Yes indeed. The movement was hijacked by people whose sympathies are red, not green.
Conservatives conserve.
It's who we are, for heaven's sake.
How could the left so deftly steal the word "conservation" from conservatism?
They are incredibly practiced at redefining words! First they defined big industrialists as robber barons who would do anything for a dollar. Sadly, there was some (or a lot of in a few cases) truth in that, so the people believed it. Then they defined the robber barons as puppet masters of the right. Less truth, but believable - after all, they were right the first time.
At the same time, they began - slowly and cautiously - to infiltrate every organization which had anything even vaguely to do with production and pollution. I honestly think they exceeded their aims here - it has been a hugely effective replacement for the increasingly irrelevant unions, and no one could have predicted it at the time.
Pull in a few powerful ad campaigns as people watched TV more and more. You recall your first TV? It was sitting there, showing you the world and wondrous sights that you had never seen before. The programming was top notch, intelligent, interesting and fun. And a lot of it was nature programs.
Pay for a few dodgy and poorly conducted studies, and we are now in the late 60s. Tap in to the whole hippy culture. Most disapproved, but it was on the news night after night, and what your parents shout at the TV about is very attractive to teens.