forest voice spring 2007

8/9/2019 Forest Voice Spring 2007

1/16

Native Forest CouncilPO Box 2190Eugene, OR 97402

Forest Voice

Nonprofit Org.

U.S. Postage PAID

Eugene, OR

Permit No 310

Defending Nature, Saving Life since 1988 www.forestcouncil.org

Spring 2007Volume 19Number 1

The Native Forest Councils

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,

committed citizens can change the world.Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

- Margaret Mead


2/16

Forest Voice Spring 007

Selling Out The Schools

The worst lies are the ones we tell our children. Whether itsa cartoon camel assuring a generation o kids that smokingis cool, or a teacher demonstrating how children can surviveatomic attack by ducking and covering; the manipulationo impressionable minds can have deadly consequences thatreverberate across generations.

As propagandists know: to command tomorrow they mustshape the content o education today. While commercial ad-vertising continues to be a powerul tool o instructiononethat operates virtually unnoticed in our homesincreasingly,corporations are inltrating our schools.

Corporate PR rms established a beachhead with Channel1, promoted as bringing educational television to the class-room. What it also brought was advertising which, by con-tractual agreement, children are obliged to watch. Likewise,

the ast-ood industry has agreements with school districtswhich peddle junk ood to growing kids in return or und-ing.

Now the curriculum is being targeted. Oil companies havedeveloped science curriculums designed to cast doubt onclimate change while deending the continued use o os-sil uels. Logging companies distribute learning materialswhich promote the intensive logging o the last ancient or-ests on public lands. They encourage the use o herbicidesand pesticides in the name o orest health, while ignoringthe poisons leaching into our rivers endangering humanhealth. And they gloss over the non-commercial benets oorests so essential in a time o global warming. Against over-whelming scientic evidence to the contrary, the messageconveyed to children is: We can keep doing what were doing

without consequence. But most disturbing, this corporatepropaganda is distributed with the blessing o the NationalScience Teachers Association (NSTA).

It stands to reason that corporate support o education isnot solely driven by a Socratic love o learning. Sel-promo-tion and the justication o harmul business practices areinevitable when, or example, logging companies provideteaching modules on orest ecology. The result is a pre-emp-tive strike against discernment which is replaced with val-ues and belies promotive o the corporations agenda. Anda large part o that agenda is directed at convincing childrenthat global warming will be survivable without any mean-ingul or urgent action on our part.

Kids are being groomed to be obedient consumers and in theprocess, PR is substituted or science, and reality is manuac-

tured to suit corporate interests. Thus, clearcuts visible romspace represent sound orest management, and opening theArctic to drilling is part o a comprehensive energy policywhile increasing mileage standards is not.

We dont yet know the long-term eects o dumbing-downchildren, but we do know the impact on the NSTA. An orga-nization which should stand uncompromisingly or the ad-vancement o science education, has instead chosen to cen-sor it. When oered 50,000 ree copies o the scienticallyacclaimed (and Academy Award winning) climate changedocumentary An Inconvenient Truth, the NSTA reused cit-ing an unnecessary risk upon the capital campaign. Byaccepting money rom industries whose nancial interestsdepend on discrediting science, the NSTA chose sel-censor-ship over honest education. When science conficts with the

corporate curriculum, the strategy is clear: Dont upset thedonors.

The Native Forest Council (NFC), an Oregon-based environ-mental organization, will bring its Children or an HonestEducation campaign to the NSTA conerence in St. Louisthis March. Its purpose is to sound the alarm and provide acounter-weight to the crush o corporate exhibitors wishingto exert infuence over education. It will not be welcome.The NFC was warned not to be critical o other exhibitors.Nonetheless, the NFC will speak. Irony begets tragedy whena teachers association believes telling the truth is more cost-ly than living with lies.

Joseph Goebbels, a master propagandist, said this: I you tella lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventuallycome to believe it. The lie can be maintained only or suchtime as the State can shield the people rom the consequenc-es o the lie. It thus becomes vitally important or the Stateto use all o its powers to repress dissent, or the truth is themortal enemy o the lie, and thus by extension, the truth isthe greatest enemy o the State.

Given their power and infuence, corporations have becomeborderless states, and the same reasoning applies. It is in thenancial interest o certain corporations to be hostile to sci-ence and deny climate change until nature can no longerprotect us rom its consequences. By then, global warmingwill acquire its own irreversible momentum which, scientists

warn, may produce a very dierent and hellish planet.

Beore entrusting our childrens education to corporations,consider the record. Without concern or the general welare,corporations moved jobs overseas, alsied earnings, crushedunions, looted pensions, and cut health care benets. Theypurchased control o governance, gutted environmental pro-tections, and demanded regulatory exemption. Their appe-tite is voracious, and their ethics are oten ghoulish.

Now theyve come or our children.

Dont let them.

- Tim.

Forest Voice 1988-2006ISSN 1069-2002Native Forest CouncilPO Box 2190Eugene, OR 97402541.688.2600Fax [email protected]

Forest Voice is sent ree tomembers o the Native Forest

Council. The cost o U.S.membership is $35 annually.Bulk orders o theForest Voice are available or $50 per 100.A complimentary copy isavailable on request.

All rights to publication oarticles appearing in ForestVoiceare reserved.

Publisher/EditorTim Hermach

Managing EditorDavid Porter

Research EditorJosh Schlossberg

Prooreading and EditsJim Flynn

Special ThanksBrett ColeJim FlynnFunk/Levis & Associates:

Chris Berner, David FunkMarriner OrumSarah WiltzMatt WuerkerCharlotte TalberthMarcia HanscomJeanie MyklandDeborah OrtunoDavid Peltier

No ThanksAll those who eel its OK to

cut deals that leave us withless native orests, soil, airand clean water.

Submission GuidelinesWe welcome unsolicitedsubmissions that addressissues relevant to publiclands protection and supportthe Native Forest Councilsmission. I you would like usto return your work, pleaseinclude a SASE or send anemail to [email protected].

Inspired? Incensed? Impressed?Please write:Native Forest Council

PO Box 2190Eugene, OR 97402

Cover PhotoBrett ColeWildNorthwest Photographywww.wildnorthwest.org

This publication containscopyrighted material the useo which has not always beenspeciically authorized bythe copyright owner. We aremaking such material avail-able in our eorts to advanceunderstanding o environ-mental, political, humanrights, economic, democracy,scientiic, and social justiceissues, etc. We believe thisconstitutes a air use oany such copyrighted mate-rial as provided or in section107 o the U.S. CopyrightLaw. In accordance with Title17 U.S.C. Section 107, thematerial in this publicationis distributed without proitto those who have expresseda prior interest in receivingthe included inormationor research and educationalpurposes. For more inorma-tion go to www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.


3/16


Bush Signs AETA Bill

On Nov 27, President Bush Signed the Animal EnterpriseTerrorism Act(AETA) into law. The bill was passed by the Sen-ate in September, and passed the House days beore beingsent to the President. In the house, just 6 members werepresent when the bill was voted on, with Dennis Kucinichbeing the only dissenting vote.

AETA amends the 1992Animal Enterprise Protection Actwhichprotects animal enterprises rom illegal acts comitted by ani-mal activists.

The act essentially makes any action that disrupts the com-mercial activities o an animal enterprise a terrorist act.

Civil-rights groups say the bills vague language could brandactivists as terrorists or activities that are unlawul yet non-violent, such as blockades, property destruction, trespassing,and the reeing o captive animals.

[For more inormation on similarlegislation at the state level, see KarenPicketts article on ALEC on page 13]

EPA Redefines English Language to AllowPolluting

The Bush administrations EPA recently declared thatpesticides can be sprayed into and over waters without irstobtaining special permits.

The EPA decision gave the pest control companies whatthey wanted. It also closely parsed the English languageor what the all-important word pollutant means. EPAoicials concluded that a pesticide, when its deliberatelyapplied, isnt a pollutant under the terms o the 1972Clean Water Act.

Pesticides May Have Drastic EffectsLouis Guillette, associate dean or research at the Universityo Florida, has stated that research provides enough evidencethat pesticides put children, wildlie and the ecosystem atrisk.

He ound abnormalities in sex organs, dramatic dierencesin egg-hatching rates and hormone levels. Penis size o theanimals rom the polluted lake was smaller than animalsrom the less-polluted lake.

Native ForestCouncil

The Native Forest Council isa nonproit, tax-deductibleorganization ounded bybusiness and proessionalpeople alarmed by thewanton destruction o ournational orests. We believe a

sound economy and a soundenvironment must not beincompatible and that currentpublic land managementpractices are probablycatastrophic to both.

The mission o the NativeForest Council is to protectand preserve every acre opublicly owned land in theUnited States.

