Cockburn on Environment

Re “Green Leaders Have Turned Into Toadies,” Column Left, Jan. 5:

While I share Alexander Cockburn’s frustration with the failure of environmental issues to make a difference in the recent elections, he is wide of the mark in his continuing denunciation of major national environmental organizations for this state of affairs. In the midst of the media circus and political demagoguery that pass for responsible statesmanship these days, how could intelligent messages talking of the looming crisis of the environment hope to be heard?

Cockburn confuses the desire and efforts of the “major green groups” to articulate this message with their ability to influence day-to-day political realities.

As a leader in the recent campaign for the California Desert Protection Act, we had the support of our state’s delegation and even a clear majority of both houses of Congress for several years, and it was still a close call to gain passage. Without the professionalism and lobbying skills of the Wilderness Society, Sierra Club, National Parks and Conservation Assn. and other similar groups, we would never have succeeded. Rather than condemning these groups for failures beyond their control, Cockburn should be working with them to seek more success by changing the political context of the battle.

JIM DODSON, Director

Desert Protective Council, Lancaster

Cockburn’s trashing of the Wilderness Society and other environmental groups was riddled with errors and fundamentally wrong. First, there are no grounds for his claim that we have shrugged off the Clinton Administration’s environmental retreats. In March, 1993, the Wilderness Society was widely quoted after criticizing the White House’s initial surrender on grazing reform. We have remained critical ever since and organized 54 groups to put an ad stating our opposition in Western papers. Anyone who claims we have been unwilling to criticize the Administration has not been paying attention.

Nor is it credible to contend that we have “surrendered” on wilderness. The California Desert Protection Act, passed by Congress in November, was the largest wilderness bill passed in 14 years. It wasn’t perfect, but it will provide the greatest protection achievable for the desert. It is a good thing we pushed so hard to get the law enacted by the 103rd Congress; I doubt we would have fared as well in the 104th. For our efforts over the past decade, we recently shared a national award with the Sierra Club. On Montana and Idaho wilderness bills, we have fought just as hard, side by side with virtually every environmental group in those two states.

Equally indefensible is Cockburn’s contention that we offered “only token resistance” to the Administration’s plan for the Northwest’s ancient forests. We took the Administration to court, we talked constantly to reporters about the plan’s shortcomings, and we produced Geographic Information System (GIS) maps showing the probable impact on Pacific salmon. Those maps are widely credited with leading to a more protective plan. They and much of our other analytical findings helped shape the litigation. The result is likely to be an 80% reduction in logging from historic levels.

Cockburn believes in an all-or-nothing approach. But in the real world, you can’t get everything you want. Congress and federal agencies decide how our 600 million acres of public lands will be managed, and no matter how well we do our job, a lot of those decisions are not going to go our way. Our duty--to our members, our children and our consciences--is to convince decision-makers to provide as much protection for those lands as possible.

JON ROUSH, President

The Wilderness Society, Washington