What the Religious Right Has to Do with the Environment
A couple of things happened with Evergreen News all-time hero and supreme journalist Bill Moyers recently. For one, he was awarded the fourth annual Global Environment Citizen Award by the Center for Health and the Global Environment Citizen Award at Harvard Medical School. Board member and actress Meryl Streep presented the award, praising Moyers for his “resourceful, intrepid reportage and perceptive voices from the forward edge of the debate.”
For another thing, Moyers stepped down from his PBS news show role last month. So to fill our fast-widening Moyers gap, here is an edited transcript from Moyers’ acceptance speech at Harvard, including some Big Kudos for Seattle-based online environmental magazine Grist (check out www.grist.org). Be forewarned; Moyers’ perspective might disturb an otherwise peaceful day:
“One of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the Oval Office and in Congress. For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington.
“Remember James Watt, President Reagan’s first Secretary of the Interior? My favorite online environmental journal, the ever-engaging Grist, reminded us recently of how James Watt told the U.S. Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony he said, ‘After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back.’
“Beltway elites snickered. The press corps didn’t know what he was talking about. But James Watt was serious. So were his compatriots out across the country. They are the people who believe the Bible is literally true: one-third of the American electorate, if a recent Gallup poll is accurate.
The Rapture Index
“In this past election, several million good and decent citizens went to the polls believing in the rapture index. That’s right: the rapture index. Google it and you will find that the best selling books in America today are the 12 volumes of the “Left Behind” series written by the Christian fundamentalist and religious right warrior Timothy LaHaye. These true believers subscribe to a fantastical theology concocted in the 19th century by a couple of immigrant preachers who took disparate passages from the Bible and wove them into a narrative that has captivated the imagination of millions of Americans.
“Its outline is rather simple, if bizarre: Once Israel has occupied the rest of its ‘biblical lands,’ legions of the Antichrist will attack it, triggering a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon. True believers will be lifted out of their clothes and transported to heaven.
“I’m not making this up. I’ve read the literature. I’ve reported on these people, following some of them from Texas to the West Bank. They are sincere, serious and polite as they tell you they feel called to help bring the rapture on as fulfillment of biblical prophecy. That’s why they have declared solidarity with Israel and the Jewish settlements and backed up their support with money and volunteers. It’s why the invasion of Iraq for them was a warm-up act, predicted in the Book of Revelation, where four angels ‘which are bound in the great river Euphrates will be released to slay the third part of man.’ A war with Islam in the Middle East is not something to be feared but welcomed, an essential conflagration on the road to redemption.
“The last time I Googled it, the rapture index stood at 144, just one point below the critical threshold when the whole thing will blow, the son of God will return, the righteous will enter heaven and sinners will be condemned to eternal hellfire.
Environmental Apocalypse
“So what does this mean for public policy and the environment? Go to Grist to read a remarkable work of reporting by journalist Glenn Scherer, “The Road to Environmental Apocalypse.” Read it and you will see how millions of Christian fundamentalists may believe that environmental destruction is not only to be disregarded but actually welcomed — even hastened — as a sign of the coming apocalypse.
“As Grist makes clear, we’re not talking about a handful of fringe lawmakers who hold or are beholden to these beliefs. Nearly half the U.S. Congress before the recent election — 231 legislators in total, and more since the election — are backed by the religious right.
“Forty-five senators and 186 members of the 108th congress earned 80 to 100 percent approval ratings from the three most influential Christian right advocacy groups. They include Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Assistant Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Conference Chair Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Policy Chair Jon Kyl of Arizona, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, and Majority Whip Roy Blunt. The only Democrat to score 100 percent with the Christian coalition was Senator Zell Miller of Georgia, who recently quoted from the biblical book of Amos on the senate floor: ‘The days will come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land.’ He seemed to be relishing the thought.
“And why not? There’s a constituency for it. A 2002 Time/CNN poll found that 59 percent of Americans believe that the prophecies found in the book of Revelation are going to come true. Nearly one-quarter think the Bible predicted the 9/11 attacks.
