David Helvarg’s Posts

• Wise Guys

  An excerpt from The War Against the Greens takes a hard look at the Wise Use movement 0

  Posted 4 years, 11 months ago

  In 1988, the Wise Use movement was founded out of fear that George Bush Sr. was going to live up to his campaign pledge to be "the environmental president." This cabal of anti-environmental activists, organized by federally subsidized industries dependent on public lands, issued a natal document, the Wise Use Agenda. It called for, among other things: drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, logging Alaska's Tongass National Forest, opening wilderness to energy development, gutting the Endangered Species Act, and privatizing national parks. Today, the reactionary Wise Use Agenda has become the environmental policy of the administration of George Bush Jr.

• Oil and Water Don't Mix

  Is the U.S. prepared for a major oil spill in its waters? 0

  Posted 6 years, 10 months ago

  In the wake of November's massive oil spill off the coast of Spain that continues to despoil hundreds of miles of undeveloped shoreline, disrupt vast fisheries, and jeopardize the livelihoods of the people who depend on them, the European Union has begun to crack down on old, poorly maintained, single-hulled tankers like the sunken "Prestige." Meanwhile, what is the U.S. doing to protect its waters?

  

  A volunteer holds an oil-soaked bird on the Spanish coast.

  Photo: Greenpeace Spain.

  The U.S. Coast Guard claims that ships like the "Prestige" would probably not… Read More

• Buy, Buy, Miss American Pie

  Everything's changed, including zero-down financing 0

  Posted 7 years, 11 months ago

  Hey fellow Americans, now that bio-terrorism, federalized airport security, and military star-chambers are becoming a reality, what do you plan to do? Me, I'm going to Disneyland. Okay, maybe not Disneyland, but I have been to New York, Montana, and Oregon recently -- and by plane. I'm also thinking about buying a new computer. I just don't think that makes me a patriot.

  Which is why I wish the White House, Congress, and the media would stop flacking for the financial sector in the name of patriotism. In peace or in war, the real solution to overcapacity is… Read More

• Mississippi Delta Blues

  An excerpt from Blue Frontier 0

  Posted 8 years, 5 months ago

  Predictable but unreported impacts from this spring's flooding on the Mississippi River will be an expanded dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, more southern beach closures, and more dying coral in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

• This Is Not a Polish Joke

  Industrious endeavors in the former Soviet empire 0

  Posted 10 years ago

  America's market-based solutions to environmental problems tend to look a lot like something you might have seen in an old Soviet propaganda film.

  

  Real Soviet propaganda.

  Take emissions trading. Under this system, I, an evil capitalist, sell you, another evil capitalist, the right to spew tons of air pollution, which I can do because I've produced less than the legal limit of allowable sulfur dioxide or other filthy emissions. After you pay me for these surplus dirty air credits, you have the right to give emphysema to the children of my maid,… Read More

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