Perhaps you've been following the controversy: is American environmentalism dead?

So say Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, in their 2004 essay "The Death of Environmentalism." Former Sierra Club chair Adam Werbach agrees (here are links to audio and text of his late-2004 speech "The Death of Environmentalism and the Birth of the Commons Movement"), and so does writer Bill McKibben.

But some say the obits are premature. Carl Pope, head of the Sierra Club, called their analysis "shoddy" in Grist Magazine, which has been giving regular space to the debate.

There's nothing quite like a live face-off, though, and today we all get a chance to listen in. At 11 a.m. New York time, Ted Nordhaus and Jon Coifman, Acting Communications Director for the National Resources Defense Council, take up swords on public radio's The Brian Lehrer Show. Lehrer is an excellent and informed moderator; it should be a very interesting discussion. And if you miss the live broadcast, WNYC will have an archived Real Media stream up by tomorrow.

Alex recently posted to WorldChanging on what steps activists should take to reclaim their effectiveness.