“Plus, as Grist puts it, why, in fact, worry about the environment? Why care about the earth when the droughts, floods, famine and pestilence brought by ecological collapse are signs of the apocalypse foretold in the Bible? Why care about global climate change when you and yours will be rescued in the rapture?
“No wonder Karl Rove goes around the White House whistling that militant hymn, ‘Onward, Christian Soldiers.’ He turned out millions of the foot soldiers on Nov. 2, including many who have made the apocalypse a powerful driving force in modern American politics.
A Bush Mandate
“I read that the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has declared the election a mandate for President Bush on the environment. This for an administration that wants to rewrite the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act protecting rare plant and animal species and their habitats, as well as the National Environmental Policy Act that requires the government to judge beforehand if actions might damage natural resources.
“The same administration that wants to relax pollution limits for ozone; eliminate vehicle tailpipe inspections; and ease pollution standards for cars, sports utility vehicles and diesel-powered big trucks and heavy equipment.
“That wants a new international audit law to allow corporations to keep certain information about environmental problems secret from the public.
“That wants to drop all its new-source review suits against polluting coal-fired power plans and weaken consent decrees reached earlier with coal companies.
“That wants to open the Arctic [National] Wildlife Refuge to drilling and increase drilling in Padre Island National Seashore, the longest stretch of undeveloped barrier island in the world and the last great coastal wild land in America.
“I read the news just this week and learned how the Environmental Protection Agency had planned to spend nine million dollars — two million of it from the administration’s friends at the American Chemistry Council — to pay poor families to continue to use pesticides in their homes. These pesticides have been linked to neurological damage in children, but instead of ordering an end to their use, the government and the industry were going to offer the families $970 each, as well as a camcorder and children’s clothing, to serve as guinea pigs for the study.
“I read all this in the news.
“I read the news just last night and learned that the administration’s friends at the International Policy Network, which is supported by ExxonMobil and others of like mind, have issued a new report that climate change is ‘a myth; sea levels are not rising.’ It noted that scientists who believe catastrophe is possible are ‘an embarrassment.’
“I not only read the news but the fine print of the recent appropriations bill passed by Congress, with the obscure (and obscene) riders attached to it: a clause removing all endangered-species protections from pesticides, language prohibiting judicial review for a forest in Oregon, a waiver of environmental review for grazing permits on public lands, a rider pressed by developers to weaken protection for crucial habitats in California.
The Future in Front of Us
“I read all this and look up at the pictures on my desk, next to the computer: pictures of my grandchildren, Henry, age 12; Thomas, age 10; Nancy, 7; Jassie, 3; Sara Jane, 9 months. I see the future looking back at me from those photographs and I say, ‘Father, forgive us, for we know not what we do.’ And then I am stopped short by the thought: ‘That’s not right. We do know what we are doing. We are stealing their future. Betraying their trust. Despoiling their world.’
“And I ask myself: Why? Is it because we don’t care? Because we are greedy? Because we have lost our capacity for outrage, our ability to sustain indignation at injustice?
“What has happened to our moral imagination?
“On the heath Lear asks Gloucester: ‘How do you see the world?’ And Gloucester, who is blind, answers: ‘I see it feelingly.’
“ ‘I see it feelingly.’
“The news is not good these days. I can tell you, though, that as a journalist I know the news is never the end of the story. The news can be the truth that sets us free — not only to feel, but to fight for the future we want. And the will to fight is the antidote to despair, the cure for cynicism, and the answer to those faces looking back at me from those photographs on my desk. What we need to match the science of human health is what the ancient Israelites called ‘hochma,’ the science of the heart: the capacity to see, to feel, and then to act — as if the future depended on you.
“Believe me, it does.” — Bill Moyers
This speech originally appeared on www.alternet.org.
PUBLIC DOMAIN
Based on a recently published study of lilac trees in the Midwest and Northeast, researchers at the University of Wisconsin and Cornell University have determined spring is arriving four days earlier, on average, than it did in 1965. Earlier in 2004, Harvard scientists reported several plant specimens flowering significantly earlier each year at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston. And botanists at the Smithsonian say that Washington, D.C.’s famed Japanese cherry trees are blossoming about one week earlier than they did 30 years ago.
