Long View on Environmental Politics

The Peruvian tribal elder pointed out the trees as if they were old friends. “See that one over there?” he asked me as we walked through the reforested land. “That one will make a good canoe.” He knew that he would not live to see the trees grow to maturity, never use the canoe. But still he had planted hundreds of them, and was proud of it.

It was the leadership principle perfectly at work, for it recognized the long-term link between resources and production--the link of proper environmental management that is missing when we teach our children that you get a canoe simply by walking into a store and buying one.

This encounter came to mind after July’s summit meeting in Paris. There, seven leaders of the industrialized world issued an important statement calling for protection of the global environment. Each point of the communique spoke of “combined efforts” or “urgent measures” or “strong support” to combat the truly critical environmental issues of our time, such as global warming, deforestation and depleting energy resources.

Despite its value, the document was not an action plan--it was a reaction plan. The leaders were catching up to problems, and to public opinion. Although the communique was signed by world leaders, it was actually written by the public, because when it comes to protecting the environment, the public is clearly out ahead.

The environmental movement began with the first people on earth, who understood better than we do that resources are limited and thus incompatible with unlimited waste. Modern environmental awareness is usually considered to have begun with the now classic book in 1962 by Rachel Carson, “Silent Spring,” which spoke of the dangers of agricultural pesticides.

In 1979, Jimmy Carter, then President of the United States, commissioned a study called Global 2000 to assess the status of the global environment. It predicted many problems ahead, but on the world stage, Global 2000 was soon forgotten. Now, a decade later, the results of environmental mismanagement cannot be ignored. Last summer, people around the world despaired over trash and garbage coughed up by the sea. Droughts turned fertile soil to dust. Polluted air shrouded cities. People became frightened.

Leadership reacted at last, sounding environmental themes at the international summit. But congratulations belong to the public, including its bold experts and scientists. For on the environment, ideas have traveled up to the leaders and not the other way around. The public initiated its own recycling efforts before they were mandated; the public has looked for ways to reduce energy consumption at home; the public was outraged at oil spilling from the Exxon Valdez.

There are exceptions, of course, but few political careers have been built by advocating policies of environmental protection. In some ways, politics and environmental protection are mutually exclusive. Environmental protection protects everyone, not just members of a political party or a special-interest group. Conversely, pollution also effects everyone, transcending political boundaries. An election where 10% of people vote for an “environmentalist” party does not mean the other 90% want or deserve an unhealthy environment. Politics is a point of view. Environment is not.

Politicians have perhaps had a problem taking leadership positions on the environment because generally they will be out of office when the fruits of their initiatives mature. For example, whatever “urgent action” we take at last to protect the ozone layer will not have a discernible effect until well into the next century. Such investments are not necessarily reflected in a higher GNP or a healthier trade balance. Therefore, politically speaking, environmental protection is an abstraction.

The excellent leader, though, acts in spite of the intangibles, using an ineffable selflessness to balance being forceful with being farsighted. A true leader is willing to postpone getting credit, to perhaps never get credit at all--to let someone else harvest the garden, but to plant it nevertheless.