The science of politics is the one science that is deposited by the streams of history like the grains of gold in the sand of a river and the knowledge of the past the record of truths revealed by experience is eminently practical as an instrument of action and a power that goes to making the future.
Environmental concern is a little like dieting or paying off credit-card debt - an episodically terrific idea that burns brightly and then seems to fade when we realize there's a reason we need to diet or pay down our debt. The reason is that it's really really hard and too many of us in too many spheres of life choose the easy over the hard.