This brief discussion paper argues that the dominant modes of environmental activism are not only insufficiently effective - they cannot succeed. The primary reason for this is that most environmental organisations have tacitly acquiesced to playing within a set of rules that has been designed to facilitate and legitimate the on-going exploitation of Nature. This means that advocates of ecological sustainability are operating within a political “terrain” which favours those civilisations, corporations and individuals that seek to achieve short-term improvements in the wellbeing of a minority of humans at the expense of Nature and of most humans.
