Sierra Club Seeks Middle Ground in Environmental Movement

At a time when many activists fear the environment is threatened by the Bush administration, the nation’s oldest nonprofit environmental group is rejecting criticism that it is slow and ineffective.

Despite such accusations from other environmental groups and from within its own ranks, Executive Director Carl Pope said the Sierra Club’s strength comes from its important role as liaison between radical activists and the overall system.

And now, after a 40-year national discussion about goals for the environment, Pope said the time has come to work toward achieving those goals.

“We don’t want this continent to become a second Europe. We want wildness. We want corporate, social and political leaders to pay attention,” Pope said.

“I think the environmental debate in this country is over--we know what we want. Now that we know that, how do we get it? That’s going to be hard.”

Many believe the Sierra Club, especially under the new administration, needs to use its strength and name recognition to be a force for environmental protection. But although critics say the 650,000-member Sierra Club is effective when it does make a decision, they claim that often takes too long.

“They . . . can move mountains,” said Mark Palmer, a club member and assistant director for the International Marine Mammal Project of the Earth Island Institute. “They really do talk through things and really do have a lot of involvement at various levels of the organization. But at some point that needs to move forward.”

The club, founded in 1892, has played a prominent role in American environmental policy, helping to enlarge Grand Canyon National Park, for example, and to pass the National Environmental Policy Act and create the Environmental Protection Agency.

But some claim that the club’s decisions, when they come, don’t go far enough.

“It’s a big organization, and if it really wanted to throw its weight around, it could have a big difference,” said Paul Watson, founder and president of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which deploys ships in the worldwide fight against illegal fishing, for instance. He also is a member of the Sierra Club.

“I think the organization tends to be overly cautious, overly conservative and more concerned with marketing trips and products than with making changes,” Watson said.

On the other hand, the Sierra Club’s place closer to the middle ground is an asset to getting things done, said John Grasser, spokesman for the National Mining Assn.

“We’ve got to work together if we’re going to make any progress,” he said. “There’s got to be a middle ground on these issues, and that’s the trick right there. When you get groups that are too radical, and you’re polarized, that helps no one. I think they’re one of those that’s willing to come to the table and work on the issues.”

The tension between the two sides gives the Sierra Club its strength, Pope said.

“I think we need organizations whose strength is they are completely inside the process. I also think we need organizations that are on the outside being way, way ahead,” he said.

“The Sierra Club is an organization that straddles that. We’re not in the drawing rooms, and we’re not in the streets. We’re knocking on doors to point out to people what’s going on in the streets.”

And the club’s role in this new century will be to keep an eye on government, Pope said.

“This blind mantra that markets are always smarter than government isn’t true,” he said. “In California today, you have a singularly odd combination of dumb markets and dumb government.”

The organization could have significant impact.

“If you want to get environmental legislation passed and you don’t have the Sierra Club behind you, you’re moving uphill because they still are the largest environmental lobbying presence in Washington, D.C.,” said Mikhail Davis, director of the Brower Fund at Earth Island Institute.

David Brower, who founded Earth Island Institute, was a pioneer in the environmental movement and a Sierra Club member starting in 1933. He served as the club’s first executive director from 1952 through 1969, developing it into one of the nation’s most powerful environmental groups.

With a new administration, the club’s goal of preserving wildness will be more difficult, Pope said, pointing to President Bush’s desire to drill in search of oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

“The American people have an enormous battle on their hands to prevent the new administration from foreclosing the options and rights of their children and grandchildren to a continent that still contains wildness,” he said.

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Sierra Club: www.sierraclub.org