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Slick Book Attacks
Karner Blue
Right Wingers Want Pine Bush To Die
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By Daniel Van Riper, April/May, 1995 |
A pair of right wing propagandists are using misinformation
about the Pine Bush and the Karner Blue Butterfly to attack
grass-roots preservation efforts across America, and are calling
for overturning the Federal Endangered Species Act. Hailed as
the new bible of radical anti-environmentalism, Noah's Choice,
The Future Of Endangered Species, is the product of rightist
magazine editor Charles C. Mann and the notorious reactionary
apologist Mark C. Plummer.
This slippery tome carefully avoids mentioning Save the Pine
Bush, although our lawsuits are cited in small print as references
in the back pages. The reason for this deliberate omission is
clear. The mere existence of a volunteer citizens group using
existing laws to fight for the survival of a vital ecosystem
in their own community exposes Mann and Plummer's specious ditherings
to be little more than elaborately constructed deceptions.
These reactionaries are also careful not to mention that the
purpose of Pine Bush preservation efforts is to maintain the
Pine Bush as an intact ecosystem. Instead, they divert attention
to the Karner Blue Butterfly, pretending that protecting the
butterfly is the only reason for saving the Pine Bush. This
is a familiar tactic used by quick-buck developers and corrupt
politicians eager to sidetrack community efforts to preserve
their natural heritage, sometimes effective because it trivializes
the issues.
From here the authors slither onto the next step, which is to
ask the following questions (found on pg. 114): "Why should
the citizens go to so much trouble to protect a butterfly? If
it is going to cost a lot of money, why should Americans save
any biodiversity at all? What would be lost if it vanished?"
At this point they lose their nerve, or perhaps they don't have
enough courage to honestly advocate undermining decades of preservation
work and allowing the Pine Bush to die. Throughout the book
they are careful to avoid making any committal statements. They
are veteran propagandists, and they know their trade.
The ultimate purpose of this printed garbage is to provide verbal
ammunition for rightist radicals keen on overturning the Federal
Endangered Species Act. The book tries to give the undiscerning
reader the impression that the environmental movement is nothing
but a set of counter-productive regulations imposed on a simple
minded public by a bunch of evil federal bureaucrats. A quick
look at the history of Pine Bush preservation puts the lie to
this slick nonsense.
First, the Federal Endangered Species Act has not been a factor
in Pine Bush preservation, not even marginally. Save the Pine
Bush has usually depended on the NYS Environmental Quality Review
Act (SEQRA) for most of its lawsuits. Despite repeated applications,
the Karner Blue was not federally listed as endangered until
December 1992, and we have yet to see any benefits come from
this designation, or even promises. From our point of view,
the big problem with the federal act is that officials have
refused to use it where it is most needed, such as in the Pine
Bush. Some "big government interference" would be welcome to
the Capital District.
(By the way, rightists often blather about "States rights" and
"decentralizing government". SPB's work with SEQRA should be
held up as an example of what right wingers want!)
Second, Save the Pine Bush is not composed of bureaucrats, federal
or otherwise. We are volunteers who work out of our homes. We
enjoy broad local support, and quite a few politicians have
learned to work with us. Statutes such as SEQRA and the Federal
Endangered Species Act allow SPB, and thus the people who support
us, to participate in public policy decisions. These statutes
do not stifle society, rather they encourage wider public input.
Ideologues such as Mann and Plummer want to take these legal
resources away from us. Power to decide environmental issues
would then concentrate in the hands of a smug and insulated
elite. There is no way that such a centralized power structure
could respond to the environmental needs of a local region such
as the Capital District. Groups such as SPB are vitally necessary.
After all, without SPB, there would be no Pine Bush today.
Back to Karner Blue Butterfly
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This page last modified
January 12, 2008
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Contact Save the Pine Bush at
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