From TreeHuggers and NIMBY's to Astroturf and Greenwashing

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FromTree-Huggers andNIMBY'stoAstroturfand
Greenwashing

• Politics and the Environment

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The Environment

• definitions
• circumstances or conditions that surround an
  organism or group of organisms
• the complex of social or cultural conditions that
  affect an individual or community
• for humans - our home - well suited to our
  existence
• natural world
• plants
• animals
• earth
• air
• water

• man-made
• sociological
• scientific
• Technological

3
Science

• characteristics
• objective (subject to the scientists background)
• systematic
• precise (of known precision)
• creative
• insightful
• rational

4
Science

• scientific method
• no single method
• a pattern for how to examine things
• unassailable proof and truth are very rare (if
  they exist at all)
• must document

5
Scientific Uncertainty

• always present
• goal known range
• lt 1 extremely unlikely
• 1-10 little chance, very unlikely
• 10-33 some chance, unlikely
• 33-66 medium likelihood
• 66-90 likely, probable
• 90-99 very likely, very probable
• gt 99 virtual certainty
• (from Uncertain ScienceUncertain World,
  Pollack, 2003)

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Environmental Science

• Systematic study of the environment and our place
  in it
• Characteristics
• scientific
• interdisciplinary
• mission-oriented
• explain the importance of the findings
• apply the science as a solution

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Environmental Ethics

• Can the environment (or part of it) be treated
  rightly or wrongly?
• Value intrinsic vs. instumental
• Some Worldviews
• domination
• stewardship
• ecocentric
• animal rights
• biocentric
• ecofeminism

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Roots of Environmentalism

• recognition of human impact
• deforestation
• soil erosion
• climate change
• characterization of Earth as a living planet

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Types of Environmentalism

• pragmatic resource conservation
• protect supplies of resources
• for the greatest good, for the greatest number
  for the longest time
• develop and use
• utilitarian conservation
• US Forest Service

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Types of Environmentalism

• moral and aesthetic nature preservation
• nature for natures sake
• altruistic preservation
• US Park Service

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Types of Environmentalism

• modern environmentalism
• concern for effects of pollution
• on humans
• on the environment
• activism
• research
• focus on local issues
• Earth Day - March 22, 1970

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Types of Environmentalism

• global environmentalism
• global village
• concern for effects of
• population growth
• economic globalization
• global changes
• climate change
• biodiversity
• toxic colonialism

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Environmental Economics

• The development cycle
• with decreasing availability, the cost increases
• responses
• use declines
• money available for
• extraction of marginal resources
• new types of extraction (technological response)
• exploration for new deposits
• importation
• more efficient use
• substitution of/replacement with another resource

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Environmental Economics

• Cost-benefit analysis
• compares
• costs and benefits of plan
• alternative plans (including doing nothing)
• provides hard numbers for a project
• difficulties
• unforeseen costs benefits
• non-economic costs benefits
• indirect costs benefits
• intangibles
• external costs

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Environmental Issues

• Science
• indicates problems
• resource loss
• pollution
• global change
• indicates solutions
• technology
• best practices
• never 100 certain
• always need more research

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Environmental Issues

• Environmental Ethics
• the role responsibility of humans
• dominator
• caretaker
• partner
• Economics
• decision-making tool
• role of invisible hand

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Environmental Issues

• Government
• roles
• responsible caretaker
• trust doctrine
• arbiter between
• public
• science
• ethics
• economics
• business
• property owners

• methods
• hands-on
• hands-off
• models
• power politics
• rational choice

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Federal Process(U.S. Constitution)

• Article 1, section 8 (Congressional powers)
• to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and
  excises, to pay the debts and provide for the
  common defense and general welfare of the U.S.
  but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be
  uniform throughout the United States
• to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and
  among the several states, and with the Indian
  tribes
• To make all laws which shall be necessary and
  proper for the carrying into execution the
  foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by
  this constitution in the government of the United
  States, or in any department of officer thereof.

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Federal Process(U.S. Constitution)

• 5th amendment No person shall be...deprived of
  life, liberty, or property without due process of
  law nor shall private property be taken for
  public use without just compensation
• (14th amendment, section 1 extends 5th amend. to
  states)

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Federal Process(U.S. Constitution)

• 9th amendment The enumeration in the
  Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be
  construed to deny or disparage others retained by
  the people
• 10th amendment The powers not delegated to the
  US by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to
  the states are reserved to the states
  respectively, or to the people.