Board o DirectorsAllan BranscombCalvin HecoctaTim Hermach

Advisory BoardEd Begley, Jr.Je DeBonisLarry DeckmanErika FinstadDavid FunkRev. James Parks MortonLewis SeilerFraser ShillingKaryn StricklerEd Dorsch

PresidentTimothy Hermach

StaJosh Schlossberg

InternsLidiya Beisembayeva

Jackie WeberKatie Weidman

VolunteersMichelle DAmicoSamantha ChirilloJohn BorowskiMick DodgeWilliam Blair

ForesterRoy Keene

Seattle OiceSeattle, WA206.783.0728

[email protected] DivelbissSuzanne PardeeJosh Knapp

Tim YoungAnanthaswami RajagopalMarc Church

Regional Representatives

Margaret Hays YoungBrooklyn, NY718.789.0038718.789.8157 ax

Wayne NortonGainesville, FL352.373.8733

Jason TamblynDuluth, GA678.969.7013

Kris MoormanAames, IA515.232.1316

News and Views

For the past 19 years, the Native Forest Council has beenstriving to do everything necessary to inorm the Americanpublic about whats really going on in our national orestsand public lands, rivers and streams. We have redeined thedebate on our public orests rom How much should wecut? to To cut or not to cut! As the originators o Zero Cut,we have directly inluenced the direction o the nationalconservation movement.

A ew years ago, Native Forest Council created ourgroundbreaking aerial photography project, Exposing theTruth, which opened the eyes o tens o thousands o citizens,activists, media and decision makers to the devastationwrought by a century o clearcutting. Last year we took theseimages to the next level with our Google Earth DVD, usingthe computer program Google Earth to get a birds eye view

o our decimated public orests. Right now we are in the inalstages o working with photographer Brett Cole to producean innovative eature ilm combining aerial and satellitephotography and computer graphics to reveal the plight oAmericas public orests in stark, incredible detail.

Native Forest Council is at an exciting stage in ourHonest Education Campaign, which consists o accurateenvironmental science curriculum or public schoolsto combat the misinormation o corporate curriculumcurrently looding our schools. We have also been busyattending and presenting at dozens o conerences, schoolsand other public events around the nation; conductinghard-lined, uncompromising political grassroots organizingand lobbying, speaking truth to power while pulling nopunches; building regional and national coalitions to help

shore up our allies; generating mainstream and alternativemedia campaigns and print, radio and television advertisingto broadcast our message loud and clear to the Americanpeople; carrying out massive public outreach and education;as well as planning uture litigation and reintroduction oour Forever Wild bill into legislation.

Native Forest Council has been publishing the Forest Voice,giving you the real scoop on issues aecting your publicorests and watersheds, or the past 19 years. We do a printingo between 15 and 40 thousand every issue and send copiesto our members and supporters, including bulk shipmentsto businesses, organizations and volunteer distributors acrossthe nation.

While many o you reading this current issue are active

members who have made a contribution in the past year,some o your memberships may have lapsed, or perhapsyou havent yet become a member o Native Forest Council.As education and inspiration o the American public is thereason we exist, we expect to keep distributing the ForestVoice ree o charge to those who value it, no matter thecosts.

However, or those supporters who have been reading theForest Voice and appreciate our voice in the wilderness,reporting on topics ew other sources would dare to publish,we would like to ask you whether youd consider making adonation this year. Any contributions will ensure we keepthe quality o the magazine at our current high standard,and allow us to continue publishing the Forest Voice or thenext 19 years.

Printed on Recycled

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Soy-based Ink

The Native Forest Council Needs Your Help


4/16

by Ralph NaderBoulder Daily CameraDecember 2000David R. Brower was the greatest environmentalist

and conservationist o the 20th century. He wasalso an indeatigable champion o every worth-while eort to protect the environment over thelast seven decades. David Brower, who was 88years old, died o complications related to canceron Nov. 5 at his home in Berkeley, Cali.

David Brower once said, Were not blindly op-posed to progress, were opposed to blind prog-ress. He was masterul at bringing the appropri-ate ramework to any environmental controversyand showing that the short-term economic gainsare insignicant when measured against the long-term economic and broader societal benets oproper environmental stewardship.

The monuments to his work dot the landscapeo the nations environmental movement. Heounded the Earth Island Institute, the League oConservation Voters, the John Muir Institute orEnvironmental Studies, the Global Conservation,Preservation, and Restoration (CPR) Service andthe U.S.-based Friends o the Earth. He also initi-ated the ounding o Friends o the Earth organi-zations worldwide. Many o the leaders o the en-vironmental movement outside the United States

were personally recruited by David Brower andthey were oten nancially supported by him.

David Brower also helped establish the worker/en-vironmental organization The Alliance or Sustain-able Jobs and the Environment. And as executivedirector o the Sierra Club (1952-69), he increasedthe organizations membership rom 2,000 to77,000 and transormed the organization rom amild-mannered conservation organization into apowerul environmental advocacy organization.

His ability to clear away the underbrush o politediscourse and ocus on core problems was well il-lustrated by his views on the corrosive impact ospecial-interest money on our political process. Hesaid, We dont have democracy in this country.What we have is legal bribery, where politiciansmust raise so much money to get elected that by

the time they do, theyre bought and paid or bythe companies and wealthy individuals who -nanced their campaigns.

His courage and dedication must be given creditin keeping dams out o Dinosaur National Monu-

ment, the Yukon and the Grand Canyon and inestablishing the National Wilderness PreservationSystem. The list o his accomplishments ll chap-ters in the history o the worlds environmentalmovements. Future generations will be the ma-jor beneciaries o his willingness to take up thetough battles or the preservation o the earth.

He was nominated three times or the Nobel PeacePrize, and received numerous awards throughouthis lie, including 1998 Blue Planet Award. Hewas, however, more proud o his mountain climb-ing accomplishments than his many awards andhonorary degrees. In 1939, David Brower success-ully scaled Shiprock, a 1,500-oot spire in north-ern New Mexico. In addition he had over 70 rst-ascents o mountains and peaks worldwide.

David Brower brought as much passion to hisclimbing o the Sierras peaks as he did to ghtingreckless development. One o his greatest accom-plishments directing the ght to pass the Wilder-ness Act o 1964. This law was designed to protectmillions o acres o public lands and to help keepthese lands in pristine condition. David Browerwas devoted to protecting our planets naturalhabitats and Brower was in the oreront in help-ing to develop national parks and seashores inKing Canyon, the North Cascades, the Redwoods,Great Basin, Alaska, Cape Cod, Fire Island andPoint Reyes.

He led the way in protecting primeval orest inOlympic National Park and wilderness on SanGorgonio. David Brower was also one o the rstenvironmental leaders to oppose nuclear power something he believes led to him being redby the Sierra Club in 1969 ater working as thegroups executive director or 17 years.

He successully developed the exhibit ormatbooks, which showcased nature photography andbrought a sense o appreciation o wilderness ar-eas to those who may never have visited the wild.These books helped raise environmental aware-ness among millions o readers and helped inspiremany people to join in ghts to preserve wild ar-eas.

David Brower had little interest in quick compro-mise. He advised, We are to hold ast to what webelieve is right, ght or it, and nd allies and ad-duce all possible arguments or our cause. I wecannot nd enough vigor in us or them to win,then let someone else produce the compromise.We thereupon work hard to coax it our way. We

become a nucleus around which the strongestorce can build and unction.

This philosophy should be the oundation uponwhich today and tomorrows environmental lead-ers build. The environmental movement has losta world champion and society has lost a man whoplaced enduring principle ahead o expedientdeal-making.

Ralph Nader, a ormer Green Party presidential candi-date, is a consumer advocate with the CongressionalAccountability Project.

In His OwnWordsEnvironmentalists make terribleneighbors but great ancestors.

Let man heal the hurt places andrevere whatever is still miraculouslypristine.

The practice o clearcutting is anecologically illiterate exercise in eco-nomic opportunism, a orm o slow-

motion terrorism committed againstthose who need orest beauty nowand orest products in the uture.

The Glacier Peak Wilderness isprobably the most beautiul piece ocountry weve got. Mining copperthere would be like hitting a prettygirl in the ace with a shovel.

Conservation is humanity caring orthe uture.

Loggers losing their jobs because

o Spotted Owl legislation is, in myeyes, no dierent than people beingout o work ater the urnaces oDachau shut down.

I we squeeze time ... and compressthe earths our billion years intothe six days o creation, the earthbegan on last Sunday at midnight,lie arrived Tuesday noon, to grow,spread, diversiy, and become evermore beautiul. Neanderthal mancame 11 seconds beore Saturdaymidnight, agriculture only 1 1/2 sec-onds beore midnight. The industrialRevolution began its attack on theearth 1/40th o a second ago.It is midnight now, and high timeto slow the attack. So ar almost allnations have been asking or morespeed, believing that some kind otechnological magic will stretch theearth. There is no such magic. Weought soon to learn to ask, beorestarting a vast new project, what willwe gain i we dont build it? Whatwill it cost the earth?


Profles in Courage

David Brower once said, Werenot blindly opposed to progress,were opposed to blind progress.

A Tribute to David Brower

David Brower had little interestin quick compromise. He advised,We are to hold ast to what webelieve is right, ight or it, and

ind allies


5/16

by Elouise Cobell

When the ederal government aces a problem inIndian country, its usual tactic is to try to divideand conquer the Indians. That does not seem to beworking these days.

On June 20, I went to Washington to announce aset o principles that could settle the class actionlawsuit I led nine years ago over the governmentswell-documented mishandling o thousands o In-dividual Indian Money accounts. As our news con-erence dramatically illustrated, the leaders o thenations largest Indian organizations were united.All joined me in supporting congressional actionthat could resolve our lawsuit.

Too many Indians have died since the lawsuit wasled in 1996, and too many will die beore thecourts can resolve all the issues in the case. Theseare among the poorest people in America, and

they need help now. Thats why I agreed to thisproposal.

