Four years ago, Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger argued “that global warming was an unprecedented ecological challenge that would lead to the death of environmentalism.” That proposition sparked a heated debate, with many eco-activists quick to reject it as irresponsible and…well, wrong. But in an opinion piece in today’s SF Chronicle, the authors suggest that we are now living in a post-environmental era. The authors point to Obama’s recent “State of the Union address,” in which the president “called for the most far-reaching program ever proposed by an American president to remake America’s energy economy - with hardly a mention of the environment.” Check out the full article, it’s a fascinating read. Here’s a bit of their argument:

“today, environmental organizations have largely relegated images of polar bears and melting ice flows to the back pages of their magazines. Green jobs and clean energy investment are the eco-ideas of the moment.

It was never realistic to have expected pollution regulations and carbon taxes to drive a global energy modernization project of the scale necessary to transform the global energy economy. We did not invent the personal computer by placing a “market-based cap” on typewriters nor create the Internet by taxing telegraphs and fax machines. To the contrary, government investment was largely responsible for bringing these revolutionary technologies, and a raft of others, into our lives. This included not only funding research and development at universities and national laboratories but also directly procuring and deploying cutting-edge technologies that were not yet ready for broad commercialization.”