You've got a point. I got out of the environmental movement...actually, many people interested in responsible conservation based on environmental interaction and
real, hard science were
pushed out by the wackos.
From the beginning, they were well organized and well funded.
We had hoped to start a seperate movement, which is still around, BTW, which is based on the premises mentioned above. Sadly, the city-based armchair-environmentalists gained in popularity, and their cause was taken up by the Third Way movement. Conservationists were kicked out in favor of these "Preservationists".
We thought that truth and good science would prevail. We were very naive.
Now when an enviro-wacko ruins a study, wastes tens of thousands of $$$ on junk studies which ruin thousands of lives, they are "counceled" and "removed from the project".
Very sad. We all wind up paying the price, and not just in $$$
The problem here is structural. The power to control the access to resources is too great to prevent corrupt interests from using the law to manipulate the economic value of producing assets. The poor schmucks who get out of college planning to "Save the Environment" quickly find out that the only employers that aren't laying everybody off are government agencies. The safety and security of a government job that is funded through discovery of continuing problems is a system that can be expected to run afoul of the law of unintended consequences.
There is an alternative to civic management of the environment.