WISE USE (Hardly)

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WISE USE (Hardly)

• The Right Wing Campaign
• For the Environment

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(No Transcript)
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Wise Use Defined

• Term adopted from a motto by Gifford Pinchot
  the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service during
  the Progressive Era
• Conservation is the Wise Use of Resources
• Thus, the term wise use is a synonym for
  conservation
• The current anti-environmental moment holds
  Pinchot as just another bureaucrat who believed
  conservation had to come through government
  control of resources

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The Property Basis
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Interlocking Groups
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Their Tactics

• They seize on emotional local issues, send in
  their professional rabble-rousers to fire up the
  folks, and then disappear into the darkness. They
  pack public hearings and bully those who oppose
  them. Their lifestyle is mean, ugly, and
  divisive Hugh McCabe

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Underlying Principles

• Unlimited economic growth is possible and
  beneficial.
• Most serious problems can be solved by
  technology.
• Environmental and social problems can be
  mitigated by a market economy with some state
  intervention

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The Goal

• "Our goal is to destroy, to eradicate the
  environmental movement. We want to be able to
  exploit the environment for private gain,
  absolutely. And we want people to understand that
  this is a noble goal."

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The Three Basis Messages

• Conspiracy
• Mainstream
• Vanguard

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Conspiracy
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Analysis Conspiracy Message
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Mainstream Message
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Analysis of the Message

• The mainstream message is Wise Use dogma packaged
  for popular consumption
• It is Wise Use with a moderate face, carefully
  calculated to appeal to the broadest possible
  audience
• A prime example of the moderate message is a
  recent statement of the Wise Use Movement's core
  principles

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Wise Use Core Principles

• Man and nature can live together in productive
  harmony
• Human values, culture and tradition are more
  important than other living creatures
• Economic activity should not be damaged to
  protect nature. Nature can be properly protected
  by wise management of economic activity
• Nature can be properly protected by wise
  management of economic activity

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Vanguard Message
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Analysis Vanguard Message

• The vanguard message is the central precept of
  the movement's national organizers. In the early
  stages of the development of the Wise Use
  Movement, it occupied center stage and was used
  to organize an elite group of "true believers"
  under the Wise Use tent. The vanguard message is
  still used to keep the core right wingers within
  the movement, and it reflects the true philosophy
  of the movement's national leaders.

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Unique Movement?
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Unique Movement

• There is nothing new about extremism in American
  environmental politics
• Many organizations, under the leadership of
  people such as James Watt, advocate the
  exploitation of public lands
• These organization were typically Midwest or
  West small in number and loud in voice
• What is new is the success that the
  anti-environmental movement has had in
  popularizing their message

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The Propaganda
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Propaganda?

• Steve Nelson of Burnt Ranch, California. Nelson
  is a rancher who owns property adjacent to a
  National Forest. Nelson learned that the Forest
  Service was resurveying his area because
  topographical maps of the area were incorrect.
  When the survey was completed, the Forest Service
  claimed Nelson's property and that of two of his
  neighbors, were in the National Forest. The
  government promptly served Nelson with an
  eviction notice and put a sign on his front lawn
  reading "Property of the National Forest
  Service."

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Propaganda Property
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Propaganda - Ranchers

• Sue Sutton of California. Sue Sutton is a farmer
  in California. When water was taken from the
  Sacramento River to save salmon, it endangered
  her farm. She said on ABC News "Are we going to
  sacrifice human beings for a fish or a bird or a
  snake or a rat? We need to ask ourselves that
  question."

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The Common Theme
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The Real Environment Groups

• "True-Blue Greens (11 percent) are the committed
  environmentalists. They are convinced that
  individual actions can make a difference in
  protecting the environment. They believe that
  economic development should not take precedence
  over environmental protection. They also express
  strong support for all kinds of pro-environmental
  regulations, regardless of extra cost or
  inconvenience.

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Environmentalists The Sprouts

• The Sprouts (26 percent) represent the key swing
  group in a movement toward a green consumer
  society. On the one hand, Sprouts are concerned
  about the environment and support many regulatory
  measures, although to a lesser degree than the
  True-Blues and the Greenbacks. But on the other
  hand, they do not believe strongly that
  individuals can do a lot about environmental
  problems, they are also less certain about which
  side to take when confronted with the trade-off
  between protecting the environment and
  encouraging economic development.

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And the Grousers
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Largest Group -Your Basic Browns

• Basic Browns (28 percent) are characterized by
  the virtual absence of any pro-environmental
  activities. But unlike the Grousers, the Basic
  Browns do not rationalize their behavior or point
  to the alleged shortcomings of other people...the
  indifference of the Basic Browns is further
  evident in their lack of support for government
  regulation. This group has the least exposure to
  information about the environment, from whatever
  source. It is little surprise then, that most
  Browns admit they are confused about what is good
  and what is bad for the environment.

