In the fall of 2005, Yale graduate student Emily Enderle was asking some uncomfortable questions about faculty diversity at the university’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She writes:

“With a faculty of 43, 18 of whom are tenured, there are only one female and one international tenured faculty members and no domestic faculty of color. In a school where the majority of students are women, 16 percent are domestic minorities, and 30 percent are international students, these faculty statistics are disheartening.

After speaking with faculty and students about the state of diversity at the school and within the movement, she realized that “many prestigious environmental professionals didn’t know why diversity is important, despite their professed belief in its importance.”

This realization sent her on a journey of discovery that she shares with the rest of us in Diversity and the Future of the U.S. Environmental Movement, a collection of essays from 15 diversity leaders and practitioners, including Enderle.

Enderle’s essayists address the question, “Why is diversity important?” and also offer recommendations about how to develop and sustain a vibrantly diverse environmental movement and work force. The answers are fascinating and sometimes contradictory. Taken together, however, they paint a picture of environmental organizations, government agencies and businesses that are achieving only limited success in their diversity efforts.

Although some of the essayists nod to the many ways that people are different (age, gender, personality, ability, etc.),most are focused on race and class. Almost without exception, the selected writers appear to share certain assumptions about environmentalists and environmentalism, including the following:

• Environmental political issues, as conventionally presented, are often a higher priority forWhite Americans in the higher income brackets with college degrees than minority groups;