While this strategy has motivated much change and will continue to be effective to some extent, it's time to add a more profound approach. And, even some of those changes are in serious danger of being lost if the new U.S. Congress has its way. Furthermore, legislation can go only so far in alleviating the magnitude of the threats to long-term sustainability. And, of course, that five percent is more like two percent if we consider that at least 90 percent of the consuming in the U.S. is done by less than 40 percent of the U.S. population. The time has come to address underlying social and economic conditions which will promote the fundamental changes that must occur for long-term sustainability.
Most environmental activists believe quite strongly that they have been right in their analyses.
Many believe that most anyone looking at the same data and weighing the same considerations will come to the same or sufficiently similar conclusions about what needs to be done. Let's start by looking at ourselves. Let's look at cigarette smoking and the tobacco industry for what we can learn from at least one campaign to promote individual and institutional change. The evidence is massive and incontrovertible that cigarette smoking is not only bad for one's health, but also life threatening. Over the past twenty years the percentage of the adult population that smokes has decreased.