Citizen activism and the quest for sustainability. (Editorial)

The National Round Table on Environment and Economy recently published a special issue of its newsletter, entitled "Environmental Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) in the 1990s." The near-unanimous opinion of its contributors was that if environmental groups wish to remain relevant, they must become more solution and less problem-oriented, more co-operative and more specialized.

These prescriptions may seem self-evident. But underlying them is an assumption that sustainability is to be achieved mostly through technological change. People need to put their head together and find less damaging ways of carrying on with "business as usual." Existing values and institutions can be left esentially as they are.

An alternative view is that …