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 Conservation and the Political Imperative By Howie Wolke The inauguration of “President” Bush (made possible only by year 2000 election shenanigans) underscores two salient conservation truths. First, however bad things are, they can always get worse. This truth is painfully self-evident. The second truth is that theoretical silver linings to dark clouds fail to compensate for real losses on the ground, and in the air and water. Make no mistake: what is actually happening to vital air, water and wildland resources under bush/Cheney/Haliburton is ugly as hell and often irreversible. Much of the damage simply wouldn’t have occurred even under the meekest of Democrats. Here’s what I mean by “silver linings”. We’ve all heard – and often still hear – that egregiously anti-environmental Administrations such as those of Ronald Reagan and both Bushes, actually benefit wildland conservation because they inspire increased memberships and donations to green groups. Also, according to this line of thought, our side gets better organized because the foe is so blatant. And anyway, some of the thinking goes, there’s “little or no difference between the Republicans and the Democrats”. Unfortunately, although this logic contains some truth, its danger lurks in its ability to keep at least some folks – especially idealistic young people – from working to elect environmental candidates that have a chance to win immediately, even though most are less than perfect. Nonetheless, I too bemoan the straight jacket confines of the two-party system. Over the year I’ve often used the term “Republicrat”. But as my hairline recedes and my world view expands (I like to think), I try to allow personal dogma to evolve as events dictate. The narrow chasm that once barely segregated the environmental policies of the elephants and the donkeys has grown into a big canyon. Gone are the days of having to choose between the nearly identical environmental agenda of Humphrey (green in his early days, much less so later on) and Nixon (1968). Fact is, when it comes to wildlands, the climate crisis and overpopulation (Wilderness, Warming and Whoa!), the gulf between Gore and Kerry versus Bush/Cheney is vast indeed. Not to mention the remainder of their party cohorts in Congress and elsewhere across the political landscape. Frankly, the possible loss of the biological heart of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge along with the nearby so-called Petroleum Reserve, plus opening to development 58 million acres of roadless areas briefly protected by the Clinton roadless rule, are poor tradeoffs for increasing the Sierra Club’s membership. Ditto for the elimination of all wilderness consideration for all Interior Department wildlands, new clearcuts in the Tongass rain forest, oil rigs in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and increased greenhouse emissions (adios Kyoto, hello tax credits for Hummers)… Much of this destruction, by the way, is happening now, not at some theoretical future time. The national forest Roadless Rule provides a graphic example of the consequences of Thus, the stakes are high, the planet’s need urgent. Wildlands and biodiversity, greenhouse emissions, population/family planning and a plethora of other environmental problems that now define the grave threat to life as we know it on Earth simply can’t wait for fledging political movements such as the Green Party to grow up. We must work toward such goals, yes, but not at the expense of what’s at stake now. Anthropogenic extinction has already claimed perhaps tens of thousands of species in the last century. Radical unprecedented climate change already wreaks ecological havoc, upright hominid biomass now reflects over 6 billion naked apes and counting, the oceans are depleted, and according to conservation biologists most evolutionary processes for large terrestrial vertebrates have already ceased. Urgent? That’s an understatement. This returns us to the American political dichotomy. No doubt, the donkeys are far from pure. Just look at any list of campaign contributors. So let’s view conservation in a context that reflects the unprecedented urgency of today’s environmental crisis and the new reality of modern American politics. Forget the old leftist dogma that claims no difference between the major parties or their candidates. Let’s face it: the Republican party is now firmly controlled by the whacko right. Efforts, now, to elect viable environmental candidates, be they Democrats, Independents or Greens (or even Republicans, in increasingly rare instances), must become a more integral part of wildlands conservation. For starters, there’ll be another Congressional election in less than two years. So we’d better start working now to identify and promote good environmental candidates that can win, and to improve the environmental positions of established politicians. This means that we’d better make a greater effort to educate news editors and producers as to why the environment is an important issue. If these folks continue to ignore it, few candidates will perceive the environment as something that requires much attention. As one who has historically avoided electoral politics (except to vote), I have no qualms whistling a new tune more appropriate for the strange new world of today’s political landscape. That landscape is fraught with quicksand and concrete walls. But unless we learn to avoid the mire and scale the walls, the future looks unimaginably grim. Though Bush/Cheney will be gone in 2009, lined up behind them are plenty more corrupt ultra-right win industrial lackeys. And their possible success conjures up visions of a future too horrible to contemplate.
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