Conservation as Public Policy Worth Working For
NOTE: This is an abridged and updated version of Chapter 7 of The Dangerous Delusion of American Exceptionalism. With Earth Day approaching, it is an appropriate time to consider the consequences of our collective national decision to abandon conservation as public policy, as well as the story of some college students whose successful “David v. Goliath” story can inspire us all.
By Michael Barrick
Not long before September 11, 2001, former Vice President Dick Cheney stated that conservation is a fine “personal virtue” but not sound government policy. With gas prices hovering at four dollars a gallon as of this writing – and with war and civil unrest threatening oil supplies around the world some 11 years after Cheney’s remarks, it seems a good time to revisit the former vice president’s remarks.
First of all, they were not rooted in historical accuracy. As Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan so expertly revealed in the illustrated history book and PBS documentary, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, conservation has been government policy for well over a century. We have proven that it is an appropriate role of government to encourage or even mandate conservation through regulation, taxation, or legislation. We already do it. In January 1977, when Jimmy Carter was inaugurated as president, the average fuel consumption of American vehicles was 12 mile per gallon. Today, the average is double that – because of Congressional mandates. Homes and offices are far more energy efficient – again because of federal laws and regulations.
In North Carolina, one community after another is struggling with how involved – not if – local government should be in maintaining the balance between private property rights and environmental management. Additionally, hog farming has come under strict controls because of concerns about the effect of animal waste on water tables and tributaries. In the 1990s, Caldwell County was the first rural county in the state to prohibit the unregulated application of animal waste onto farmland as fertilizer, again out of concern for protecting water supplies and preventing airborne disease. Most recently, mid-size metropolitan areas in the growing state have been pitted against the state’s largest cities over the diversion of water from distant watersheds serving the smaller communities.
In West Virginia, debate has raged for generations over the environmental impact of coal mining (not to mention the human toll, which will be explored in a future essay). When I was growing up in the 1960s, “Coal was King.” It and its supporting industries were undeniably the region’s economic engine. Yet, as dangerous – unnecessarily so – as underground mining was (and is), these jobs also provided dignity to the workers and families, who were united through the daily struggles of camp living, the perils accompanying the shift in the mine, and the knowledge that they were providing a key role in literally fueling the nation’s economy. While coal operators and unionized mine workers were generally adversarial and sometimes opening hostile towards one another in the first six decades of the 20th century, they became quick allies when environmentalists began questioning methods used in strip mining. The divergent views of the value of the mountains born about the same time as Earth Day (April 22, 1970) continue today.
Yet, up until those battles over the environment begun more than 40 years ago, the conservationists and corporate citizens were able to reach agreements that, while not perfect, allowed for its natural resources to be both utilized and protected. As a result, event today, boxcars filled with coal still ride the rails out of the state, while new roads bring tourists in who are there for one reason: to enjoy the scenic beauty preserved by government policies. A visit to Blackwater Falls State Park, near the state’s eastern panhandle, demonstrates what happens when agreement is reached. A refuge for wildlife and tourists, the park is a monument to cooperation between energy interests, state government and conservationists. The land, which sports a rustic lodge, cabins, camping, picnic areas, trails, horseback riding and majestic views of the falls and the river’s canyon, was made available by a donation from an energy company to the state.
While both political parties have offered some proposals that deserve consideration, including calling for standardization of blends of gasoline, an improved energy distribution system, reexamining areas for future energy exploration, increasing energy production, and reenergizing the nuclear power industry, no plan is complete that ignores conservation. Our refusal to conserve is what led to our involvement in the Persian Gulf War more than 20 years ago. While it is not disputable that we freed the people of Kuwait from a horrible fate, it is also true that we were equally concerned about ensuring the free flow of oil. While it is arguably in our nation’s economic interests to assure plentiful energy supplies, I still had a tremendous amount of heartburn knowing that our military was killing people to make sure that I could have cheap gasoline at the corner convenience store.
In Afghanistan and Iraq, we are responsible for the deaths and dismemberment of hundreds of thousands of human beings, have lost thousands of our own children and have had tens of thousands dismembered and emotionally traumatized. We have squandered billions of dollars in laying waste an entire region, hence saddling our grandchildren with financial debt that they will spend half or more of their lives to pay off. The ill will we have engendered in the process will likely extend ever further, as our great-grandchildren will be tasked with living peacefully in a world where the injustices of our generation will just be bearing fruit. And, further “engagements” in the region are not out of the question. The outcomes of our subversive and public involvement in Egypt and Libya remain to be seen. However, war with Iran and/or Syria could easily take us to a place that not even our imaginations dare go.
