Sunday, October 2, 2005

Radical parody threatens environmental movement

By Thomas Bray / The Detroit News

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If environmentalists wonder why their movement seems stalled -- "Is Environmentalism Dead?" a controversial essay by two California activists asked not long ago -- perhaps it's because so many greens are threatening to become a parody of themselves.

Nor are we just talking about the monkey wrench gang. Consider the program of last week's annual retreat by the Environmental Grantmakers Association, representing 250 of the biggest foundations in America -- Ford, Carnegie, Pew and so on -- which command tens of billions of dollars and fuel the environmental movement.

In its introduction to the three-day conference, the organizers laid down the "culture of the retreat." Among other things, they decreed, "The retreat should demonstrate the values we hold ... by encouraging shared transportation; printing with recycled, non-toxic materials; serving sustainable foods; utilizing alternative energy sources; and staying mindful of our impact on the planet."

Insofar as the planet noticed, it may have wondered about the relevance of the 16-page program, starting with an opening dinner that featured "slow foods, " moved on to a workshop on "inclusiveness and diversity" (though not much intellectual diversity was displayed) and a performance by singers Pete and Toshi Singer.

Or consider the latest hilarity from the Harvard School of Public Health, which in two weeks will hold its annual "Leadership Council" for major supporters. It will use the occasion to bestow its Julius Richmond Award (named for Jimmy Carter's surgeon general) on none other than Erin Brockovich-Ellis for "her efforts on behalf of all of us" in extracting a $333 million settlement from Pacific Gas & Electric Co. for allegedly poisoning the water supply of Hinkley, Calif.

Erin Brockovich became a household word after the movie of that name -- in which she was played by Julia Roberts in an Oscar-winning performance -- appeared a few years later. As it turns out, there was little if any evidence that PG&E's supposedly dastardly act was anything more than a minor screw-up (as PG&E admitted).

In a letter of protest to the dean of the Harvard public health school, Elizabeth Whelan, president of the conservative American Council on Science and Health, noted that the California Department of Health Services concluded that "We found no basis in either the epidemiological or animal data" for assertions that the pollution was a cancer-causing agent.

Clearly the company settled rather than risk an even bigger hit from a runaway jury. An extensive follow-up story in the (liberal) New Republic magazine in 2003, titled "Erin Brockovich's Weird Science," noted that not only had no unusual health effects turned up in Hinkley, but that unsupported charges by Brockovich about benzene and mercury poisoning in other California cities had caused "pandemonium and panic," including plunges in local real estate prices.

Politically correct Hollywood still loves Erin. She is listed as the executive producer of an upcoming NBC series titled "Class Action," which will lionize a team of fictional plaintiff's attorneys who specialize in class-action lawsuits.

In the end, it's not environmentalism that is endangered. Most Americans, polls consistently show, consider themselves environmentalists of a sort. They care about Mother Earth, clean air and clean water. But in a world of finite resources, they understand the need for balance. And they can see the left-wing agenda that animates so many self-proclaimed environmentalists.

Thomas Bray is a News columnist. Reach him at (313) 222-2544 and tbray@detnews.com.