Growing Pains
Early in November, The New York Times published a hit piece on the Sierra Club that highlighted the environmental group’s internal struggles as it sought to embrace social justice. By broadening its agenda to include progressive causes like racial and economic justice, gender equity, and upholding democracy, the club has suffered heavy losses in revenue and supporters, the report alleged. While the article centered one venerable green group, the general takeaway seemed to be that the environmental movement would be more effective if it stuck to its lane — that is, if it focused solely on protecting wilderness, wildlife, and the climate. This framing is absurdly anachronistic, damaging, and, honestly, lazy. One doesn’t have to look farther than the features in our Winter 2026 print issue, which will hit newsstands soon, to see why. Need an example of how gender equity can intersect with wildlife conservation? Read “Her Terrain,” which shows how employing Maasai women as wildlife rangers helps them break free of patriarchal traditions like polygamy and child marriage while also protecting iconic animals. Or read “Changing the Equation” to learn about Dena Montague’s work to generate energy independence in Ghana while also building community and fostering economic justice. And if it isn’t clear that forest conservation requires stable governments and full bellies, read “The Last Stand,” which details how the civil war in Syria has led to widespread logging by both armed militias and citizens struggling to survive. Or peruse “Up In Smoke,” which shows the reverse — that in a (still) functioning democracy, fierce public engagement can help protect forests. Outside these pages, here in the United States, we are witnessing firsthand how environmental advocacy becomes more difficult when our civic rights are undermined. Since Donald Trump took office in January 2025, his administration has taken or proposed more than 350 anti-environmental actions. Yet despite this assault, recent polls indicate that climate and environmental issues have fallen farther down the list of voter concerns, below things like the economy, government corruption, immigrant rights, and the state of our democracy. That’s no surprise. It can be hard to summon outrage about yet another hit to the Endangered Species Act or the latest move to open up our coastal waters to oil and gas drilling when armed immigration enforcement agents are grabbing our neighbors off the streets, essential federal services like food stamps (which help nearly 42 million Americans put food on the table) are being disrupted, and the specter of civil unrest looms large. What is surprising, and frustrating, is the willful blindness of those who view the challenges that the environmental movement faces as failures rather than the inevitable growing pains of trying to move beyond an exclusionary past. It’s way past time for those blinders to come off.
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