Transforming environmental advocacy groups in the United States and environmental justice | Agora Speech Platform

Environmental advocacy groups in the United States are influential in Washington politics.

Among them, the following four were major contributors in 2020.

All of these groups support the Democratic Party, and whether or not they receive support from these groups will make a big difference in the presidential primary election. In presidential primaries it is important to receive “endorsements” from each organization. Note 1) In primary elections, in which each group declares who it supports, it is important to collect the votes of these groups.

Last but not least, former NRDC president Gina McCarthy was Biden’s first climate advisor (now retired). While it seems more likely that Secretary of State McCarthy was head of the Environmental Protection Agency during the Obama administration, we should not forget that she is also the former president of the NRDC.

Environmental advocacy groups are moving quickly ahead of the 2024 general election. They have had difficulty coming together to protect the environment, but for the first time they have come together and declared their support. By June, major environmental advocacy groups had already begun campaigning for President Biden’s re-election.

Now I’d like to talk a little about the Sierra Club, which has a history of over 100 years in the United States.

The Sierra Club was founded by John Muir, author, environmentalist and father of national parks.

He was born in Scotland in 1838 and came to the United States with his family in 1860, settling in Wisconsin. In 1868, fascinated by the Sierra Nevada mountains, he moved to San Francisco. In 1890 he lobbied for the creation of Yosemite National Park. In this sense, the Sierra Club was also founded in 1892. He later helped found Sequoia National Park, Mount Rainier National Park, Petrified Forest National Park and Grand Canyon National Park.

He was a close friend of the 26th president, Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt (Republican/1901-1909). Teddy was deeply inspired by Muir’s book, “Our National Parks” and initiated federal conservation efforts.

Few people will know that he was a close friend of President Teddy Roosevelt, but by the 1930s the Sierra Club had about 3,000 members, most of whom were Republicans.

Nowadays, environmental advocacy groups are dominated by Democrats, but from the “nature conservation/wildlife protection” perspective, Republicans place even more importance on this aspect. They also advocate owning firearms for recreational purposes such as hunting and fishing wildlife.

In the 1930s the Sierra Club was a small organization with only a few thousand members. Furthermore, the club probably began as a small movement in rural California.

A major turning point in nationwide membership, when membership increased nationwide, occurred during the dam-building boom in the United States from 1950 to 1970. The last 20 years have been a golden age for dams (Note 2). At the time, it was necessary to provide low-cost electricity and irrigation for agriculture in arid regions such as Southern California and Arizona.

Changes occurred in the environmental movement after DAVID BROWER became director of the Sierra Club in 1952. Along with this rush to build dams, the Sierra Club’s activities shifted toward a movement against dam building.

At the time, the Sierra Club was focused on preserving the valley’s landscape, and there are documents from the group arguing that it made more sense to build a coal-fired power plant than a hydroelectric one. Hydroelectric dams, now hailed as a source of clean energy, were at the time a nuisance that “destroyed the landscape.” He also campaigned against the Eco Park Dam and the construction of dams in Grand Canyon National Park.

During the golden age of dam building, Sierra Club membership reached 70,000. As mentioned in the WSJ article, it is also worth noting that at that time it was still a white nature conservation movement (Note 3).

The rush to build the dam ended in 1970.

During the Nixon era, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Air Pollution Control Act, and the Water Pollution Control Act were passed one after another, making it difficult to build dams. With the end of the dam, the movement against the construction of dams by environmental groups also disappeared.

Environmental advocacy groups reached a turning point around 1980.

As clearly stated in the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an environmental justice movement has emerged. Understanding the civil rights movement is important in explaining that movement.

In 1955, a black woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested for sitting in a white seat on a bus and refusing to yield to a white person, prompting a Montgomery bus boycott and civil rights protests. The movement gained momentum.

In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. and others took part in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and in 1964 the Civil Rights Act was enacted. In the 1970s, the number of black members of Congress increased and they began to gain political power . They began to raise their voices and make their demands.

According to the EPA, the environmental justice movement began in 1982 as a protest against the state government’s decision to bury hazardous materials in poor communities in Warren, North Carolina (Note 4).

The following year, 1983, Dr. Robert D. Ballard (alumnus of AL State’s Negro University) and others made quite a stir when they announced the results of a study showing that a black neighborhood in Houston, Texas, had been selected as a toxic waste disposal site.Read. Five municipal waste disposal facilities, 80% of municipal waste incinerators, and 75% of private waste disposal facilities were located in black neighborhoods. It was announced that the percentage of blacks in Houston’s population was reduced to 25%.

They argue that environmental pollution is concentrated in areas where people of color and minorities live and that environmental racism exists. Environmental justice is a movement to correct environmental racism.

As these facts came to light, leaders of environmental justice groups began to join forces with traditional white-dominated environmental groups (Note 5).

The environmental justice movement was gaining momentum in October 1991, when the first national summit on environmental leadership by people of color was held for three days in Washington. The summit brought together hundreds of environmental justice leaders from the United States, Canada and Central America. As the name of the summit states, it is “People of Color Environmental.”

Environmental justice groups are targeting coal-fired power plants. The reason for this is the prospect of environmental discrimination. As the Sierra Club states, coal-fired power plants release pollutants that put the health of people of color, Native American tribes and low-income communities at risk.

It is also important to understand that environmental advocates argue that fossil fuel companies are seen as a white monopoly industry. In 1940, blacks made up just 0.05 percent of all oil production workers. However, there was a tendency to give blacks heavy labor and low-paid jobs. On the other hand, the Sierra Club also notes that industrial sites such as oil refineries were intentionally built near Native American settlements and communities of color (Note 7).

In this way, Environmental Justice has swallowed up environmental advocacy groups that relied on the “nature conservation/wildlife protection” perspective. Of course, there are still “nature conservation/wildlife protection” activities, but the reality is that environmental justice has become more important.

Since the “Environmental Justice Movement” grew out of the civil rights movement, it is natural that most of the political parties supported by environmental groups became the Democratic Party.

Today’s environmental advocacy groups have not been engaged in the same activities at all from the beginning. Environmental advocacy groups have undergone major changes in the wake of the Environmental Justice Movement, and now have great power. Precisely because the interests of nature conservation/wildlife protection and environmental justice are aligned, they are currently united, but if something happens, there is a possibility that they will separate.

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注1)「NRDC Action Fund Supports Biden for President」
「THE LCV ACTION FUND SUPPORTS JOE BIDEN AS PRESIDENT」

注2) While the American

Chapter 3）The Man Who Saved the Grand Canyon

注4）Timeline of environmental justice

注5）The Environmental Justice Movement

Chapter 6）How coal and gas harm your health

Chapter 7）The Fossil Fuel Industry’s White Supremacist Legacy

2023-12-31 21:20:08
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