It is a good, commonsense bargain or the govern-ment and Indian people. It responds to repeatedcalls by Congress to settle this case promptly. Itgives Congress a bold opportunity to reach out tothe nations rst citizens and end a national dis-grace that dates to 1887.

Thats when Congress decided that Indians werenot smart enough to handle their own money anddirected that the ederal government manage alltheir lands. We know now all too well that theederal government, which had total control oour lands and money, was not a good manager,either.

Billions o dollars that were supposed to have beenplaced in the trust accounts o individual Indiansnever got there. They were stolen, embezzled, mis-appropriated and diverted rom helping the verypeople whose lands the government was leasingto oil, gas, timber and agricultural interests.

Our nine-year court ght has documented thosewrongs. But the great tragedy o this issue hasbeen that the government has known or decadesthat the accounts were not being handled prop-erly. Study ater study has conrmed that the Indi-ans were short-changed and that the governmentsimply kept the excess in Washington.

Now, 118 years later, we nally have a practicalway to put back the word trust in the Indiantrust account system. Equally important, we havean honorable way to remove the stain rom thegovernments dealings with thousands o Indianswho were denied access to the money that theyshould have had decades ago.

As the plaintis in this lawsuit, we have won a se-ries o wonderul victories. The ederal courts haveconrmed our worst ears: that the governmentdid indeed take advantage o some o the nationsrst citizens.

Congress showed leadership and asked Indianleaders or a blueprint to resolve this question. Wehave given it 50 principles that could guide thewriting o a lasting trust-reorm program. I hopethat our lawmakers realize that Indian country,with more than 500 ederally recognized tribes,has never been more united on an issue.

We now call on Congress to listen to the unitedvoice o Indians across the nation and give themjustice. We are not seeking a handout, welare orreparations. The Indian trust and this case areabout land, resources and money stolen rom theoreathers o more than 500,000 Indian bene-ciaries.

As the courts have said repeatedly, this is ourmoney.


Billions o dollars that weresupposed to have been placed inthe trust accounts o individual

Indians never got there

Profles in Courage

Ending A National Disgrace What is theIndian Trust

Fund Scandal?Between 1820 and 1934, it was national policy tobreak up reservations and parcel out allotments o80-160 acres to individual Indian owners. Manyo these lands were rich in timber, minerals, waterand ertile soil. Today, 11 million acres o landare held in trust or over 387,000 beneiciaries viathe Individual Indian Monies (IIM) system. Morethan $300 million annually rom agriculturaland oil leases, mining and water rights, rights-o-way and timber sales is collected by the InteriorDepartments Bureau o Indian Aairs (BIA) ordistribution to owners.

Locating them has become more diicult as theNative American population has become moremobile. BIA has lost track o at least 47,000account holders. On e reason - more than 123,000accounts lack Social Security numbers.

Even many o those who are not listed amongthe missing dont receive regular statements, andthereore have been unable to veriy whethertheir holdings and payments are correct. Thecurrent trust balance is around $450 million, but

several billion dollars more have been lost overthe years due to undervalued and/or uncollectedlease payments, missing records (the majority oBIAs leases are stored in places with no retriev-al capacity, like abandoned salt mines) anddestroyed checks.

In addition to IIM are some 2000 Tribal TrustAccounts, which includes per capita annual pay-ments, compensation or rights-o-way and courtsettlements, which total $2.3 billion. As with IIM,however, waste, raud and abuse are rampant. Anaudit revealed at least $2.4 billion is missing orotherwise unaccounted or over just the 20 yearperiod rom 1973 to 1992, making an accuratereconciliation o accounts virtually impossible.

Elouise Cobell Executive Director o the NativeAmerican Community Development CorporationMs. Cobell is the Executive Director o the NativeAmerican Community Development Corporationa non proits ailiate o Native American Bank.She also served as Chairperson or the BlackeetNational Bank, the irst national bank locatedon an Indian reservation and owned by a NativeAmerican tribe. Ms. Cobell was one o its lead orga-nizers o the bank and was instrumental in the or-mation o the Blackeet Reservation DevelopmentFund, Inc. Her work on the Individual IndianMonies Trust Correction and Recovery Projecthas won admiration by many. This is a project toreorm the U.S. Government on the managemento Individual Indian Trust Assets. Ms. Cobell is arecipient o the 1997 Genius Grant rom theJohn D. and Catherine T. MacArthur FoundationsFellowship Program.

Ms. Cobells proessional, civic experience and

expertise includes serving as a Board Memberor the Tides Foundation, the Northwest AreaFoundation, First Interstate Bank, the MontanaCommunity Foundation, a Trustee o the NationalMuseum o the American Indian, as well as amember o other boards. Ms. Cobell served orthirteen years as the Treasurer or the BlackeetIndian Nation in Montana.

In addition to operating a working ranch with herhusband, which produces cattle and crops, sheis active in local agriculture and environmentalissues, ounding the irst Land Trust in IndianCountry and servers as a Trustee or the NatureConservancy o Montana.

Elouise Cobell is a graduate o Great Falls BusinessCollege and attended Montana State Universitywhere she recently received an Honorary DoctorateDegree; her proessional background is in account-ing and community development. Ms. Cobell

received the 2002 International Womens Forumaward or Women Who Make a Dierence inMexico City. She is a member o the BlackeetIndian Tribe o Montana.

Elouise Cobell

For several years, the Department o the Interiorhas been involved in an accounting projecto unprecedented proportions. Among otherthings, Interior has been ordered by the districtcourt in Cobell v. Norton to document everydollar it has received and disbursed on behalo individual Indians since 1887a task thatencompasses billions o dollars, hundreds othousands o accounts, and tens o millions oaccount transactions. Under the district courtsorder, Interior must veriy the accuracy o everytransaction in its individual Indian account led-gers by reerence to the supporting documents.

No other ederal inancial systemnot the taxcollection system, the Social Security system, orthe Medicare systemhas ever been tasked withan undertaking o this type and scope.

The resources necessary to accomplish this taskare staggeringestimated at more than $12 bil-lion. Although the district courts order has beenstayed pending appeal, Interior has nonethelesscontinued its accounting work, consistent withits own 2003 accounting plan and the undingprovided by Congress, and has made substantialprogress.

Interiors experience in conducting its account-ing has revealed that a very high percentageo inancial records are available a quartero a billion pages o Indian records have beencollected and electronically indexed. Interiorsaccounting experts have uncovered no evidenceo raud or widespread systemic error in the U.S.governments handling o the individual Indianmonies accounts, and the ew errors that havebeen ound are generally small in monetaryvalue. This picture is signiicantly dierent romthat oered by Interiors critics. Gale A. Norton

[A Difficult to Believe] Message from Former Interior Secretary Norton


6/16

By Kira Albin, interview conducted in 1996Photos courtesy o Monica Morgan Photographyand ZondervanPublishingHouse

When Rosa Parks reused to give up her seat to awhite man orty years ago on December 1, 1955,she was tired and weary rom a long day o work.

At least thats how the event has been retoldcountless times and recorded in our history books.But, theres a misconception here that does not dojustice to the woman whose act o courage beganturning the wheels o the civil rights movementon that ateul day.

Rosa Parks was physically tired, but no more thanyou or I ater a long days work. In act, underother circumstances, she would have probablygiven up her seat willingly to a child or elderly

person. But this time Parks was tired o the treat-ment she and other Arican Americans receivedevery day o their lives, what with the racism,segregation, and Jim Crow laws o the time.

Our mistreatment was just not right, and I wastired o it, writes Parks in her recent book, QuietStrength, (ZondervanPublishingHouse, 1994). Ikept thinking about my mother and my grandpar-ents, and how strong they were. I knew there wasa possibility o being mistreated, but an opportu-nity was being given to me to do what I had asked

o others.

The rest o Parks story is American history...herarrest and trial, a 381-day Montgomery bus boy-cott, and, inally, the Supreme Courts ruling inNovember 1956 that segregation on transporta-tion is unconstitutional.

But Parks personal history has been lost in theretelling. Prior to her arrest, Mrs. Parks had a irmand quiet strength to change things that wereunjust. She served as secretary o the NAACP andlater Adviser to the NAACP Youth Council, andtried to register to vote on several occasions whenit was still nearly impossible to do so. She hadrun-ins with bus drivers and was evicted rom

buses. Parks recalls the humiliation: I didntwant to pay my are and then go around theback door, because many times, even i you didthat, you might not get on the bus at all. Theyd

probably shut the door, drive o, and leave youstanding there.

Forty years later, despite some tremendous gains,Parks eels, we still have a long way to go inimproving the race relations in this country.

Rosa Parks spends most o her year in Detroitbut winters in Los Angeles. Her day is illed withreading mail,-rom students, politicians, and justregular people-preparing meals, going to church,and visiting people in hospitals. She is still activein ighting racial injustices, now standing up orwhat she believes in and sharing her message withothers. She and other members o the Rosa andRaymond Parks Institute or Sel-Developmenthave a special program called Pathways toFreedom, or young people age 11-18. Childrenin the program travel across the country tracing

the Underground Railroad, visiting the scenes ocritical events in the civil rights movement andlearning aspects o Americas history.