But here in the Northwest we don’t have to wait out subzero cold snaps or winter-lasting snow drifts. Don’t know about you, but weeds keep popping up in my garden. That doesn’t happen in Wisconsin or Boston or D.C. this time of year.
One of the best ways to enjoy our milder weather is, no, not weeding, but a walk or hike at the Washington Park Arboretum. In January, its 230 acres feature the country’s largest collection of hollies, along with peak conditions for heather, hellebore, mahonia, sarcococca and witch hazel. Don’t miss the Winter Garden, which is just south of the Visitor Center.
In February, you can look for daphne, dogwood, chimonanthus, and some early rhododendrons, while flowering cherry trees pop up in March. The urban treasure is managed by the University of Washington and the Center for Urban Horticulture, while the city’s Parks and Recreation Department owns title to the land and cooperates in its management. The Arboretum Foundation manages fund raising, membership and volunteer services. Wintertime classes offered by the Center for Urban Horticulture include botanical drawing, rose basics, rose pruning, watershed seminars and rhododendrons for the urban garden.
The Arboretum’s Web site (www.wparboretum.org) offers a downloadable trails map. You can plan your own personal hike or join the regularly scheduled guided tours on the first and third Sundays of every month at 1 p.m. The guided walks, lasting 60 to 90 minutes, are free and led by trained volunteers. Call 206-543-8800 for more information. — Bob Condor (photo by Joy Spurr)
Dow Stock Drops on Bhopal Prank
In an, ahem, different way to memorialize the deadly gas leak in Bhopal 20 years ago in December, an activist from the “Yes Men” group portrayed himself as a representative of Dow Chemical in an interview with the BBC. The interview was broadcast twice on Dec. 3, the anniversary of the Bhopal disaster (see “The Biggest Crime You’ve Never Heard Of,” EM, Dec. 04), with the faux Dow man accepting responsibility on behalf of the chemical conglomerate for killing thousands of people and injuring thousands more.
Turns out Andy Bichlbaum from the Yes Men is a persuasive and influential fellow. Persuasive because he contacted BBC producers and convinced them — with help of a fake website that “confirmed” his identity — that he would be making a ‘significant announcement’ during the interview.
Influential because Dow’s stock dropped about three percentage points in European markets after the broadcast, representing billions of dollars in losses for stockholders. The news affected the price so much because Bichlbaum added that Dow would be paying out $12 billion.
But the hoax was revealed in time before Wall Street opened its trading that day, so American shareholders in Dow were unaffected. European investors regained most of their losses after the hoax was uncovered.
The Bhopal disaster occurred at a factory owned by Union Carbide, a company that Dow bought in 2001. Union Carbide, while denying its responsibility, paid the Indian government $470 million in 1989 to settle claims against it. For its part, Dow said it bought the company and not the Bhopal responsibility.
Bichlbaum could face both civil and criminal charges for his actions. — Andrew Mulholland
Japanese Cars Fare Best on Emissions Testing
While Japanese companies make the cleanest-burning cars, a recent Union of Concerned Scientists report said all automakers fall short of lowering emissions. The report, which comes out every two years, focused on 2003 vehicles from the six largest automakers in the U.S. market in terms of sales.
Honda received the best marks from the scientists, producing less than half the pollution of the industry average. General Motors ranked lowest, churning out a third more pollution than average.
Nissan was second behind Honda, and Toyota third. Nissan earned praise for making the largest two-year improvement in eliminating greenhouse gases that researchers associated with global warming. Nissan also was second best in reducing smog.
Ford and DaimlerChrysler AG filled out the rankings, finishing ahead of GM. For its part, a spokesman said the rankings don’t take into account that GM (which finished ahead of the other U.S. companies in the last report) has vehicles like the Hummer in its fleet while Honda does not. The scientists’ group said GM ranks lowest even when the larger truck classes are eliminated. The six carmakers represent 90 percent of emissions in the United States. Check out www.ucsusa.org for more information about the report and the Union of Concerned Scientists. — A.M.