More than a decade ago, I wrote in Creation Care magazine, “America has been given a trust. We control not only our own nation’s energy supplies; we influence tremendous control over much of the entire world’s supplies. While high energy bills this past winter may lead you to believe otherwise, remember the Gulf War. If – or better, when – a similar event happens again, you can be assured that we will flex our muscles.” We have done so numerous times since that article first appeared. So while some may think conservation is only a personal virtue, our own history – and future – suggest otherwise. Conservation is more than a personal virtue – it’s sound public policy as well.
It is up to us to ensure that it is a priority of the government and any other vital institutions we can influence. It can be done, as students at Santa Clara University (SCU) demonstrated. What they did, essentially, is hold up a mirror to the “powers-that-be” and said, “This is what you believe. But here is what you are doing, and here is how it is destroying lives and land.” Outraged by the impact upon people and the environment at the coal mining extraction method known as Mountain Top Removal (MTR), they successfully convinced the university’s administration to divest the school’s interest in Massey Energy, which not only was not only destroying mountaintops, watersheds and endangering the lives of nearby residents through MTR, but also owned the Upper Big Branch mine, where 29 men perished on April 5, 2010.
The devastation caused by MTR was first made real to college students as they engaged in “immersion trips” to Roane County, West Virginia. The handful of students from SCU, a Jesuit university in the Silicon Valley of California, made the annual pilgrimage to witness first-hand the impact of poverty. The students – including D.J. Wheeler and Jennifer Mock, who participated in one of the trips – learned far more than even SCU could have hoped. They learned first hand that witnessing injustice is one thing; fighting it is quite another story.
What they learned is that the people of southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and isolated areas of southwestern Virginia have been largely ignored as MTR has devastated communities and the environment. Despite the destruction, however – which has included numerous deaths in these communities due to construction tactics or subsequent flooding – the method continued because the coal companies, in particular Massey Energy, poured millions of dollars into campaign coffers in the region. Nowhere is this more evident than in West Virginia, where Massey CEO Don Blankenship spent millions to unseat opponents of mountain top removal.
In MTR, hundreds of feet or more of the top of mountains are removed to expose narrow coal seams. The mountain tops that are removed, called “overburden,” are filled into adjacent valleys. The explosions associated with the removal of the mountain tops and the resultant destruction to people and property below, the loss of thousands of miles of stream beds and natural habitats caused by the relocation of the overburden into valleys, the destruction of the region’s natural beauty, the loss of jobs, and the corrupting effect on the political process – all considered in light of the relatively low amount of coal extracted – are among the main reasons that the process is considered to be in conflict with biblical admonitions to care for creation responsibly.
So, the students, challenged by their professors and advisors back at school to consider the dignity of humanity and all of creation in their studies and vocations, and prompted by their de facto leader in West Virginia, Wess Harris, went back to see what they could do. Prompted by Harris, they discovered the school owned stock in Massey Energy. They worked to make the administration aware of what Massey Energy was doing, pleading with them to divest of the stock.
At first, the students did not meet with success. Then, Father Michael Engh took over as president of the university. Much to the astonishment of the students, Fr. Engh took up their cause and announced during his first State of the University address that SCU had divested the Massey Energy stock. He explained, “Presidents receive many kinds of letters. They address a wide range of issues, and an early one caught my eye. Two students, Douglas Wheeler and Julia Mock, wrote to protest the university’s investment in a company noted for environmental degradation. Massey Energy mines coal through a process of mountain top removal, a process witnessed by the students during an immersion trip toAppalachia. In my inquiries I learned from the president ofWheelingJesuitUniversityinWest Virginiathat, yes, Massey Energy causes widespread damage to the environment in that state. This was corroborated by the research of a student intern in Environmental Studies. From our Finance Office I learned that the University did hold a small amount of stock in the company. This investment had been made unknowingly and it contradicted our ethical guidelines for investment. Once aware of this error, we divested. I thank the Finance Office staff, and the students, for such environmental responsibility.”
