Friends of the Earth
By the Mother Earth News editors
Issue # 74 - March/April 1982
The worldwide organization that's called Friends of the Earth is one of the most effective environmental groups in existence today. However, although FOE publishes its own journal—the monthly tabloid titledNot Man Apart—far too few MOTHER-readers regularly get a chance to see that publication . . . and that's why we've arranged to bring you this bi-monthly column, which is prepared by the staff of FOE/NMA.
There's some evidence — as we enter year two of the Reagan era — that the administration is beginning to reverse a few of its stands on environmental issues . . . and those changing positions have probably been brought on by strong evidence that the American public is solidly in favor of environmentalism.
The clearest signal came in December of 1981, when pollster Louis Harris lectured a congressional committee about public opinion regarding the revamping of the Clean Air Act. Mr. Harris said that the populace is clearly behind maintaining stringent clean air requirements (75% of those polled stated that they approved of the Clean Air Act's progress), and that the proponents are so evenly distributed—by geography, age, profession, income, political affiliation, etc.—that any group which does attempt to gut the act will likely pay dearly at the ballot box next fall.
Therefore, in Congress, at least, the assumption now is that Mr. Reagan's election victory wasn't a mandate for relaxation of environmental regulation.
PROGRESS
In another significant action, the White House has finally given in and has retracted the nomination of James F. McAvoy to the Council on Environmental Quality. McAvoy achieved noteriety in Ohio—where he was EPA director—for suppressing legal action against industrial polluters and openly expressing his disdain for environmentalists. Discrepancies in his resume (to which McAvoy himself admitted applying some "poetic license") eventually resulted in his withdrawal from consideration.
Furthermore, in the Senate, the Garrison Diversion Water Project in North Dakota was soundly defeated . . . by a vote of 314 to 67. As you may know, the Garrison was bitterly opposed by both environmentalists and local farmers, and would have flooded as many acres as it irrigated ... not to mention the damage it would have done to a dozen national wildlife refuges and the polluted water it would have left flowing into Canada.
Another such huge project—the TennesseeTombigbee Waterway—which is designed to connect the Tennessee River to the Gulf of Mexico at a cost of $3 billion—barely survived the budget cutters' axes. And the signs are hopeful that it won't last through the summer.
In other upbeat news, voters in Columbia, Missouri and Massachusetts have come out in favor of container-deposit laws. The regulations will require that a deposit be charged on any beer or soft drink bottles or cans that aren't biodegradable. In Columbia the decision came after legal challenges and a heavy media blitz from the bottling industry . . . while the Massachusetts electorate actually pulled together to overturn Gov. Edward King's veto of the previously passed bill!
And for the first time in its history, the EPA has actually sent a convicted polluter to jail. Corning Fibers, Inc.—a Vermont paper producer—was fined $50,000 for violating the Clean Water Act, and half-owner William Bushey was himself fined $2,500 and ordered to serve 90 days . . . for contempt of court, conspiracy, and violation of the Clean Water Act. The episode involved the dumping of sludge into the Wells River.
NEW THREATS
Unfortunately, there's bad news as well. After a decade of compliance, several nations have decided to defy the International Whaling Commission: Japan, Iceland, and Norway filed notice that they will ignore the ban on the use of the nonexplosive ("cold") harpoon on minke whales, which was to take effect after this whaling season. The cold harpoon—which has already been banned for use on other whales—is widely considered to be inhumane, since it takes a considerable length of time to kill a hit mammal.
Moreover, Japan has announced its intention to continue harpooning sperm whales, despite the 25 to 1 vote against doing so taken here in last summer's IWC meeting.
We do have a possible course of action, though, because there are laws on the U.S. books which permit (but do not force) the federal government to impose penalties on nations that break such rules, and one such piece of legislation grants the power (recently exercised against Poland) to ban fishing within our 200-mile limit. The Departments of Commerce (Dept. TMEN, 711 14th Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20230) and State (Dept. TMEN, 2201 C Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20520) will decide about action against the three countries, but it won't do any harm to let those agencies know how you feel!
At the EPA, proposed budget reductions have reached such proportions that even administrator Anne Gorsuch (who offered to cut her budget more than the Reagan team requested for 1982) has cried out in protest. Close observers say that if the trimming continues, Gorsuch won't have much left to manage by the end of 1983. (Budget worries didn't deter Ms. Gorsuch from leasing one of the biggest, most polluting cars still made in Detroit, however ... or from paying nearly four times as much for it as her predecessor did for his "company" car.)
Interior Secretary Watt, the EPA's Gorsuch, and Robert Jantzen—the new Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service —have taken the first steps toward resuming legalization of the coyote poison Compound 1080. The Nixon Administration originally suspended use of the chemical because it was killing too many nonpest species .. . including golden eagles. But now, sheep ranchers have persuaded the Interior, EPA, and Fish and Wildlife people that the substance is needed to reduce the loss of stock to predators. Many neutral observers, however (including the former EPA director, Russell Train), are vehemently opposed to 1080 because of its effects on wildlife. Letters to the EPA are in order .. . write to Anne Gorsuch, Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency, Dept. TMEN, 401 M Street S.W., Washington, D.C. 20460.
NUCLEAR NOTES
The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant has had its low-power testing permit rescinded because of a mix-up in which engineers used the earthquake-bracing blueprints for Unit One on Unit Two and vice versa .... Voters in Washington state and Austin, Texas have come out firmly antinuclear in two elections .... An appeals court in California has ruled that states have wide powers to control (and perhaps even exclude) nuclear power within their borders .... The state of Tennessee—over the objections of the Tennessee Valley Authority—has passed out a supply of iodine tablets to 7,100 households within five miles of TVA's Sequoyah nuclear power plant, to help residents withstand the effects of radiation in the event of an accident.
Finally, we'd like to present a special Spiro Agnew award to Andrew V. Bailey, an official of the U.S. Geological Survey, who—back in 1976—criticized the use of "inflammatory words such as disturbed, devastated, defiled, ravaged, gouged, scarred, and destroyed .... These," he said, "are words used by the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, environmentalists, homosexuals, ecologists, and other ideological eunuchs ...." We're proud to be included.
EDITOR'S NOTE:Friends of the Earth has just brought out Progress As If Survival Mattered ($14.95). This revised and expanded "handbook for a conserver society" outlines alternatives to the current government's positions on land policy, defense, energy, education, and other issues.
Another valuable FOE resource is The New Environmental Handbook ($5.95), which is now in its second printing. Both volumes are available from Mother's Bookshelf (P .O, Box 70, Hendersonville, North Carolina 28791) for the stated prices plus 95¢ shipping and handling.