Says Elaine Steele, Parks close riend and coound-er o the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute orSel-Development, Mrs. Parks is a role model thatthese students look up to, and they eel very hon-ored and privileged to be in her company. Andshes very gracious to accompany the students tothese activities.

February, Black History Month, seemed a relevanttime to evaluate youth and their sense o history.But Parks thinks bigger and broader. We donthave enough young people who are concernedand who are exposed to the civil rights move-

ment, and I would like to see more exposure andget their interest, she says, pausing to relect,but I think it should just be history, period,and not thinking in terms o only Black HistoryMonth.

Parks is quiet, sot-spoken, and diplomatic. Butshe is irm in her belie that enough people willhave the courage and dedication to make thiscountry better than it is. And this young manthats taking over the NAACP, Kweisi Mume, Iadmire him a great deal, she adds. About LouisFarrakhan, the leader o the Black Muslims, shesays, Well, I dont know him personally, but Ithink it was great that he spearheaded the millionman march.

Parks has met many renowned leaders and hastraveled throughout the world receiving honorsand awards or her eorts toward racial harmony.

She is appreciative and honored by them butexhibits little emotion over whom she has met or

what she has done. Her response to being calledthe Mother o the Civil Rights Movement ismodest. I people think o me in that way, I justaccept the honor and appreciate it, she says.In Quiet Strength, however, Parks is careul toexplain that she did not change things alone.Four decades later I am still uncomortable withthe credit given to me or starting the bus boycott.I would like [people] to know I was not the onlyperson involved. I was just one o many whoought or reedom.

In August 1994, Parks was attacked in her homeby a young man who wanted money rom her. Othe event, she writes, I pray or this young manand the conditions in our country that have madehim this way. Despite the violence and crime inour society, we should not let ear overwhelm us.We must remain strong.

Parks belie in God and her religious convictionsare at the core o everything she does. It is theoverriding theme in her book and the messageshe hopes to impart: Id like or [readers] to know

that I had a very spiritual background and thatI believe in church and my aith and that hashelped to give me the strength and courage tolive as I did.

(November 12, 1815 - October 26, 1902)When Elizabeth Cady married abolitionist HenryBrewster Stanton in 1840, shed already observedenough about the legal relationships betweenmen and women to insist that the word obey bedropped rom the ceremony.

An active abolitionist hersel, Stanton was out-

raged when the Worlds Anti-Slavery Conventionin London, also in 1840, denied oicial standingto women delegates, including Lucretia Mott. In1848, she and Mott called or a womens rights con-vention to be held in Seneca Falls, New York. Thatconvention, and the Declaration o Sentimentswritten by Stanton which was approved there, iscredited with initiating the long struggle towardswomens rights and woman surage.

Ater 1851, Stanton worked in close partnershipwith Susan B. Anthony. Stanton oten served asthe writer and Anthony as the strategist in thiseective working relationship. Ater the CivilWar, Stanton and Anthony were among thosewho were determined to ocus on emale su-rage when only voting rights o reed maleswere addressed in Reconstruction. They oundedthe National Woman Surage Association andStanton served as president.

When the NWSA and the rival American WomanSurage Association inally merged in 1890,Stanton served as the president o the resultingNational American Woman Surage Association.

In her later years she added to her speech- andarticle-writing a history o the surage move-ment, her autobiography Eighty Years and More,and a controversial critique o womens treatmentby religion, The Womans Bible.

While Stanton is best known or her long con-tribution to the woman surage struggle, shewas also active and eective in winning property

rights or married women, equal guardianshipo children, and liberalized divorce laws so thatwomen could leave marriages that were otenabusive o the wie, the children, and the eco-nomic health o the amily.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton died in New York onOctober 26, 1902, with nearly 20 years to gobeore the United States granted women the rightto vote.


Our mistreatment was just notright, and I was tired o it

Profles in Courage

Rosa Parks: The Woman Who Changed aNation

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Truth is the only safeground to stand upon.- Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Forty years later, despite sometremendous gains, Parks eels,

we still have a long way to go in

improving the race relations inthis country.


7/16

Rachel Carson was born in 1907 on a small am-ily arm near Springdale, Pennsylvania. She origi-nally went to school to study English and creativewriting, but switched her major to marine biol-ogy. Her talent or writing would help her in hernew ield, as she resolved to make animals in

the woods or waters, where they live, as alive toothers as they are to me. She graduated rom thePennsylvania College or Women, today knownas Chatham College, in 1929 with magna cumlaude honors. Despite inancial diiculties, shecontinued her studies in zoology and genetics atthe Johns Hopkins University, earning a mastersdegree in zoology in 1932.

Carson taught zoology at Johns Hopkins and atthe University o Maryland or several years. Shecontinued to study towards her doctoral degree,particularly at the Marine Biological Laboratoryin Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Her inancial situ-ation, never satisactory, became worse in 1932when her ather died, leaving Carson to care orher aging mother; this burden made continueddoctoral studies impossible. She then accepted apart-time position at the U.S. Bureau o Fisheriesas a science writer working on radio scripts. Inthe process, she had to overcome resistance tothe then-radical idea o having a woman sit orthe Civil Service exam. In spite o the odds, sheoutscored all other applicants on the exam and in1936 became only the second woman to be hiredby the Bureau o Fisheries or a ull-time, proes-sional position, as a junior aquatic biologist.

At the U.S. Bureau o Fisheries, Carson worked oneverything rom cookbooks to scientiic journalsand became known or her ruthless insistence onhigh standards o writing. Early in her career, thehead o the Bureaus Division o Scientiic Inquiry,who had been instrumental in inding a positionor her in the irst place, rejected one o Carsonsradio scripts because it was too literary. He sug-gested that she submit it to the Atlantic Monthly.To Carsons astonishment and delight, it wasaccepted, and published as Undersea in 1937.

Carson rose within the Bureau (by then trans-ormed into the Fish and Wildlie Service), becom-ing chie editor o publications in 1949. For sometime she had been working on material or asecond book: it was rejected by iteen dierentmagazines beore The Katie serialized parts o itas A Proile o the Sea in 1951. Other parts soonappeared in Nature, and Oxord University Presspublished it in book orm as The Sea Around Us. Itremained on the New York Times bestseller list or86 weeks, was abridged byReaders Digest, won the

1952 National Book Award, and resultedin Carson being awarded two honorarydoctorates. It was also made into a docu-mentary ilm that was 61 minutes longand won an Oscar.

With success came inancial security, andCarson was able to give up her job in1952 to concentrate on writing ull time.She completed the third volume o hersea trilogy, The Edge o the Sea, in 1955.Through 1956 and 1957, Carson workedon a number o projects and wrote articlesor popular magazines.

Silent Spring and the DDT ban

Starting in the mid-1940s, Carson became con-cerned about the use o newly invented pesti-cides, especially DDT. The more I learned aboutthe use o pesticides, the more appalled I became,she wrote later, explaining her decision to startresearching what would eventually become hermost amous work, Silent Spring. What I discov-ered was that everything which meant most tome as a naturalist was being threatened, and thatnothing I could do would be more important.

Silent Spring ocused on the environment, andpesticides in particular. It was known as Carsonscrusade, and she worked on this book till death.Carson explored the subject o environmentalconnectedness: although a pesticide is aimedat eliminating one organism, its eects are eltthroughout the ood chain, and what was intend-ed to poison an insect ends up poisoning largeranimals and humans.

The our-year task o writing Silent Spring began

with a letter rom a close riend o Carsons. Itwas rom a New Englander, Olga Owens Huckins,who owned a bird sanctuary. According to theletter, the sanctuary had been sprayed unmerci-ully by the government. The letter asked Carsonto immediately use her inluence with govern-ment authorities to begin an investigation intopesticide use. Carson decided it would be moreeective to raise the issue in a popular magazine;however, publishers were uninterested, and even-tually the project became a book instead.

Now, as a renowned author, she was able to askor (and receive) the aid o prominent biologists,chemists, pathologists, and entomologists. Sheused Silent Spring to create a mental association inthe publics mind between wildlie mortality andover-use o pesticides like dieldrin, toxaphene,and heptachlor. Her cautions regarding the pre-viously little-remarked practices o introducingan enormous variety o industrial products andwastes into wilderness, waterways, and humanhabitats with little concern or possible toxicitystruck the general public as common sense, asmuch as good science; We are subjecting wholepopulations to exposure to chemicals which ani-mal experiments have proved to be extremelypoisonous and in many cases cumulative in their

eects. These exposures now begin at or beorebirth and - unless we change our methods - willcontinue through the lietime o those now liv-ing.

Even beore Silent Spring was published byHoughton Milin in 1962, there was strongopposition to it. As Time Magazine recounted in1999:

Carson was violently assailed by threats o lawsuitsand derision, including suggestions that this meticu-lous scientist was a hysterical woman unquali-ied to write such a book. A huge counterattack wasorganized and led by Monsanto, Velsicol, AmericanCyanamid - indeed, the whole chemical industry -

duly supported by the Agriculture Department as well

as the more cautious in the media.

Scientists such as Robert White-Stevens (whowrote I man were to ollow the teachings o MissCarson, we would return to the Dark Ages, andthe insects and diseases and vermin would once

again inherit the earth, and chemical companiesand other critics, attacked the data and interpreta-tion in the book, and some went urther to attackCarsons scientiic credentials because her special-ity was in marine biology and zoology, not in theield o biochemistry. Some went as ar as char-acterizing her as a mere birdwatcher with morespare time than scientiic background, calling herunproessional, and a ringe o her critics accusedher o being a communist.

