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The British environmental movement experienced a short lived ‘greenrush’ between 1988 and 1990: exponential growth of members and income of environmental organizations (Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, WWF), highest vote share (thus far) for the Green Party in the 1989 European elections, omnipresence of environmental issues in the media and in politics. This ‘greenrush’ was, however, short-lived and was followed by a lean period for environmental issues. We show that this phenomenon, contrary to what has often been written previously, was not limited to the United Kingdom, but was a European-wide phenomenon (including Eastern Europe) and was observed in the USA as well. We analyze the different factors which contributed to this peak and trough such as the globalization of the issue of climate change (and its increasing presence in the media after 1988) or the growing professionalization of environmental organizations.