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And, Of Course, The Undecided

• Roper reports that 11 percent of those surveyed
• A. Expressed no preference or opinion
• B Did not know what the environment is, or
• Did not care

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Profile True/Blue Greens

• "...a higher socioeconomic status than other
  Americans. They are well-educated (50 percent
  college educated) and have the highest median
  household income (32,100) of the five groups.
  There are more executives and professionals among
  them than among any other group. They are also
  more cosmopolitan, being concentrated in large
  urban markets. Interestingly, the oldest median
  age (44 years) and the highest percentages of
  women and of part-time workers are also found
  among the True-Blue Greens. Regionally, the
  True-Blue Greens are more likely to be from the
  Northeast

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Profile The Greens and Sprouts

• Median high to higher socio-economic status
• Well educated generally university degrees
• Many executives and professionals
• More cosmopolitan generally concentrated in
  urban areas
• Highest percent of women of any environmental
  group
• Most concentrated in the Northeast

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Profile The Browns
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Off Limits Wilderness Area
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Exxon Valdez

• How dare you city-bred, upper middle class
  assholes, with all your high education, put these
  decent people into economic peril

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The 1997 Roper Study on the Environment
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The Price We Pay

• More dramatically, 38 percent of the least
  wealthy Americans, but only 21 percent of the
  most affluent, feel environmental degradation is
  the price we have to pay for progress."

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Household Incomes

• Over a third of Americans who have annual
  household incomes of less than 24,000 (36
  percent) feel economic security must come before
  environmental concerns can be addressed, compared
  to only a quarter of those earning at least
  50,000 per year (24 percent).

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We Must Use Natural Resources in a Wise Way to
Survive

• If environmentalism were to acknowledge our
  necessary use of the earth, its ideology would
  lose its meaning. To recognize the legitimacy of
  the human use of the earth would be to accept the
  unavoidable environmental damage that is the
  price of our survival. Once that price is
  acceptable, the moral framework of
  environmentalist ideology becomes irrelevant and
  the issues become technical and economic

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The Growing Political Message of Wise Use and the
Browns

• Environmentalists tend to be catastrophists,
  believing that any human use of the earth is
  "damage" and massive human use of the earth is "a
  catastrophe." An environmentalist motto is "We
  all live downstream," the viewpoint of helpless
  or vengeful victims
• Environmentalists tend to be catastrophists,
  believing that any human use of the earth is
  "damage" and massive human use of the earth is "a
  catastrophe." An environmentalist motto is "We
  all live downstream," the viewpoint of helpless
  or vengeful victims

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We learn about the world through trial and error

• The universe did not come with a set of
  instructions, nor did our minds.
• We cannot see the future. Thus, the only way we
  humans can learn about our surroundings is
  through trial and error.
• Environmental ideology fetishizes nature to the
  point that eco-activists will not permit others
  to make errors with the environment, dead-ending
  in no trials and no learning
• The point of learning is to find better ways to
  use the earth, not to prevent all use of the
  earth. The ideal is productive harmony between
  man and nature, a concept formalized in the
  National Environmental Policy Act.

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Mans Reworking of the Earth is Problematic and
Benevolent
Of the ideas behind wise use, this is the most
oracular. Humanity is itself revolutionary and
problematic. Problems are our milieu. Danger is
our forte. We win some, we lose some. We don't
give up. Humanity may ultimately prove to be a
force of nature forwarding some cosmic teleology
of which we are yet unaware. Or not. Humanity may
be the universe awakening and becoming conscious
of itself. Or not. Our reworking of the earth may
be of the utmost evolutionary benevolence and
importance. Or not. The only way to see the
future is to be there.
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Some Other Organizations

• The Blue Ribbon Coalition Working for
  unrestricted motorized access across American
  public lands
• The Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise
  Wise Use umbrella groupThe American Lands
  Association Defending property rights at the
  cost of public rights
• Heritage Foundation Think tank for ultra
  right-wing issuesMountain Legal States
  Foundation Law firm defending wise-use property
  rights

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And A Couple More Groups

• The National Center for Public Policy Research
  Wise use conservative free market foundation
• American Forest Paper Association National
  group representing paper products industry
• Alliance for America Largest umbrella group in
  wise use movement

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Conclusions

• I am reminded of a short story entitled Those
  Who Walk Away From Omelas
• Who are the true environmentalists?
• Are environmentalist elite radicals?
• Are most anti-environmental movements associated
  with rural people?