Restructuring Environmental Big Business

1. Restructuring Environmental Big Business [The Sierra Club] has traditionally concentrated its efforts on protecting the public lands . . . Other environmental problems . . . are everywhere, however, and that’s why were expanding our operations . . . - From a Sierra Club publication from around 1994

2. Who’s Who • The Big Five Environmental Groups: • The Sierra Club- Protect Public Parks • National Audubon Society- Birds • Wilderness Society- Wild Animals • Natural Resources Defense Council- Legal Advocacy Group for natural and built environments. • The Nature Conservancy- Protect the Ecosystems

3. The Problem! • With the exception of the latter, the rest to keep larger member created numerous structural changes which has weakened their ability to positively influence public policy. • Despite being the largest of the organizations, the Nature Conservancy is still a one issue group: Protect the Ecosystem.

4. So What’s the Big Deal • The current trend of multi issue environmental groups has caused problems including influencing the public. • Particular in the phasing of their arguments which are highly emotional that primarily engendered anger and distrust. • As Tom Wolf of Nature Conservancy: • “. . . Most of all when we abandoned moral appeal for fund raising appeals . . . When the solutions we offered lost out to our insatiable need for money.”

5. From Conservation to Big Business • Most of these organizations started at the turn of the century to highlight problems of the Gilded Age. They even supported a pragmatic use of resources as espoused by Gifford Pinchot. • More Radically elements such as John Muir of the Sierra Club wanted totally preservation of nature.

6. History Marches On • Changes in the country after World War II cemented Muir’s views of preservation due to the increased wealth. • In addition, the organizations had healthier memberships that gained mass appeal. • This lead to a string of legislative victories • Clean Air Acts of 1963 and 1967 • Clean Water Acts of 1960 and 1965 • Endangered Species Act of 1964 and 1968 • The Wilderness act of 1964

7. Consequences • With the string of victories, it started a trend of one quarter of all laws passed by Congress being environmental in nature.

8. Contemporary Groups and the Boom • With more money and members, the environmental groups learned they garnered more authority. • An examination of their financials over the last two decades shows their success. • Their most dramatic growth occurred in the mid to late 1980s. • The Nature Conservancy in 1992 • Revenue $184,000,000 • Total Assets $846,000,000

9. Cont. • In 1979, the Auburn Society had more revenue from dues at about 32% than in 1991 with 28%. • Why the sudden surge? • Don Coursey suggests that its due to environmental groups being seen as a luxury good. As per capital income rises, the demand for environment goes up. • Garners more media attention. In 1989 during Exxon Valdez, membership and finances increased noticeably.

10. Media Attention • Some groups have orchestrated media events. • NRDC had its Alar Campaign. • The Wilderness Society, Sierra Club, and Audubon Society had their Spotted Owl Controversy.

11. Membership • Environmental groups in the study spent: • 25%of their revenue on fund raising • 20% on membership development • In comparison, the United Way devotes 6.78% to fund raising. • This is all part of a conscious strategy of diversification in hopes of having an economies of scope on environmental issues.

12. Audubon Society: From Birds to Birth Control • Original known for bird sanctuaries, its board of directors decided to give it a face lift. • A new management team headed by a Mr. Peter Berle came in • Between 1990 and 1991, it spent $175,000 on image surveys. • $50,000 to replace egret (famous logo) with new logo. • Fired respected editor of its magazine Les Line as well as spending $300,000 revamping with a new editor, Malcolm Abrams from the Star Tabloid magazine

13. Reactions • Roger Tory Peterson, a life-long member and ornithologist • “Audubon is losing its identity. Its trying to do too many things. We’re getting away from the original thing, which is wildlife, and getting into the human [realm], which is pollution, birth control and all that sort of things.” • Les Lines just put it simply • “The environmental movement has lost touch with the land. . . .”

14. Others did the Same Thing • During the 70s, the Sierra Club dealt with legal cases on forests, but in the 80s, it expanded into endangered animals, hazardous waste disposal, and landfill permitting cases. • The Wilderness Society which was designed to preserve wilderness and wildlife began to issue policy statements on global warming in the 90s.

15. Degeneration of the Movement • So if you are all saying the same thing, how do you make your case? • More dramatic appeals • More striking calamity of global warming, etc. • As Mr. Beyea said: • The destructive processes man has set in motion resemble a cancer. If not stopped in time, the process cannot be reversed. . . We are now in a window of historic time during which its is still possible to act. We estimate the window at 50 years. . . .

16. One Environmentalist Opinion • “We have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements and make little mention of any doubts we may have. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest.” Stephen Schneider

17. Alar Scare • For example, NRDC’s Alar Scare was caused by publishing pamplets like Intolerable Risk: Pesticides in our Children’s Food in 1989. • David Fenton put it this way: • Our goal [with the Alar program] was to create so many repetitions of NRDC’s message that average American consumers could not avoid hearing it . . .

18. Problems with the Concept • Reams of scientific literature contradicts not only the NRDC’s findings on Alar, but on Pesticides in general. • A 1,400 page report form the National Academy of Sciences’ (NAS) National Research Council found that there was no evidence that pesticides contribute significantly to cancer risk • Original NRDC was suppose to be a law firm for the environment not a policy maker.

19. Outcome • The Alar Scare illuminates the dangers of the diversifying of the groups. • In the 90s, the Sierra Club had a revolt in chapters in Illinois, Indiana, Montana, and Northern Rockies due to support for logging in the northwest. • Amos Eno of the Interior Department • The big [environment] groups make policy decisions based on their fund-raising campaigns rather than the other way around

20. Growing with a Vision • Not all followed the same method, the Nature Conservancy, founded in 1951, has grown to become the most successful in terms of membership, finances, and tangible accomplishments. • This is because of two factors • One Single Issue: Protecting Ecosystems • Emphasis on market approaches to achieve its goals. Has the single largest group of private sancturies in the world

21. Nature Conservancy • Primary tool is mostly buying or trading for the land’s development rights. • This free market approach has its advantages: • The land will remain natural until those rights are relinquished. Battles is won at that point as oppose to lobbying where it’s a constant battle. • Makes its own choices about what to do with the land. • Nor does it alienate potential donors

22. As One Executive Put It • Our formula for going about doing what we do has been non-confrontational. It’s been a process that respects the private property rights of individuals, of corporations, whomever. Our whole basis of land ownership is based on preserving individual right. . . .

23. The Backlash • In the 90s, a shift against the environmentalist occurred • Regulation was felt by ordinary citizens • And other methods begun to be talked about other than regulation • Of the Five organization, all but the Sierra Club experienced anemic growth in that period. • This might not be just a cyclical downturn: • Journalists have begun to investigate claims more. • Americans have grown tired of environmentalists’ hyperbole over such as acid rain, species loss, global warming, and world population

24. Greg Easterbrook in early 1990s • “There is a growing sense that the only socially respectable attitude toward the environment is pushing the panic button. . . [But] as the years pass and nature does’t end, the people may stop listening when environmentalists issue warnings.”