The less developed a country is, the more polluted it is. Only developed countries have enough money and resources to keep their environment clean. Furthermore, people only care about the environment when their basic needs are met.
“Environmentalists” who oppose any and all development in the name of the environment are working actively towards the opposite of what they claim.
Not quite accurate.
A completely undeveloped country can be quite unpolluted.
However, once the development process starts, pollution tends to get worse and worse till it hits a tipping point where sufficient wealth has been generated that some of the surplus can be applied to the "less urgent" needs of improving environmmental quality rather than simple survival.
Always.
It's just a tool to take more control, as is Obamacare, and federal funding of [fill in the blank].