Houghton Milin was pressured to suppress thebook, but did not succumb. Silent Spring was pos-itively reviewed by many outside o the agricul-tural and chemical science ields, and it became arunaway best seller both in the USA and overseas.

Again, Time Magazine claim that, within a yearor so o publication, all but the most sel-servingo Carsons attackers were backing rapidly towardsaer ground. In their ugly campaign to reduce abrave scientists protest to a matter o public rela-tions, the chemical interests had only increasedpublic awareness.

Pesticide use became a major public issue, helpedby Carsons April 1963 appearance on a CBSTV special in debate with a chemical companyspokesman.

Despite the acceptance o Carsons claims in the60s, criticism o Carsons work and its eects hasgrown as developing nations struggle to battle

inectious diseases nearly eradicated by DDT.

Carson received hundreds o speaking invita-tions, but was unable to accept the great majorityo them. Her health had been steadily decliningsince she had been diagnosed with breast cancerhalway through the writing o Silent Spring. Inone o her last public appearances, Carson testi-ied beore President Kennedys Science AdvisoryCommittee, which issued a report on May 15 1963largely backing Carsons scientiic claims(http://www.nwhp.org/tlp/biographies/carson/carson-bio.html). However, she never did live to see thebanning o DDT in U.S. She died on 14 April 1964,at the age o 56. In 1980, she was posthumouslyawarded the Presidential Medal o Freedom, thehighest civilian honor in the USA.

Silent Spring remains a ounding text or the con-temporary environmental movement in the Westand is seen as an important work to this day.

Forest Voice Spring 007 7

Profles in Courage

In their ugly campaign to reducea brave scientists protest to amatter o public relations, the

chemical interests had onlyincreased public awareness.

[We are in] an era dominatedby industry, in which the rightto make money, at whatever

cost to others, is seldomchallenged.

~Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson Waking a Sleeping Nation

Carson was violently assailed bythreats o lawsuits and derision


8/16

8 Forest Voice Spring 007

[Below is an example o the high proile print media advertising campaign Native Forest Council conducted throughout the 1990s, including ads inthe New York Times, LA Times, and other prominent newspapers. Its almost rightening how relevant the message remains nearly two decades later.]


9/16


Humans were part o the land. Forests,

grasslands and mountains stretchedshore to shore and clear rivers teemed

with fsh. We took what weneeded rom the earth andlittle else.But today we have destroyedall but 5% o our countrys

once great native oreststhrough logging, mining,grazing and drilling. Logging cost usour clean drinking water and ertile

topsoil, increased global warming and

the risk o fre, and devastated fsh andwildlie.

Te little remaining unloggednative orest continues to bethreatened by dishonest anddestructive corporations inthe extraction industry.

As nature is trashed and lost,so too are the chances o hu-

man survival.Its time to end the slaughter.

Those who first walked this great land

had no word for wilderness...

zero cut on public landswww.forestcouncil.org

They didnt need one


10/16


By John BorowskiOriginally published in truthout

The worlds largest science teachers associationhas rejected An Inconvenient Truth. Who willhold them accountable at their annual nationalconerence?

Occasionally, a simple story engages people, in-spires them to believe that participation in an acto concern can make a dierence. I am watchingthat story unold - rom the inside. A piece pub-lished by Truthout on November 28th, 2006, wasthe initial salvo. Now it has grown into a three-part story with the rst two acts completed. Weawait Act Three, a culminating curtain call: a tripto St. Louis to the March 2007 conerence o theNational Science Teachers Association to speak onbehal o hundreds o angered parents, teachersand citizens.

The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA),the worlds largest organization o science teach-

ers, is not stepping up or children, and they willnot just say no to corporate curriculum.

Actually, Act Three is playing out now as I write.This story began simply enough, on the pages o

the truthout web site. Light shone brightly on theNSTAs reusal to distribute 50,000 ree An Incon-venient Truth DVDs. That part o the story waseasy: I was aided by Laurie David, Hollywood ce-lebrity and climate-change activist who contactedme to gather inormation on the invasion o pub-lic schools by the likes o the American PetroleumInstitute, Exxon Mobil, Monsanto and Weyer-haeuser.

The ten-year battle to bring this story to the ore-ront was ar rom easy, though. Having watchedmy steamer trunk o dishonest curriculum romcorporate proteers ll to the brim and spill over,I oten wondered why I couldnt crack a nationalaudience. The high visibility o Ms. David, andher subsequent writing o an opinion piece in the

Washington Post, created leverage or me to penAct One.

I bear witness each school year to eld trips spon-sored by the worlds worst clear-cutters, an energy

curriculum mailed to schools thatactually intends to deceive chil-dren about the reality o climatechange, and a disheartening, dis-honest ecological curriculumthat is so brown that even the slick-est Madison Avenue propaganda

cannot paint it green. I havetraveled to NSTA conerences andcollected big coal, big timber andbig oils deceitul and disingenuousecological curriculum.

Since the rst piece appeared inTruthout on November 28, 2006,and another on December 13th,hundreds o emails have greetedme every morning and aternoonas I arrived home rom school. Inten years o writing about the Trojan horse o cor-porate misinormation, I have never experiencedsuch an avalanche o support and ollow-up ona simple request: voice your outrage. Apparently,hundreds o emails have also been sent to Ger-ald Wheeler, the executive director o the NSTA,ranging rom expressions o outright disgust to re-quests rom NSTA members to drop their subscrip-tions. On the NSTAs own web site, there has beenan open rebellion against the aiding and abettingo climate despoilers by the NSTA. At the conclu-sion o this piece, please read some o the emailsI continue to receive today and emails sent to theNSTA.

Teachers are writing to me to request ree DVDs(Laurie David provided me with 200 to distrib-ute) and ideas on how to educate children on thescience and solutions o this impending climate-change disaster. Unortunately, the NSTA has stillreused to distribute the DVDs. Laurie David is now

making the DVD available or teachers. Trish, mywie, gave me some money right beore Christmasto buy gits or our two older daughters; I spent iton postage, sending ree DVDs to teachers, con-cerned parents and students. My daughters under-stood perectly.

Act Three o this story will only be completed iwe attend the NSTA conerence and bring the con-cerns o thousands o parents, and the best inter-ests o millions o students, to St. Louis: we willnot tolerate dishonest curriculum in our schools.

This past week, letters started to arrive. Peoplewho read about the issue in Truthout decided tohelp us. Close to $1000 in donations showed up,accompanied by letters urging us to ght or kidsand help their teachers. These letters call or us,the Native Forest Council, a small grassroots or-ganization, to challenge the likes o Exxon Mobiland Weyerhaeuser at the NSTA conerence. We

dont have the deep pockets o the ossiluel cartels, and some lament that theirwar chest can outspend, out-spin, andbury us. Monsanto and Shell know thatthey can try to buy the truth. Yet, i wecan get to St. Louis in March, we can tellthousands o teachers the real acts andprovide them with the insights to teachenvironmental science, and not industrypropaganda.

We are hoping and praying we can

achieve a miracle in the next three weeks:raise nearly $12,000 to pay or a 10 by 10booth in the belly o the beast. Weyer-haeuser and other corporate entities havetriple booths and materials brought in bythe orklit-load every morning. We cantduplicate that eort, but, we can distrib-ute DVDs on climate change and orests,give teachers the truth about corporateeducation, and challenge the multina-tional companies to gain a conscience.Most importantly, we can expose thedishonest and deceitul manipulation ochildren by some o our nations biggestFortune 500 companies. We can keepthe story alive, and to the chagrin o thelikes o Exxon Mobil and the American

Petroleum Institute, we will expose their desire todebunk climate change.

Big environmental groups are missing in actionat the NSTA convention. My requests or them toshow up or to und educators like me has allen on

dea ears. I know that Exxon Mobil, Project Learn-ing Tree and other corporate powers are hopingthat we ail to raise the needed unds; they wantto buy the truth and manuacture consent amongteachers by lling their bags with their materials.Industry sees the 55 million children in schoolstoday as uture consumers, numb and mindlessparticipants in business as usual. They ear aneducated citizenry: educated people reuse to belapdogs.

Early last week, I will coness, I elt very low. Welive in a society where money is oten needed orbasic access to even begin a good ght. But, thisstory is ar rom over. A lack o resources is no ex-cuse or us to capitulate to the power o corporate

money. Climate change headlines are screamingor action daily in our newspapers. This genera-tion o students needs to become the most eco-logically fuent and ecologically civic-minded citi-zens ever.

Cynics tell me that one person, especially in to-

days world o money politics means nothing. Ithat is so, then why did a senior in my marinebiology class email me this week and tell me thathe was going to write a letter to the editor aterour climate change unit and that the unit had aproound eect on his lie? Knowledge is power,and conveying to our children that they have theknowledge to implement climate change solu-tions is paramount.

We at the Native Forest Council owe our childrenthe best possible ght against those who wish toteach lies to protect their bottom line: prot atany cost. I am blessed, and never, ever take orgranted the responsibility o being a caring educa-tor and elder. Please spread the word about corpo-

rate miseducation and the Native Forest Councilseorts to get to St. Louis this March.

