Lecture #23: Environmental Backlash
Suggested Readings:
Norman J. Vig & Michael E. Kraft, Environmental Policy: New Directions for the Twenty-First Century, 2002.
William Shutkin, The Land That Could Be: Environmentalism and Democracy in the 21st Century, 2000.
For property rights arguments, peruse http://www.cdfe.org/ and http://www.rangemagazine.com/.
Outline
I. Reagan's Revolution
George W. Bush administration’s hostility to environmental regulation, desire to open public lands to development had a long history, but also represented a basic change in environmental bipartisanship
From Teddy Roosevelt through Nixon, Democrats and Republicans had competed with each other over which had stronger conservation/environmental credentials; most major laws of 1960s-70s were passed during Nixon Administration: NEPA, Clean Air, Clean Water, Endangered Species, EPA, NOAA, etc.
reactions against 1960s-era environmentalism appearing by early 1970s‑-J. Maddox, The Doomsday Syndrome; Wm Tucker, Progress & Privilege arguing that environmental doom exaggerated, progress not bad, regulation threatened economic growth, environmentalists unwilling to share material privilege
Ronald Reagan combined these with general hostility to government intervention in private sector, resulting in systematic attack on TR/Pinchot-era conservation & later regulatory apparatus
James Watt, Secretary of Interior, as key player: wilderness-designated lands opened to coal/oil exploration, sought to sell large blocks of public lands; reduce land-use regulation; favor states and private sector
firestorm of opposition, petition drives; criticized for evangelical faith; removed for racist remark, 1983
EPA story similar: Anne Gorsuch reduced budget, staff, sought to end unnecessary regulation; removed in 1983 for delaying toxics action on Stringfellow Dump before CA election; big growth for env groups
environmentalist lobbying symbol for conservatives of new "special interest" status of environmentalists
II. Environmentalist Counterrevolution
critiques from env left as well: older organizations attacked for being coopted by regulators, not radical
USFS lands: attack on Reagan cut of old-growth forests attackede TR/Pinchot utilitarianism & multiple use
Dave Foreman's Earth First! as "non-violent" "eco-warriors": spiking trees, vandalizing equipment, etc.
bioregionalism as movement to reorganize nation into ecologically self-sufficient watersheds
deep ecology as more philosophical wing of radical environmentalism: wilderness preservation tradition, biocentric vision of harmony with nature, anti‑modernist ambivalence about human place in nature
French & German Greens as radicals combining attacks on technology (esp. nuclear power) with Marxist attack on capitalism, much more class-conscious than US counterparts
animal rights movement emerges from older anti-vivisectionist, humanitarian, vegetarian traditions, but rights-based defense of animal autonomy from human-induced pain/harm (roots in Jeremy Bentham)
individualism of animal rights vs. ecosystem/wilderness/species concern of deep ecology
III. Learning from Complicity
broad US public far removed from most of these: strong commitment to env, but balanced by economy
diminishing hope for simple environmental solutions in 1980s: politics of ambivalence
indoor air pollution as political vehicle for shifting controversy away from corporations & industry: but also serious problem, radon as natural pollutant, significant health threat which in part derived from energy conservation measures that insulated houses and diminished ventilation during 1970s
William K. Reilly as liberal Republican environmentalist EPA head for George H. W. Bush: how can we allocate funds to places to get greatest benefit, given public misperception of cost-benefit balance?
politics of disconnection: public lack of awareness of consequences of ordinary life
Exxon Valdez runs aground 3/24/89, 11 million barrels spill, 1200 miles coastline contaminated, public outcry against corporate malfeasance produces clean-up that does further damage: all for cars
IV. Paradoxes of Preserving Sacred Land
old-growth forest debate in Pacific Northwest symbolic of deepening conflict between old conservationist concern for productive resources and preservationist goal of protecting sacred land
spotted owl as occasion for legal action: 1973 Endangered Species Act mandates federal protection of species (not ecosystems) threatened with extinction, so owl becomes surrogate for forest itself
(first such controversy came in late 1970s over snail darter at Tellico Dam in Tennessee [TVA])
in old-growth controversy, heated debate about local economies vs. irreplaceable national resources
V. Partisan Environments: What Counts as "Wise Use"?
Wise Use (West) and Property Rights (East) movements as attacks on govt-based environmentalism
1994 Congress saw Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America" with strong critique of env regs; backlash
Clinton Administration national monuments promoted by Sec. Interior Bruce Babbitt; roadless rule
End of 20th century, 2 parties starkly polarized: Dems favored wilderness protection, pollution control, energy conservation; Republicans favored development, protect private property rights from government
Debate over whether to drill for oil in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge a potent symbol of stark choices
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