Directory undercounting and un-purged lists mask grassroots environmental decline

Evidence

In writing this book, I contacted a dozen experts, both academics and activists, on grassroots environmentalism. Without exception they believed that grassroots environmental activity was on the rise. With one exception, however, none could cite hard evidence for this impression. … However, over these thirty years NWF got better at finding such groups, and once we take that improvement into account, the directories tell a story of decline. For example, of groups shown in the 1999 directory with founding dates before 1968, only one-third had been listed in the 1968 directory. Even modest adjustment for this early undercounting converts apparent growth into actual decline. … Other alleged evidence of growth in grassroots environmental organizations, such as that presented in Nicholas Freudenberg and Carol Steinsapir, “Not in Our Backyards: The Grassroots Environmental Movement,” in American Environmentalism: The U.S. Environmental Movement, 1970–1990, edited by Riley E. Dunlap and Angela G. Mertig (New York: Taylor & Francis, 1992), 29, is seriously flawed by the fact that most lists of grassroots groups are never purged of defunct organizations. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 2058

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Survey self-reports wildly overstate environmental organization membership — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 2057; Community decline operates invisibly through the absence of familiar practices — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 1451

Broader Connections

• Survey self-reports wildly overstate environmental organization membership #corroborates (0.90) — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 2057
• Community decline operates invisibly through the absence of familiar practices #complicates (0.75) — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 1451