Dollars and Nonsense

The seriousness of this crisis can be seen in the audacious nature of new programs that are being initiated by some of the large enviro-opportunists. These include proposals to confiscate over half of the land mass of the United States for wilderness areas, to ban all use of chlorine in the chemical industry, and to abrogate most real estate property rights in the United States in the name of national biological survey and control. This latter effort by Clinton and Babbitt is meeting opposition in Congress, but how long will the opposition hold?

Al Gore has now hitched his entire political career to this enviro-mania. Sure, he lacks principles. So do many American politicians. In his world of power politics, they ask only 'has this brought him power.' So far it has made him Vice-President of the United States.

Considerable attention is focused on the multitude of so-called public interest groups in this movement. From the big players like the Sierra Club and Green Peace to the small local organizations, thousands of envirogroups are participants in this feeding frenzy at the public trough - a trough that is rapidly being filled with the decapitated remains of an industrial capability built by several generations of hard-working Americans. What is this generation of Americans doing while their future living standards and freedom are being consumed at this feast? Part of them are applauding and most of the rest are standing by in embarrassed silence. Only a few - too few yet to be politically effective -are saying 'stop.' It is popular among those few to focus on the significant financial resources of the envirogroups. Estimates vary in the range of $500 million to $1 billion annually. After junk mail expenses and operating costs, however, it is unlikely that these groups have much more than $300 million annually with which to influence public opinion. Moreover, they are selling lies. Lies sell, but advertising costs are higher.

How can a budget of $300 million (probably less) convince 250 million people in a $5 trillion economy to act against their own self-interests on the basis of largely false information? It cannot. Of course, these groups do more than advertise. They stage continual media events to attract news coverage; they file endless lawsuits against productive enterprises; and they misuse regulatory agencies through the filing of numerous petitions. These actions all require complicity, however, from other organizations in our society - the press, the judiciary, and the regulatory bureaucracy. These organizations are also in the business of remaining in business, and they are composed of people who must live with their fellow citizens.

While ordering unrecycled paper for Access to Energy (which will become increasingly difficult to do), I noticed a can of 3-M Corporation Spray Mount Artist's Adhesive. How could I fail to notice? The print was in red and yellow and was as large as the Access to Energy masthead: "100% FREE Of Ozone Depleting Chemicals.'' Isobu-tane, pentane, heptane, propane, acetone and presumably adhesive were in the can. This "true'' ad is false by omission and false in its implications about the environment and about competing products.

Even some of the most effective fighters against the enviroradicals lose their heads when they start advertising. The summer 1993 issue of Evergreen, an excellent lumber industry magazine, crows that wood use produces less carbon dioxide than the equivalent aluminum and steel in building framing and wastes less energy during manufacturing. The September 1993 issue of Nuclear Energy Info from the pro-nuclear U.S. Council for Energy Awareness trumpets "Nuclear Energy's Role in Cutting U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions.'' Let's call this 'PROFTPL,' profiting from the perceived lie. With the ad departments of tens of thousands of American enterprises spending billions of dollars to cut each other's throats by advertising claimed advantages relative to the latest envirolies, the envirogroups themselves need only to sit back, snicker, boost their personal salaries another notch, and dream up the next lie. In fact, they don't even need to invent the lies. Somewhere there is yet another failing scientist ready to distort the implications of his work to stay in business.