[1][2] Paehlke studied political science obtaining his BA from Lehigh University, his MA from The New School for Social Research, and his PhD from the University of British Columbia.
He has spent his academic career at the Trent University, Canada.
In 1971 he was founding editor of the journal Alternatives: Canadian Ideas and Action.
In 1989 Paehlke still believed, that "environmentalism as an ideology is now at a stage of development comparable to that of socialism a century ago.
Environmentalism may never obtain a mass base similar to that of conservatism, liberalism, or socialism, but it has already transformed the way many people understand the political world.