Titling a post “Values vs. Data in Environmental Care” is misleading in that it suggests that data comes from a value-free position.  The choice of data, methodology and other factors of experimental design are made for reasons that – intentionally or not  – support particular values.  By asserting data to be value free, you allow the values to sneak in.

The linkage of the discussion to explicitly religious values, while allowing for a good hook to the story, also supports a common assumption that when speaking of values you are speaking of religious values.  That is unnecessarily narrow, and likely inflammatory, if the attempts at discussions over evolution might suggest.

I don’t think Revkin subscribes to these faulty premises.  But I see this kind of thinking all too often not to call it out in places I don’t expect to see it.

A specter is haunting American environmentalism — the specter of failure.

All of us who have been part of the environmental movement in the United States must now face up to a deeply troubling paradox: Our environmental organizations have grown in strength and sophistication, but the environment has continued to go downhill, to the point that the prospect of a ruined planet is now very real. How could this have happened?

Before addressing this question and what can be done to correct it, two points must be made. First, one shudders to think what the world would look like today without the efforts of environmental groups and their hard-won victories in recent decades. However serious our environmental challenges, they would be much more so had not these people taken a stand in countless ways. And second, despite their limitations, the approaches of modern-day environmentalism remain essential: Right now, they are the tools readily at hand with which to address many pressing problems, including global warming and climate disruption. Despite the critique of American environmentalism that follows, these points remain valid…

…The methods and style of today’s environmentalism are not wrongheaded, just far, far too restricted as an overall approach. The problem has been the absence of a huge, complementary investment of time, energy, and money in other, deeper approaches to change. And here, the leading environmental organizations must be faulted for not doing nearly enough to ensure these investments were made.

America has run a 40-year experiment on whether this mainstream environmentalism can succeed, and the results are now in. The full burden of managing accumulating environmental threats has fallen to the environmental community, both those in government and outside. But that burden is too great. The system of modern capitalism as it operates today will continue to grow in size and complexity and will generate ever-larger environmental consequences, outstripping efforts to cope with them. Indeed, the system will seek to undermine those efforts and constrain them within narrow limits. Working only within the system will, in the end, not succeed — what is needed is transformative change in the system itself.

Read the full article here.

Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger argue in their book Break Through that environmentalists need to transition from a ‘politics of limits’ to a ‘politics of possibilities:’

Through their stories, institutions, and policies, environmentalists constantly reinforce the sense that nature is something separate from, and victimized by, humans. This paradigm defines ecological problems as the inevitable consequences of humans violating nature. Think of the verbs associated with environmentalism and conservation: “stop,” “restrict,” “prevent,” “regulate,” and “constrain.” All of them direct our thinking to stopping the bad, not creating the good.

…we must choose between a resentful narrative of tragedy and a grateful narrative of over coming.

In yesterday’s Los Angeles Times, Nordhaus and Shellenberger illustrate this argument with a practical example of how a politics of possibilities might be more effective than the status quo.

As the election enters its endgame, Democrats and their environmental allies face a political challenge they could hardly have imagined just a few months ago. America’s growing dependence on fossil fuels, once viewed as a Democratic trump card held alongside the Iraq war and the deflating economy, has become a lodestone instead. Republicans stole the energy issue from Democrats by proposing expanded drilling — particularly lifting bans on offshore oil drilling — to bring down gasoline prices. Whereas Barack Obama told Americans to properly inflate their tires, Republicans at their convention gleefully chanted “Drill, baby, drill!” Obama’s point on conservation and efficiency was lost on an electorate eager for a solution to what they perceive as a supply crisis…

In a tacit acknowledgment of their defeat, some green leaders, such as the Sierra Club’s Carl Pope, have endorsed the Democrats’ pro-drilling strategy. But few of them seem to realize the political implications. The most influential environmental groups in Washington — the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Defense Fund — are continuing to bet the farm on a strategy that relies on emissions limits and other regulations aimed at making fossil fuels more expensive in order to encourage conservation, efficiency and renewable energy. But with an economic recession likely, and energy prices sure to remain high for years to come thanks to expanding demand in China and other developing countries, any strategy predicated centrally on making fossil fuels more expensive is doomed to failure.

