April 11, 2005 — By Paul C. Pritchard, National Park Trust
“The environmental movement is dead,” some in Ecotopia declare.
Unfortunately, those of us in the communities and on the Eastern
Front didn’t get the message. So, we continue to fight on in a lot
of different fields, thinking somehow we can make a difference.
Some history might be useful.
Most agree that the modern environmental movement began with Earth
Day, 1970, signaling a new tactic--when saving the environment was
most efficiently addressed by looking for federal solutions like
the Clean Water Act, the Wilderness Act, etc. Unlike prior times,
the “federal solution” meant solving a national issue with federal
laws, federal funding, and federal enforcement by an agency and
in the courts. State solutions it was found were too costly for
the limited resources of the few environmental warriors.
The success of this “federal solution” is evident. The failure
was manifold: leaving our state and local grassroots behind, learning
how to lobby (and therefore look like, smell like…) the big guys
in Washington, and creating a legal system that was and is very
vulnerable to a president like Bush and a Congress like the one
we now have.
Looking back, the beginning of the end of this tactic was when
we successfully fought off James Watt. As one of the Gang of Ten
who fought the dark force of James Watt, we thought we did pretty
well in the 1980s. But the broader social agenda, the zeitgeist,
was moving away from us. Furthermore, Watt had determined how to
stop or slow down the laws and agencies in Washington, DC. Only
his mouth saved us.
Now some would argue that we just need to re-connect with the labor,
the peace, and the civil rights… movements. But these allies of
the past are also struggling, looking for new tactics. They too
relied on the “federal solution.” (You could even credit the Civil
Rights Movement with inventing it.) And now these allies need to
craft new tactics like we do. For example, the labor movement member
today looks more like my children’s teachers than my brother-in-law
who retired from GM.
Fussing and feuding about the failures of the past seems futile.
The key is to realize that we need to focus on our long-range goals
and devise new tactics for achieving the goals.
For example, one new tactic for saving land has been the incredibly
successful land trust movement which has come into its own as a
force for the environment.
The National Park Trust, one privately funded land trust charity,
bought and saved a national park unit by making it a privately owned
national park. It has quietly worked to save lands, “inholdings,”
in over 100 national and state parks and national refuges.
Another example. Energy conservation groups like the Apollo Alliance
are finding new tactics of working with the private sector, any
ally, to transform America’s energy losses.
Water is a third area where the joint commitment of a charity and
a private investor, the Concern for Kids and The Crestline Corporation,
has created a way of solving one of the most important world challenges,
clean, drinkable water.
The tactics of the past that were largely built on the “federal
solution” are not being thrown out. Rather, these conservation tactics
may take advantage of federal tactics and building on them, investment
tax credits, conservation easements, etc.
Maybe the “movement” is not dead, just in need of new tactics.
In the meantime, some of us will keep on fighting while the new
thinkers and soldiers come up with the new solutions that reinforce
those on the Fronts.
Paul Pritchard is Founder and President of the National Park Trust.
Source: An ENN Commentary
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