What is the brownlash?

"Personal resentment was a catalyst for my writing of this volume.  It took a while, but the recent spate of grossly slanted books, newspaper articles and broadcasts that typecast activists such as myself as environmental wackos waging war against God and country finally got under my skin."

Edward Flattau, (page 3)

"While it assumes a variety of forms, the brownlash appears most clearly as an outpouring of seemingly authoritative opinions in books, articles., and media appearances that greatly distort what is or isn't known by environmental scientists."

Paul and Anne Ehrlich (page 11)

"Denial, however, must be distinguished from honest disagreement about matters of fact, logic, data, and evidence that is a normal part of the ongoing struggle to establish scientific truth.  It is, rather, the willful dismissal or distortion of fact, logic, and data in the service of ideology and self-interest."

David Orr & David Ehrenfeld (page 225)

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The Ehrlichs (page1) identify the "brownlash" as an effort to "minimize the seriousness of environmental problems."  While this is true, there are other common themes that run through brownlash literature:

1.  Environmentalism is based on "junk science" or no science at all.  

2.  The majority of scientists do not support environmentalism

3.  Environmentalism is wrong.

4.  Environmentalism has nothing to do with protecting the environment.  Instead, it is about promoting a social or political agenda.

5.  Environmentalism is a religion.

References

Ehrlich, Paul and Anne The Betrayal of Science and Reason: How Anti-Environmental Rhetoric Threatens Our Future , Island Press, 1996.

Flattau, Edward Tracking the Charlatans:  An Environmental Columnist's Refutational Handbook for the Propaganda Wars , Global Horizons, 1998

Orr, David and David Ehrenfeld, "None so Blind:  The Problem of Ecological Denial" in Judith Scherff (editor), The Piracy of America:  Profiteering in the Public Domain, Clarity Press, Inc., 1999.

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Written by Jim Norton

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