A better approach is to make clean energy cheap through technology innovation funded directly by the federal government. In contrast to raising energy prices, investing somewhere between $30 billion and $50 billion annually in technology R&D, infrastructure and transmission lines to bring power from windy and sunny places to cities is overwhelmingly popular with voters. Instead of embracing this big investment, greens and Democrats push instead for tiny tax credits for renewable energy — nothing approaching the national commitment that’s needed.

…Environmental groups, perpetually certain that a new ecological age is about to dawn in America, have serially overestimated their strength and misread public opinion. Democrats must break once and for all from green orthodoxy that focuses primarily on making dirty energy more expensive and instead embrace a strategy to make clean energy cheap.

By continuing to hew to the green agenda, Democrats have not only put in jeopardy their chance of taking back the White House and growing their majority in Congress, they also have set back the prospects of establishing policies that might effectively address the climate and energy crises.

Environmental activism has become a multibillion dollar industry in the U.S. Campaigns to save the whales or stop mining beg average Americans for their support through donation of their hard earned dollars. These environmental campaigns also receive millions from charitable foundations such as the PEW Foundation, Turner Foundation, and Heinz Foundation. But what most don’t know when they donate to a cause to “save the rainforest” or “save the polar bear” is that their money could end up being used for partisan activities that are only tangentially related, if related at all, to the cause for which they are intended…

…Because of the complicated web of 501(c), 527, and PAC organizations, it is clear that individuals who donate to a 501(c)(3) organization intending to contribute to the cause of the organization, have no clear mechanism for verifying that their donation was used for the cause. Unsuspectingly, these donors may be contributing to partisan activities when they originally intended their donation to aide an environmental cause. Additionally, there is not sufficient oversight over these organization to police their political and campaign activities.

Are contributors to environmental groups really so naïve that they do not understand the political implications of the groups they donate to? I doubt it.

…history has shown it [League of Conservation Voters] to consistently favor Democratic candidates. It is closely followed by the Sierra Club, which is currently only giving two percent of its support to Republican candidates this year. The NRDC has gone on television showing its support for a Democratic Senator. EDF has a board comprised of publicly-disclosed advisors and financial supporters to the Senator Barack Obama Presidential Campaign. Greenpeace, aside from being affiliated with all the above organizations, is chaired by a man who is directly associated with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Furthermore, all of these organizations are associated with each other through the Partnership Project, which has consistently supported the Democratic environmental platform.

Perhaps this is because Democratic candidates tend to vote for the interests of the environmental groups mentioned above? This is certainly a plausible explanation!

While some environmental groups lean towards the left, are there not some environmental organizations that tend to lean right? Boone and Crocket Club, Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation come to mind.

In conclusion, as we turn to another election year, these environmental groups continue to campaign in much the same manner. With a presidential campaign in full swing, these organizations and foundations are likely to wield an even bigger sword than in years previous. Yet for all of the activities that take place, both those mentioned above and others, these groups remain unchecked. They continue to do business under the scope of charitable organizations. While it is not likely that their partisan habits are going to change, the public should see these nonprofits for what they are, and what they stand for.

Nearly all special interest groups justify their position in the public interest. How are environmental groups any different than other category of group, liberal or conservative?

Is there any chance the resurfacing of this report has to do with the League of Conservation Voters’ dirty dozen campaign? Senator Inhofe is highlighted as having one of the worst environmental voting records. The League of Conservation Voters’ environmental scorecard rubric rated the Senator as follows (0% is lowest possible voting record; 100% is the highest):

110th, 1st Session (2007) 0%

109th Congress (2005-2006) 0%

108th Congress (2003-2004) 4%

107th Congress (2001-2002) 0%

106th Congress (1999-2000) 0%

]]> http://cstpr.colorado.edu/prometheus/?feed=rss2&p=4595 0 http://cstpr.colorado.edu/prometheus/?p=4584 http://cstpr.colorado.edu/prometheus/?p=4584#comments Wed, 24 Sep 2008 04:34:42 +0000 admin http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/prometheus/?p=4584 I recently came across an interesting article by Jeffrey St.Clair published in February 2007. St.Clair is a progressive journalist/activist and is an outspoken critic of the effectiveness of environmental NGOs:

A kind of political narcolepsy has settled over the American environmental movement. Call it eco-ennui. You may know the feeling: restlessness, lack of direction, evaporating budgets, diminished expectations, a simmering discontent. The affliction appears acute, possibly systemic…

…this much is clear: the vigor of the environmental movement has been dissipated, drained by the enforced congeniality displayed in our disputes with Clinton and Bush, the Democrats in congress, and the grim, green-suited legions of the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Despite the rampages of the Bush administration, the big green groups can’t even rouse themselves into much more than the most reflexive kind of hysteria, fundraising letters printed in bold type…

Once highly regarded (and deeply reviled) as fierce advocates of the “public interest,” environmentalists now are largely dismissed in the living rooms of America as merely another “special interest” group (weaker than most), peddling its meager influence on the Hill, angling for access to the anterooms (never the control room) of power, or, at least, a line item in the federal budget…

The surest sign of decadence in a social/political movement is its engagement in the suppression of internal dissent: such decadence now erodes the moral core of the environmental movement. Stray beyond the margins of permitted discourse, publicly critique the prevailing “strategy,” strike out in an authorized new direction and the overlords of the environmental movement crack down. They enfilade the insurgents with legalistic maledictions, gag orders, and accusations of sedition…

National environmental policies are now engineered by an Axis of Acronyms: EDF, NRDC, WWF: groups without voting memberships and little responsibility to the wider environmental movement. They are the undisputed mandarins of technotalk and lobbyist logic, who gave us the ecological oxymorons of our time: “pollution credits,” “re-created wetlands,” “sustainable development”…

Environmentalism was once a people’s cause, unaligned with any political party and independent from the demands of the shadowy syndicate of mega-foundations (Pew, Rockefeller, Ford) that now hold the mortgage on the movement-those high priests of what Foucault called “condescending philanthropy.” Environmentalism was once driven by a desire for social justice and an unremitting passion for the wild. We need to tap back into those populist currents…

According to this dataset, the number of American’s that belong to an environmental organization correlates with presidential party affiliation; claimed membership is approximately 50% greater during a Republican presidency.

I created the figure by harvesting polling data from six different polls between 1978 and 2005. All six polls roughly ask the same question: do you belong to an environmental organization? The blue points represent the percentage of respondents answering in the affirmative. The percentage is found on the left axis. I was curious how these percentages translated into actual numbers of American citizens. To do this, I multiplied the percentage of affirmative respondents by the US Census’ estimate for each year, which is illustrated by the red points. The number of Americans is found on the right axis.

I am fully aware of the challenges of comparing the results of different surveys. This figure is a back of the envelope calculation to help triangulate relevant trends for my research. While the results are not definitive they certainly are suggestive.

For those interested, the exact polling questions are below:

1978: Do you belong to any national environment organizations such as the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, the National Audubon Society or others like these? (Survey by Resources for the Future)

1982: Do you belong to any of the following types of community organizations?…Environmental groups. (Survey by Continental Group)

1990: Please look carefully at the following list of voluntary organizations and activities and say which, if any, do you belong to?…Conservation, the environment, ecology (Gallup Organization)

1996: We would like to know something about the groups or organizations to which you currently belong. Here is a list of various kinds of organizations. For each type, please tell me whether you belong to any club or organization that fits into that category. Just call off the number of each type you belong to… environmental clubs or organizations (Post-Modernity Project at the University of Virginia)

2000: There are many different kinds of environmental organizations, including large national and international organizations like the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, as well as smaller, local organizations. Do you, yourself, belong to any large national or international environmental organizations? (Gallup organization)

2005: There are many different kinds of environmental organizations, including large national and international organizations like the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, as well as smaller, local organizations. Do you, yourself, belong to any large national or international environmental organizations? (Gallup organization)

Of little surprise, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is the top revenue generating conservation nonprofit. In 2005, TNC accounted for 25.6% of the revenue generated by the top 50 organizations. I compare the revenue streams of the top 10 in the following graph. TNC is the dark blue line.

The distribution of financial resources can give insight into conservation priorities. Does the allocation of conservation dollars over the eight year per period align with the conservation challenges we face? Are there nonprofit sectors over or under attended to? What does the division of revenue tell us about donors? About nonprofits? About the costs of various nonprofit activities?