What will Act Three bring? I can only ask caringcitizens and parents to make that decision. Wewill represent your interests in St. Louis, ght oryour children, and prove that the truth cannotbe bought or sold. The American Petroleum Insti-tute and Exxon Mobil are watching this very, veryclosely: they ear the curtain going up on a nalact. They cannot pay or or buy a happy, corpo-rate-spun ending.

John F. Borowski is a teacher o 26 years and heado the Native Forest Councils Honest EducationProgram.

Knowledge is power, andconveying to our children

that they have the knowledgeto implement climate change

solutions is paramount.

Who Will Hold Science Teachers AssociationAccountable?

Industry sees the 55 millionchildren in schools today

as uture consumers, numband mindless participants in

business as usual.


11/16


by Tim Hermach

The worst lies are the ones we tell our children.Whether its a cartoon camel assuring a genera-tion o kids that smoking is cool, or a teacher dem-onstrating how children can survive atomic attackby ducking and covering; the manipulation oimpressionable minds can have deadly conse-quences that reverberate across generations.

As propagandists know: to command tomorrowthey must shape the content o education today.While commercial advertising continues to be apowerul tool o instructionone that operates vir-tually unnoticed in our homesincreasingly, cor-porations are inltrating our schools.

Corporate PR rms established a beachhead withChannel 1, promoted as bringing educationaltelevision to the classroom. What it also broughtwas advertising which, by contractual agreement,children are obliged to watch. Likewise, the ast-ood industry has agreements with school districtswhich peddle junk ood to growing kids in returnor unding.

Now the curriculum is being targeted. Oil com-panies have developed science curriculums de-signed to cast doubt on climate change while de-ending the continued use o ossil uels. Loggingcompanies distribute learning materials whichpromote the intensive logging o the last ancientorests on public lands. They encourage the use

o herbicides and pesticides in the name o oresthealth, while ignoring the poisons leaching intoour rivers endangering human health. And theygloss over the non-commercial benets o orestsso essential in a time o global warming. Againstoverwhelming scientic evidence to the contrary,the message conveyed to children is: We can keepdoing what were doing without consequence. Butmost disturbing, this corporate propaganda is dis-tributed with the blessing o the National ScienceTeachers Association (NSTA).

It stands to reason that corporate support oeducation is not solely driven by a Socratic loveo learning. Sel-promotion and the justicationo harmul business practices are inevitable when,or example, logging companies provide teaching

modules on orest ecology. The result is a pre-emp-tive strike against discernment which is replaced

with values and belies promotive othe corporations agenda. And a largepart o that agenda is directed at con-vincing children that global warmingwill be survivable without any mean-ingul or urgent action on our part.

Kids are being groomed to be obedi-ent consumers and in the process, PRis substituted or science, and realityis manuactured to suit corporate in-terests. Thus, clearcuts visible romspace represent sound orest manage-ment, and opening the Arctic to drill-ing is part o a comprehensive energypolicy while increasing mileage stan-dards is not.

We dont yet know the long-term eects o dumb-ing-down children, but we do know the impacton the NSTA. An organization which should standuncompromisingly or the advancement o sci-ence education, has instead chosen to censor it.When oered 50,000 ree copies o the scienti-cally acclaimed (and Academy Award winning)climate change documentary An Inconvenient

Truth, the NSTA reused citing an unnecessaryrisk upon the capital campaign. By acceptingmoney rom industries whose nancial interestsdepend on discrediting science, the NSTA chosesel-censorship over honest education. When sci-ence conficts with the corporate curriculum, thestrategy is clear: Dont upset the donors.

The Native Forest Council (NFC), an Oregon-based environmental organization, will bring itsChildren or an Honest Education campaign tothe NSTA conerence in St. Louis this March. Itspurpose is to sound the alarm and provide a coun-ter-weight to the crush o corporate exhibitorswishing to exert infuence over education. It willnot be welcome. The NFC was warned not to becritical o other exhibitors. Nonetheless, the NFCwill speak. Irony begets tragedy when a teachersassociation believes telling the truth is more costlythan living with lies.

Joseph Goebbels, a master propagandist, said this:I you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it,people will eventually come to believe it. The lie

can be maintained only or such time as the Statecan shield the people rom the consequences o

the lie. It thus becomes vitally important or theState to use all o its powers to repress dissent, orthe truth is the mortal enemy o the lie, and thusby extension, the truth is the greatest enemy othe State.

Given their power and infuence, corporationshave become borderless states, and the same rea-soning applies. It is in the nancial interest o cer-tain corporations to be hostile to science and deny

climate change until nature can no longer protectus rom its consequences. By then, global warm-ing will acquire its own irreversible momentumwhich, scientists warn, may produce a very dier-ent and hellish planet.

Beore entrusting our childrens education to cor-porations, consider the record. Without concernor the general welare, corporations moved jobsoverseas, alsied earnings, crushed unions, loot-ed pensions, and cut health care benets. Theypurchased control o governance, gutted envi-ronmental protections, and demanded regulatoryexemption. Their appetite is voracious, and theirethics are oten ghoulish.

Now theyve come or our children.

Dont let them.

We say we love flowers,yet we pluck them. We say

we love trees, yet we cutthem down. And people

still wonder why some areafraid when told they are

loved.- Unknown

Selling Out The Schools

Logging companies distributelearning materials which

promote the intensive logging othe last ancient orests on public

lands.

It is in the inancial interest ocertain corporations to be hostile

to science and deny climatechange until nature can no longerprotect us rom its consequences.

Letter sent to Gerald Wheeler:

Dear Mr. Wheeler,

I am writing to express my dismay over your reusalto distribute DVD copies o the Al Gore lm An In-convenient Truth to the science teachers in your As-sociation, as described by Mr. John Borowski. I canonly presume you and your corporate riends in theAmerican Petroleum Institute, big oil companies, cor-

porate timber concerns, and other businesses whoseprots are derived rom exploitation o ossil uels,old growth orests, and other similarly ecologicallyquestionable pursuits, nd his truth too inconvenientto teach to those whom we are grooming to lead ourcountry and the world in the uture.

I understand that you have gone so ar as to attempt tocensor his and the Native Forest Councils statementson matters o act that put your corporate sponsors ina well-deserved bad light. One hopes you are awarethat your actions in their support illuminate you inthe same bad light. It is incomprehensible to me howsomeone entrusted with the support o science teach-ers could behave in such an unscientic manner. Itwould seem you were not educated as a scientist ...

perhaps you have an MBA.

Your slavish acquiescence to the needs o Big Busi-ness, at the expense o teaching our children real sci-ence, may pay handsome dividends at present but is,in the long run, prohibitively expensive. It is, in act,civilizational suicide. As the executive director o anorganization o science teachers I should not have topoint out to you the need or budding scientists tobe taught the truth and how to discern truth rom

lies. That you knowingly choose to promote dishonestteaching materials when excellent resources (such asAl Gores lm) are available says some very unfat-tering things about you and your values.

I sincerely trust you will move to rectiy your errors inthe immediate uture.

Letter sent to John Borowski:

Dear John,

Excellent article in Truthout! I sent my email request-ing that they reconsider. I wonder how they mightrespond to letters rom science students nationwidereminding them o the NSTAs mission?

Letter sent to Gerald Wheeler:

Dear Mr. Wheeler,

Assuming the Truthout account is correct, I wouldrecommend you reverse course promptly to avoid na-tional ridicule. Your organization has lost some stat-ure already. I expect a major uproar i you persist inhiding science.

Letter sent to John Borowski:

Dear John,

The DVDs arrived today - thank you, and I promisewe will make good use o them in spreading the wordabout global warming.

Also, i you have a leafet or ino on Native ForestCouncil it might help me to try or some unds. Canyou attach the ino - sounds like a great group!

I will be sending you a little donation, John, though Idont have much - we are a not-or-prot group herein the Woodlands that operates on a shoestring bud-get!!

Letters and Emails rom Parents and Educators


12/16


Do you recycle - and then fy toNew York or the weekend? Itsthe inconsistency o our attemptsto save the planet that reallybugs

by Nigel Pollitt

The Independent25 January 2007

At Christmas I was given a copy o the book othe lm An Inconvenient Truth, by the Americanpolitician Al Gore. It was rom two people. One othem drives an SUV and both are requent fiers.I was given the present at a gathering under re-cessed halogen spotlights, a popular system that,typically, doubles the electricity consumed by arooms lighting and greatly increases ceiling heat-loss. Few in the room were wearing anything that,by the standards o earlier ages, could have beenconsidered winter clothing. Some o the ood onthe table - gs and blueberries - originated sever-al thousand miles away. And, while tap-water in

the area is quaable, bottled mineral water romFrance accompanied our celebration.

The six adults and two children present werepeople who, i cornered, would probably say thatSomething Should Be Done about rising carbonemissions. As well as this, all the adults were cooks,and cooks are the people most likely to understandthat doubling a very small but potent ingredientcan have a very big eect on a result. Carbon di-oxide is less than 1 per cent o the atmosphere. Yetdoubling it, which is what were heading towards,is sending the planet to the emergency room.

This month, the EUs environment commissioner,Stavros Dimas, called the struggle to halt climatechange a world war. The Tories are pitchingor an 80 per cent cut in UK carbon emissions by2050. Even the Conederation o British Industryhas a task orce on it.

