A non-partisan green movement is impossible today given its opponents

In the 1980s the green movement, dominated by groups like Greenpeace, said their movement was non-political. Photograph: Patrick T Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

In the 1980s the fast-growing green movement, dominated by Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund for Nature, insisted that saving wildlife, mending the hole in the ozone layer, stopping acid rain and combating climate change were non-political. Campaigners agreed everyone wanted to leave their children as good a planet as they inherited.

Since then progress has been made on mending the ozone layer and stopping acid rain but few are now pretending that environmental issues are non-partisan.