America is already “green”

The Economist (27 January) makes one clear point and one big error in its coverage of “the greening of America”. It is certainly true that America is moving closer to the European view that managing energy demand is the best way to tackle climate change. However, America long ago embraced environmentalism as a mainstream ideology. Indeed, Anna Bramwell in her excellent The Fading of the Greens (Yale 1994) describes how America, along with Britain and Germany, is where environmentalist ideas originated. It should also be noted that Charles Reich’s The Greening of America, an environmentalist classic and number one bestseller, was first published in 1970.