Holiday Talk about the Environment

LAKE MACBRIDE— At a holiday gathering, talk was about the billionaire who came to Iowa to meet with people about the possibility of spending some of his/her fortune on environmental advocacy, and not the climate denier type. There had been a successful campaign to identify environmental voters during the recent election in Virginia, so what about Iowa and it’s first in the nation caucuses? I was told about, but not invited to the meeting.

The trouble with this kind of money is non-profits and consultants will fight over it like there is no tomorrow, especially when the prospect is seven figures as this is reputed to be. That’s been the history: a dog-eat-dog contest to woo and sway donors to support one cause or organization over others. There is no time for the parochial concerns of a few non-profit environmental groups or consultants fighting over donations. In my opinion only one concern matters most: climate change is real, it’s happening now, it’s not too late to do something about it, and we should do something about it before it’s too late. We need to stay focused on what’s most important.

My agreement with The Climate Reality Project restricts me from accepting funds for my advocacy, so in any case, I would be out of the fray. It doesn’t make me impartial, just less able to be diverted by advocacy funding and its work-products. While funding an environmental advocacy effort is an important part of an overall effort to solve the climate crisis, there is hardly agreement among Iowa environmental groups about what is the most important legislative objective, let alone consensus. It’s safe to say there won’t ever be consensus.

Some group or groups may secure funds, along with their expectations, deliverables and arc of expenditure. They’ll develop a plan, engage paid and unpaid staff, and set objectives to meet the requirements of the funder. All well and good, but tying the project to the Iowa caucuses would not be as productive as other use of the funds could be. Case in point: what ever happened to the Sensible Priorities of Ben and Jerry, the Vermont ice cream purveyors? There are photographs and memories, but the government continues to spend more money on the military industrial complex than is needed, the Sensible Priorities project notwithstanding. My fear is adding a well funded environmental advocacy group to the Iowa caucus process would be akin to adding another clown car in the parade, and Iowa doesn’t need that.

What would be better is to channel the positive efforts that are emerging on a number of fronts into a concerted, non-partisan effort, something advocacy funding seems unlikely to do.

One should be thankful that groups are working on various aspects of the climate crisis, but in the end, the recent mold of political advocacy needs to be broken and re-invented to be more inclusive. Common ground must be found with the climate deniers, whether we like it or not, and the way to do that is not by matching the Koch brothers and others, dollar for dollar. We’ll see what happens, but the conversation was a lot more interesting than the game on the T.V. screens ever could be. It mattered more as well.