The fact is, Jonah, that the state of impending eco-apocalypse is permanent. We live with far cleaner air and water today than we did when the environmental movement was founded, yet we are constantly bombarded with propaganda that things are getting worse. And when the environmental movement does acheive complete victory on an issue, they find something else that is an even worse threat to the planet or convenient charismatic megafauna.
Moreover, whenever someone does attempt to point out that the Green Emperor has no clothes, they are literally assailed as the equivalent of a holocaust denier for questioning what everyone knows to be true. So, nice though it is to think that there will be a backlash of rationality and cynicism against them, as long as the green movement has countless millions of dollars to fuel pop-culture propaganda, it probably won’t happen (unless, of course, the word “humbug” re-enters our vocabulary . . . )