With all the recent marketing buzz around being ‘green’ and climate change and the like (with so little action following), I was wondering if ‘environmentalist’ is still a bad name? It used to be synonymous with phrases like tree-hugger but what now? Are enough mainstream people riding this new wave to the point that it might actually be considered socially acceptable? Have we even passed that point to where there is yet another backlash against environmentally conscious people?
Moreover, does this thinking apply to science? I would loosely consider myself an environmental scientist; does that get the same sort of reaction with the public? Do other scientists shrug off environmental science for their ‘more real’ scientific disciplines?
Being a tree-hugger is definitely acceptable now. There’s even a website to prove it! Speaking as someone who has literally hugged a few trees in my time (teenage cider drinker), I’m very happy about this development!
Cath,
Don’t you think there is growing backlash against such overt ‘hippie-ness.’ It used to be cutesy but now, just like any bandwagon-type behavior in the U.S., people can turn against it just as quickly? For example, look at what is happening now to Barack Obama in the democratic primaries? He went from underdog to messiah to bandwagon all in the span of about a month.