But we, in our homes and on holiday, go on asbeore. The riend who raved about the Al Gorelm whacks up the heat and wears a T-shirt in-doors. I bang on about halogen downlights butdo nothing about the picturesque but colossally

leaky wooden sash windows in my picturesquebut colossally leaky Victorian house. I my 1880sstained glass was under threat, Id get a handgun.Whats going on?

People see it as such a big, dicult problem. Theyask how on Earth can they infuence it in theirday-to-day behaviour, says Nick Pidgeon, a pro-essor o applied psychology at Cardi University,and the co-author o several studies on attitudesto climate change. They say overwhelminglythat the Government or international commu-nity should be responsible or action, but are notchanging their own behaviour because it all seems

too much.

Its also about connecting, he says. We understandthe consequences o climate change, but theres adisconnect with our actions. People dont thinkabout climate change when they get in the car.And when taking a risk [o damaging the climate]

has personal benets, theres much less pressureto change behaviour. Getting in the car has an im-mediate benet.

And although Commissioner Dimas talks o worldwar, Hitler hasnt invaded Poland yet. There hasbeen Katrina and some extra drought, but the GulStream still pumps Caribbean warmth to Europe.We havent seen crop ailure in Hampshire. Breadstill comes rom the supermarket.

Theres also that tic that psychologists call cogni-tive dissonance. I reality has square edges, youle them down. You buy a diesel car. Then youread about the dangers o unburnt nanoparticles,but brighten up when a riend says that diesel carshave lower CO2 emissions.

Last year I was invited to India by a riend. I eltawul about burning, in a ew hours, the equiva-lent o a couple o years o my normal carbon out-put and, or this among other reasons, did not go.But I could have led down those square edges,couldnt I? Reduced the dissonance. Ater all, asone riend said, we only produce 2 per cent oglobal carbon in Britain. China and India are theproblem. The riend who invited me commented:I think the plane is going to fy that day whetheryou are on it or not.

My own response was to say, i there were ration-ing o long-haul fights to a globally sustainablelevel, I would go. There isnt, and I didnt.

The point is that, bizarrely, dealing with climatechange is, so ar, presented to us as a liestylechoice. The current ads rom the Energy Saving

Trust urging us to switch o are the equivalento wartime posters saying how it would be real-ly helpul i you could black out your windowsduring air-raids. Accordingly, our response to thethreat o climate change is lost in complex andcontradictory individual responses. Theres thesense too, o the utility o boycott. Why should Istop fying i no one else does?

As Mike Childs, a climate campaigner at Friends

o the Earth, points out: At the moment the eco-nomic signals [to the individual] are that climatechange doesnt really matter. The economic sig-nals dont suggest you should do the right thing.So there may have to be punitive taxes on fyingto India or Prague, so you say, thats a ridiculousamount o money, I cant aord to fy there.

Should there be rationing? Coupons or carbon?The idea o a trading scheme, with tradeablequotas, say in aviation, has its attractions, saysChilds. Then its not all down to the individual.He accepts, however, that there may have to becatastrophe that creates a groundswell o publicpressure or drastic action.

In the past, wars were won using the brutality oconscription. Cities were deended and popula-tions ed through regulations and rationing. Ihuman populations are to survive against a arbigger threat than Hitler or al-Qaida or avian fu,wont governments have to be brutal? Turn o thepower, perhaps? Its been done beore, so surelyits do-able. We wont fy or our holidays and wewont drink Evian and maybe well even enjoy thespirit o the carbon blitz. I were lucky, the GulStream wont turn o and we wont end up withthe climate o Newoundland.

But according to Proessor Pidgeon, were just notgoing to change our behaviour enough voluntari-ly. We could all end up with low-energy light-bulbs but still fying to the Alps or the weekend.

Under those circumstances, a government is goingto have to take some pretty tough action.

We are challenged, morally, to change our behav-iour, as individuals, but the bigger challenge is orour leaders to come up with a proper coordinatedsurvival plan. Theyll need our backing.

Saving The Planet: Empty Gestures

The research concludes that old,wild orests are ar better thanplantations o young trees at

ridding the air o carbon dioxide

Economic advance is notthe same thing as human

progress.- John Clapham, A Concise

there may have to be catastrophe

that creates a groundswell opublic pressure or drastic action.


13/16


Clean Coal, Forest Bioueland Other Fairy Tales

The history o global heating haslargely been written by coal andorest loss, now wrongly hailed asclimate change solutions

by Glenn Barry

Two o the biggest, most dangerous lies beingpromoted in response to global warming are thatclean coal exists and the worlds orests are ade-quate to provide biouel. Dirty coal and industrialorest harvest or energy only accelerates the rootcauses o looming Doomsday or the Earth - thatis destruction o the biospheres atmospheric andterrestrial ecosystems.

Coal burning and orest loss have been the lead-ing culprit in climate change to date, and shouldtheir continued use at any scale be pursued as thesolution to climate change and energy security, itwill prove the death-knell or the Planet. We need

less ossil uel use and more orest regeneration,not the reverse.

The myth o Clean Coal is pernicious nonsense,as promised carbon sequestration technologiesremain unproven, are not likely to be pursued atany scale anytime soon and are primarily usedto put o limits on burning coal. Coal is cheap,plentiul and dirty. Carbon emissions rom burn-ing coal have been the leading cause o globalwarming. The worlds coal reserves hold some3500 gigatonne o carbon, compared to the atmo-sphere currently holding around 800 gigatonne(600 gigatonne beore the industrial revolution).I this coal is burnt and carbon vented into theatmosphere the planet will be several times pastthe concentration o carbon dioxide considered

able to be adapted to saely.

China is opening another coal plant every 7 to10 days. The U.S. coal industry is rushing to buildsome 150 new plants beore mandatory carboncaps, carbon taxes or carbon sequestration are putin place. Each o these new dirty coal plants usesthe oldest o technologies, locking the worldstwo greatest polluters into dirty coal or at least

50 more years. I know o no plans to make car-bon sequestration mandatory any time soon ornew coal plants. It will be at least 10 years beore

we know i geosequestration even works. Carboncapture and storage is expensive, increasing thecosts o power generation by 40 to 80%. Despiteall the promises o coal gasiication and carbonsequestration, it may never be possible to produceenergy rom coal without atmospheric carbonemissions.

Could it be that carbon sequestration like thehydrogen automobile is a red-herring to allow theossil uel industries to squeeze every last dropo proit rom the Planet beore being orced tostop? In the world o nine billion consumers tocome, with the condition o the atmosphere insuch tatters, the majority o the worlds ilthycoal reserves must be let in the ground as wetransition exclusively to clean renewable energyalternatives.

Many herald the promise o converting woodybiomass - primarily orest waste such as saw-dust, orest thinning, and agriculture residuessuch as straw - into cellulosic ethanol as a sourceo biouel. Cellulosic ethanol technology usesenzymes to break down the woody bits o plantcellulose. The act that woody materials mayprovide or more energy than corn or soy basedethanol does not in itsel justiy large-scale estab-lishment o such an industry. Just as hasty eortsto promote corn ethanol have lead to sharp priceincreases or corn worldwide, production o bio-uel rom orest and agricultural waste will havegrave unintended consequences.

The worlds orests have been hammered or mil-lennia; and are barely able to continue providingecosystem services o cycling o nutrients, energyand water while providing or traditional woodproducts. Removal o orest biomass and agricul-tural residues rom natural ecosystems and human

agro-ecosystems at the industrial scale envisionedwill be yet one more massive drain upon theEarths net primary productivity. The woody or-est waste materials to be used; including orestslash, thinning, bark and sawdust are the nutrientmaterials that new orests depend upon.

Surely woody biomass requirements will be metby vast plantations o genetically modiied iberbearing plants and/or by encroaching into regen-erating orests and land used to grow ood. Alarge biouel industry based upon ethanol romcellulose will lead to greater deorestation, orestdiminishment and degradation o agriculturallands. Ancient orests will replaced to grow genet-ically modiied crops in plantations, regenerat-

ing secondary orests will be logged into urtherdecline, and land use will shit rom ood to ibereven as soils become more degraded. One mustonly look at oil palm in Asia, sugar cane and

soya in Brazil and corn in the U.S. tosee this is true. To presume that themassive energy needs o the world canbe met by already overworked and stilldiminishing orest and agricultural eco-systems is true olly.

Al Gore, sel-appointed alpha Earthsavior, and most o the environmen-tal mainstream, are on record as talk-ing about the uture promise o cleancoal and orest biouel technologies;just another reminder o the extent to

which the mainstream environmentalmovement has neither diagnosed theseriousness o the global biospherescondition nor presented solutions ade-quate to suiciently address ecocidein a timely manner without makingthings worse. Energy and climate solu-tions that increase pressures upon thebiosphere are no help at all.

Humanity has shown little inclinationor ability to properly scale their activi-ties to not undermine and destroy natu-ral capital. Perhaps limited coal couldbe burnt and its carbon buried to toolthe necessary renewable energy capital

including solar and wind equipment. And per-haps communities can take the increment romorests and armlands o woody biomass that doesnot reduce natural and agro ecosystem productiv-ity. But this is not what is being proposed. Cleancoal and cellulosic ethanol technologies are beingenvisioned at industrial scales adequate to meetthe worlds current and surging energy needs, inorder that more undamental changes in energyeiciency, energy conservation and sustainableliestyles are averted.

