riley Dunlap and Angela Mertig of Washington State University, who have studied the final stages of social movements:

In the process of achieving success, a movement typically loses momentum. Its organizations evolve into formalized interest groups staffed by activists-turned-bureaucrats, . . . and support dwindles as the media turn to newer issues and the public assumes the problematic...