In their letter, Wheeler and Mock said, “Last spring break we, along with eight other students, participated in theWest Virginiaimmersion trip toRoaneCounty, staying at The Gift of Tears Catholic Worker Community. There we learned about the immense poverty found throughoutWest Virginia, as well as the devastating environmental and social impacts of mountain top removal mining. For example, ‘the employment of mountaintop-removal mining methods in Appalachia that have eliminated over 470 mountains and adjacent communities, 1 million acres of hardwood forests, and 1,200 miles of streams from our American maps.’ In addition, we were surprised to learn thatSanta ClaraUniversityheld a significant investment in Massey Energy, a major coal company that actively engages in mountain top removal. Upon returning toSanta Clarawe began to research mountain top removal and met with staff as well as previous immersion participants. Our research strengthened our belief that ifSanta Clarais to maintain its position as a leader in environmental sustainability and social justice, it must not invest in such companies.”
Another student, Aurelia De La Rosa Aceves, went toWest Virginiaa previous year. She has since graduated from SCU and worked for a nonprofit. Working closely with Harris and Jeannie Kirkhope with the Catholic Committee onAppalachia, she described her first impression of mountain top removal as “devastating.” She explained, “It is a violation to the land and the people.” Having students responding isn’t surprising then, said Aceves. “When one is on an immersion trip, we’re already in a mode of a ‘call to action.’”
Wheeler said he couldn’t have been so passionate without witnessing mountain top removal first hand. “I really didn’t get it until we were inWest Virginiaand met and talked with Jeannie. We visitedKayfordMountainand met Mr. Larry Gibson. How much passion and courage he has! He has 50 acres in the middle of mountain top removal mining everywhere. Seeing how one guy is standing up against all the coal companies, it seemed that maybe we could do something. His passion made me think more about the issue than I would have normally.”
Wheeler was not the first to write a letter to the university’s administration. Earlier, Kyle Ozawa, who went on the immersion earlier, wrote the previous administration. He explained, “We were given the opportunity to see firsthand the destruction and devastation that one of the companies, Massey Energy, was forcing upon both the people and their land.” So, he wrote in part, “Santa ClaraUniversitysent us on an immersion trip to gain a better understanding of a different culture, and that is exactly what we did. Thus, it can not be expected that we come back and not ask questions about whether the university helps fund these coal companies that are destroyingWest Virginia. It cannot be expected that we come back and sit idly, forgetting everything we just experienced.”
He responded to Fr. Engh’s announcement by saying, “I was very excited to learn thatSanta Clarahas finally come to the same realization that I came to three years ago. In many ways, I was disappointed that it took so long. Yet, some lessons take more time to learn than others, and you just have to be thankful that the right decisions are made in the end.” Aceves added, “I was kind of shocked. I was surprised it happened so quickly. But for Wess and Jeannie, its’ been years and years of their life. I was just happy for Wess and the people inWest Virginia.”
Wess Harris also wrote Fr. Engh in support of the students and to encourage SCU to divest of the stock. But Harris, who is a farmer and teacher, as well as a former coal miner, also worked to help the students understand the issue in context. Though he is no fan of mountain top removal, he makes sure the SCU students understand the history of coal inWest Virginiaand the pride the people still take in the industry. He takes them to a cemetery where miners are buried who died unionizing the mines in the early 20th century. “We give them a solid dose of the labor history,” said Harris. Referencing a noted cemetery in mining history, he noted, “There are more people buried here for the union than any other cemetery in theUnited States.” He reminds the students that local residents, while appreciative of help in fighting mountain top removal, are also suspicious of outsiders who don’t understand the importance of coal mining for the state’s economy, especially historically. He argued, “We must dig coal (while still necessary) ethically/morally, and that means underground and with maximum environmental safeguards and maximum care for the safety of miners. Mountain top removal should stop tomorrow andUnionminers and their dependents should be provided for. Let’s not leave miners and their families abandoned after they have kept our lights on – and died doing it – for so many years.”
The students from SCU saw what happens to families, when they – firmly rooted in the hills – are suddenly forced from their land as they literally watch river valleys teeming with color and life buried under by the refuse from the mountain tops being mined. So, they were moved to action. They fought and won.
You can too. Now is the time for dissent. Silence equals consent.
© Michael Barrick, 2011-2012.