Will humanity accept no limits upon its actions,particularly limiting its population, consump-tion and energy use; in order to ensure the bio-sphere continues unctioning? The way orwardin renewable energy is to harvest wind and sun-light. Further, the way orward on climate change

policy is to also stress energy conservation andeiciency, and ending deorestation and selectivelogging in ancient orests. Coal and orest basedclimate solutions enlarge the scale o the humanenterprise when it needs to be shrunk. To thinkotherwise is to believe in ghosts, monsters andother airy tales.

Thus, confronted by power-ful corporate opposition,

the environmentalmovement has split in

two. The older national

environmental organiza-tions, in their Washington

offices, have taken thesoft path of negotiation,compromising with thecorporations about how

much pollution is acceptable... The people living in the

polluted communities havetaken the hard path ofconfrontation ... The

national organizations dealwith the environmental

disease by negotiating aboutthe kind of Band-Aid to

apply to it; the communitygroups deal with the disease

by trying to prevent it.- Barry Commoner,

Making Peace With thePlanet

Energy and climate solutionsthat increase pressures upon the

biosphere are no help at all.

The worlds orests have beenhammered or millennia; and arebarely able to continue providing

ecosystem services


14/16


By Bill BishopThe Register-Guard

I you tell Tim Hermach that he is extreme, radicaland counterproductive because o his uncompro-mising stance on preserving the nations publiclands, he will tell you that you orgot to mentionhard to work with.

Hermach, the 61-year-old president o the NativeForest Council, embraces the disparaging termsthat his opponents slap on him like so manybumper stickers on a hippie van.

He holds his own bumper sticker in a photo-graph accompanying his column in the ForestVoice, a 25,000-circulation nationwide magazinehe has published in Eugene since 1988. It reads:Compromise be damned.

To Hermach, the nations public lands are a liesupport system, a sacred trust or uture genera-tions that is being liquidated or short-term gain.Nothing less.

The Native Forest Council was the irst environ-mental group to publicly call or an absoluteban on tree-cutting in public orests nearly twodecades ago.

Hermach considers it his greatest achievementbecause it eventually led to the Sierra Club adopt-ing the proposal and legislation that proposedimplementing it.

We basically changed the high bar, says Hermach,

who adds, I have a long list o ailures.

These days Hermach espouses a corporate deathpenalty to terminate and inancially evisceratebusinesses that deliberately do public harm.

As Hermachs stances have grown more stridentwith the passing years, he has earned admirationrom committed environmentalists, but no alliesamong the business interests he condemns. Hewould have it no other way.

I deeply respect the work that Tim does andbelieve it is crucial to the environmental move-ment to have voices that will push the envelope,says Lauren Regan, executive director o the CivilLiberties Deense Center in Eugene. Given theecological crisis that the planet is currently acing,there is no time or anything less then pushing orno compromise.

But Chris West, spokes-man or the AmericanForest Resources Councilo Portland, says

Hermachs shrill voicedoes not contribute tosolving problems.

These are very complexand intertwined issues.He is not about indingsolutions. I you dontwork to solve problems,you end up marginal-izing yoursel, Westsays. We cant returnthe Paciic Northwest towhere it was beore Lewisand Clark came downthe Columbia River.

What we need to do isind solutions, givenwhere we are today andwhat we can do.

To Hermach, that soundslike compromise.

He believes big dreamsand a vision o a bet-ter world can empowerpeople to overcome seemingly unstoppable orces- like big-money corporate inluence and consum-er habits that create waste and pollution.

I dont cut deals, he says. Im not opposed toindustry. I have no problem with compromisewhen it is ethical, moral and reasonable. So otenbig money dictates the rules.

Holding ast on the embattled lank o environ-mental issues is lonely work, Hermach says. Its noplace or quitters, or anyone who wont embraceconlict with the same commitment that onewould pledge to a marriage - til death do us part,he says.

The personal cost is high.

One o my kids said, How come you neverlaugh? Ive lost some o my cheerul spirit,Hermach says. Some people would say Ivelost all o it. I understand peoples depression

(over environmental degradation). People tell me,Dont tell me. I dont want to know. I cant doanything about it.

Hermachs activism awakened in the mid-1980s,when he returned to Eugene ater working 20years in Alaska and Southern Caliornia. He saysthe clear-cuts he saw during a light in a smallplane over old amiliar stretches o the WillametteNational Forest appalled him.

I was raised by my parents to challenge author-ity. Question authority. Make it make sense, hesays.

He says it appears to him that the equation ortimber harvest assigns a zero to the value o cleanair, pure water and soil conservation provided byold trees.

Zero. The one thing we know they are not. Thereis only one true god in America. It is money, hesays. I those things counted, wed make di-erent decisions. We encourage unethical andimmoral decision-making by corporations.

He volunteered with the Sierra Club in the 1980s,

but quit ater he was asked to study and recom-mend club support or one o ive proposed log-ging plans or the orest. None was acceptable toHermach, so he struck o on his own and eversince has been an outspoken critic o beltwayenvironmental ront groups who are kinder,gentler versions o the deadly corporate parasitesthat are destroying nature.

Compromise be damned.

Theyre robbing our kids uture, Hermach says.I keep doing it because i I dont quit, I keep hopealive or my kids.

In his neck o our woods, compromise wontgrow on trees

The warnings aboutglobal warming have beenextremely clear for a long

time. We are facing aglobal climate crisis. It isdeepening. We are enteringa period of consequences.

-Al Gore

[Editors Note: On January 22, 2007, The Register-Guard, our local paper, here in Eugene, Oregon) published an article onTim Hermach and the Native Forest Council. We present or you that article, and some responses to it.]


15/16

By Tim HermachOn Jan. 22, The Register-Guard published a pro-ile o me and the organization I head, the NativeForest Council. I was portrayed as uncompromis-ing - which is perectly accurate. But what wasmissing rom the article was the urgency o thecause we are ighting or: humanitys dependenceupon the natural world or its survival.

Once this issue is put into proper perspective, itbecomes obvious why not one more sliver o ourorest legacy should be sacriiced, and why even ahundred years ago Teddy Roosevelt said the timeor compromise was long past.

Our orests, the commons o the Earth, are a cru-

cial component o our planets sel-regulating cli-mate system. Overcutting our orests contributessigniicantly to global warming, and is a threat toecosystems, habitat and water quality.

The continuing degradation o water quality isplain. The dams on the McKenzie River, Eugeneswater supply, were engineered in the 1960s,beore the steep mountainsides above the riverwere clear-cut. The Eugene Water & Electric Boardhas spent $15 million on drinking water wells tohedge against catastrophic events made increas-ingly likely by Weyerhaeuser and riends destruc-tive logging o Eugenes watershed.

Water quality has also been degraded by herbi-

cides and pesticides sprayed to plant and man-age industrial-scale tree plantations where nativeorest ecosystems once thrived. Drought andthe threat o orest ires have also increased as

the temperatures o cut-over orests are radicallyelevated.

The public is orced to accept these consequencesas the price o keeping industry competitive, pro-tecting jobs and keeping proits lowing. The sadtruth is the systematic degradation o our orestsincurs uncounted costs or the many, and countedproits or the ew.

We seldom get the complete picture about this,because access to the government and the mediahas been usurped by the wealthy and power-ul. Global warming oers a sobering example.Scientists worldwide agree that the Earth is warm-ing and that the ragile web o lie that regulatesthe planets climate is under attack. Yet global

corporations, enriched by the wealth they extract,have misled the public with billion-dollar misin-ormation campaigns.

James Lovelock names carbon, cows and chainsaws as the primary human causes o global heat-ing. Lovelock is the ather o the Gaia hypothesis,which explains how systems have evolved overmillions o years to create a sel-regulating systemo lie-riendly temperature control and chemicalcomposition on Earth.

As the removal o native orest ecosystems hasaccelerated - ecosystems that cycle water, carbonand oxygen - and the volume o carbon andmethane pollutants has increased, the dynam-

ics o climate eedback have been altered andtemperatures have risen to the hottest levels evermeasured. Hal the cover o orest ecosystems, avital component o this sel-regulating system,

has already been removed or building, iber andagriculture.

Lovelock warns that we are perilously close tothe tipping point at which our climate will leapto unriendly temperatures - not gradual globalwarming, but catastrophic global heating withinone or two decades.

These priceless and irreplaceable orests andwatersheds are the commons upon which wedepend or lie. In the name o ree markets andeiciency, global corporations continue to harvestthe planets lungs at an increasing rate with littleor no accounting o the true costs and conse-quences. Industrial logging has put all o natureand creation at risk (check our Web site, www.orestcouncil.org, or obscene images).

I we care about human survival and civilization,we need to take a hard look at the true costs owhat we are doing to nature. We have disturbedthe equilibrium o the planet. We wont compro-mise our way out o this crisis. Weve run out o

time or urther lopsided debate, and do not haveroom or compromise. We owe it to ourselves andour children to do no urther harm. We can andshould do everything in our power to stop mak-ing it worse - now.

So how do we get rom here to there?

Too much has been already been lost, compro-mised away. We will continue losing our climate,our orested watersheds and our drinking waterto Weyerhaeuser an

forest voice spring 2007

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