A 'hostile' takeover bid at the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club - America's premier environmental group, with 750,000 members and considerable political clout - is the target of an unfriendly takeover attempt.
A combination of animal-rights and anti-immigrant activists is aiming to take control of the organization - and change its philosophy and direction - by getting their slate of candidates elected to the group's board of directors. They already control several seats, and more are up for grabs. The dispute gets to two core questions among environmental activists.
The first is whether population growth (which in the US mainly means immigration) is a key contributor to environmental degradation because more people mean more pollution and greater consumption of natural resources. Some critics say this country's liberal immigration policy acts as a safety valve for high-population countries, making it easier to avoid dealing with their environmental problems, and adding to the problems here.
But for many environmental activists, it's hard to take a tough stand against those immigrants - especially when such a platform could dissuade other progressives from joining or contributing. Some critics say national environmental organizations have become too elite, ignoring the needs of the urban poor, many of whom are immigrants.
A second question is whether rights of animals - in the wild or on farms - are as important as preserving wilderness. To answer "yes" would alienate "hook and bullet" organizations, hunters and fishermen who often ally with environmentalists on issues like forest and wetland conservation.
The most charged debate, by far, is the one on immigration - and it's far more than just an argument among well- meaning idealists.
Leaders of the anti-immigration faction are mainly establishment types - former Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm, the former director of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, and university professors from around the country. Paul Watson, co-founder of Greenpeace, president of the antiwhaling Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and an advocate of zero population growth, gathered enough club support to get himself nominated and then elected to a board position last year. So did two other population activists.
But hardcore opponents of immigration - including groups with allegedly racist philosophies - have joined in, urging their supporters to send in $25 checks so they can join the Sierra Club and vote for the anti-immigration slate of board members.
Even the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League have joined the fray, citing a dangerous, right-wing influence - what civil rights lawyer Morris Dees warns is the "greening of hate."
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