How do you see the fight for the environment playing out?

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The Archdruid Persists

November 29, 1995

Do you think Americans are as anti-environmental as Congress?
How can we reduce the potential damage of the salvage lumber bill?
Would you pay polluters not to pollute?
How do we get these guys to realize it's their environment too?
How do you see the fight for the environment playing out?
I want to be an environmental leader. How should I start?
How can I--a single, working student--assist in the effort?

How do you see the fight for the environment playing out?
Question: Given the current situation in the world, not just the environment, but the whole thing (social structures, economic systems, political parties, etc.) what is your own personal view of how this whole problem will play itself out? I guess my question is, are you a pessimist or an optimist? What do you see happening? It's not that I am asking this because your word is the gospel, but given what you have accomplished and the level of experiences that you have had, what would somebody your age say to somebody my age (20)?

Thanks for even reading the message.

Patrick Nelson
pjnelson@students.wisc.edu
Madison WI

David Brower (404K WAV): Well, I'm a guarded optimist. I think the thing we are going to learn how to do is to practice global CPR--conservation, preservation, and restoration. In my many years--many decades--worrying about the environment, I didn't use the world restoration until about six years ago. I'm shocked that I didn't think about it. We have proved we are very good at trashing the earth. We can make a mess of anything we want to.

We could also restore things and we'd better get going on that. And what will help us more than anything else is, in conservation, is to realize how much the earth is worth. The marketplace doesn't tell us that. All it tells us about a tree is that a tree is good for pulp or two-by-fours, and that's about it. All of the other values of trees which are tremendous, and worth far more than that, are not recognized by the marketplace. To help the marketplace, start telling the truth.