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Government Actions

• Levels
• Federal
• State
• Local
• Branches
• Legislative
• Judicial
• Executive

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Legislative (Statutory Law)

• details
• authorization vs. appropriation
• amendments
• changing language
• riders
• committee revisions

• process
• committee
• referrals
• hearings
• rules committee
• may refuse to schedule vote
• floor debate
• limits (rules comm.)
• filibusters cloture
• conference committee
• reconciliation

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Political Action Legislative

• Campaigning
• financial support
• personal support
• Lobbying
• personal contact
• public pressure
• grass-roots
• astroturf
• other action
• demonstrations
• individual actions

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Judicial (case law)

• starting point
• jurisdiction
• standing of plaintiff
• criminal vs. civil
• rulings
• constitutionality
• interpretation of intent
• responsibility /or liability
• establish precedent

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Political Action Judicial

• Civil Action
• personal
• government
• Criminal Action
• government only
• Concerns
• expense time money
• public perception
• SLAPP

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Executive (administrative law)

• Regulatory Agencies
• rule making
• standard setting
• investigation
• prosecution
• Policy Setting
• budgetary
• enforcement
• veto power
• treaties

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Political Action Executive

• Campaigning
• financial support
• personal support
• Lobbying
• personal contact
• public pressure
• grass-roots
• astroturf
• other action
• demonstrations

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Policy Cycle

• identify problem
• set agenda
• develop proposals build support
• enact law
• create rules
• implement
• evaluate results
• suggest changes

• science
• uncertain

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Tree-Huggers

• Pejorative term used to describe environmentally
  minded activists. It originated from people who
  tried to prevent logging by putting themselves in
  danger such as chaining themselves to threatened
  trees.
• (Wikipedia, 2004)

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Treehuggers

• Julia Butterfly Luna
• two years in a California redwood
• http//www.ottermedia.com/LunaJulia.html
• Wangari Maathai
• 2004 Nobel Peace Prize
• Green Belt Movement
• 20 million trees planted in central Africa
• http//www.greenbeltmovement.org/biographies.htm

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NIMBY

• NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) is an acronym for the
  opposition by people living in pleasant,
  affluent, or rural areas to local construction of
  intrusive facilities, which are often intended
  primarily to serve people living far away .
• Generally people who express NIMBY sentiments
  acknowledge the need for the facilities, while
  arguing that they "just don't want them nearby".
• (Wikipedia, 2004)

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NIMBYs

• http//www.saveballona.org/
• http//www.nobrantfill.freeservers.com/
• http//www.no-more-landfill.com/
• http//www.farmweb.org/

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Astroturfing

• Used pejoratively to describe formal public
  relations projects which deliberately give the
  impression of spontaneous and populist reactions.
• The term is a play on "grassroots" efforts, which
  are truly spontaneous undertakings started
  spontaneously and largely sustained by private
  persons, not politicians, corporations or public
  relations firms. A "grassroots" campaign is
  perceived to come from the popular feelings of
  some mass of people and to not be a creation of
  the powerful.
• "Astroturfing", by contrast, is a campaign
  crafted by politicians or other professionals but
  carefully designed to appear that it is the
  result of popular feeling rather than
  manipulation.
• (Wikipedia, 2004)

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Astroturf organizations

• CALIFORNIA DESERT COALITION
• CITIZENS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
• NATIONAL WETLANDS COALITION

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Greenwashing

• A term that environmentalists and other critics
  give to the activity of giving a positive public
  image to putatively environmentally unsound
  practices.
• (Wikipedia, 2004)
• Also refers to taking an environmentally
  responsible stand in public while actively
  promoting environmentally unsound practices out
  of public view.

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Corporate Greenwashing

• Mobil Chemical added a small amount of starch to
  the plastic in Hefty trash bags and called them
  "biodegradable" (however, the bags would not
  degrade if buried in landfills, but only if left
  out in the sun moreover, the bags didn't
  degrade, but rather broke up into smaller plastic
  pieces -- not the same thing!) A Mobil Chemical
  pitch man said, "degradability is just a
  marketing tool. We're talking out of both sides
  of our mouth because we want to sell our bags."
• (source http//a4a.mahost.org/fakes.html)

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Political Greenwashing

• President Bush
• I've got a plan to increase the wetlands by 3
  million. (protection has been removed from 20
  million acres)
• We've got an aggressive brown field program to
  refurbish inner-city sore spots to useful pieces
  of property. (benefits businesses who want to
  locate on cheap land)

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Political Greenwashing

• President Bush
• I proposed to the United States Congress a Clear
  Skies Initiative to reduce sulfur dioxide,
  nitrogen oxide and mercury by 70 percent.
  (establishes new targets that are weaker than the
  existing targets)
• We proposed and passed a healthy forest bill
  which was essential to working with --
  particularly in Western states -- to make sure
  that our forests were protected. (plan would
  promote logging of large, commercially valuable
  trees miles from at-risk communities )