Where's Ralph?

With Nader and Gore missing in action, environmentalists are desperately gearing up to stop Bush's pro-business juggernaut.

By Anthony York

Apr 17, 2001 | In fewer than 100 days in office, President Bush has shocked even his critics with the fast pace of his efforts to roll back environmental protection policies. The nomination of industry advocate Gale Norton as interior secretary; proposals to reduce restrictions on arsenic in drinking water and rescind President Clinton's executive order protecting millions of acres of national forests; his shocking decision to break his own campaign promise to cut carbon dioxide emissions -- each decision has left environmentalists sputtering for an effective political response.

On Tuesday, the counterattack begins. A coalition of the nation's leading environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, Wilderness Society, League of Conservation Voters, Defenders of Wildlife, Union of Concerned Scientists, National Environmental Trust, Natural Resources Defense Council and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, will announce a major national advertising blitz to counter the Bush agenda for the environment.

"The ads will definitely send the message that we can't turn back the clock on 30 years of environmental action, and alert the public to these kinds of things that are going on," says Gene Karpinski, executive director of the U.S. PIRG.

For months, a barrage of Bush anti-environment appointments and policy decisions has gone mostly unanswered, causing even supporters to ask whether the environmental movement is up to the challenge of combating the boldest assault on its principles in at least a generation. Clearly the movement lacks a strong, national leader to help it chart a bold, attention-getting course.

The Democrat most likely to get big media attention for bashing Bush, former Vice President (and "Earth in the Balance" author) Al Gore, is apparently too busy licking his wounds and trying to mend political fences to go on the attack. Meanwhile, Ralph Nader, standard-bearer of the Green Party -- didn't they have something to do with environmentalism? -- is more focused on party building, bashing Democrats and railing against ATM fees.

Against the backdrop of those politicians' virtual silence in the face of the Bush juggernaut, a loose affiliation of environmental groups -- from the ragtag and radical to the slick and mainstream -- is left to chart its own course. With its history of infighting, the movement is at a disadvantage, lacking either a quickly mobilized grass-roots constituency or a well-oiled lobbying machine. Thus it has been slower out of the gate than other Democratic-leaning interest blocs.

Labor, for instance, rallied quickly to help kill the nomination of Linda Chavez as labor secretary, and ran an advertising campaign against the Bush tax cut in key states. Women's groups have gone on the offensive against restrictions on abortion, like Bush's early move to restrict funding to international groups that educate women on their abortion choices. Planned Parenthood organized a wildly successful fundraising drive, getting people to pledge support to the organization in Bush's name. On Sunday, the National Organization for Women will sponsor an Emergency Action for Women' Lives -- a march in Washington that will highlight two weeks of lobbying for abortion rights.

So far, there has been no environmental equivalent. "I think many of us were stunned. For [Bush] to be this bad, this fast, this visibly was shocking, and maybe some of us weren't ready," says John Passacantando, executive director of Greenpeace USA.

But movement leaders insist they're ready now. "An extraordinary attack calls for an extraordinary defense," says Natural Resources Defense Council spokesman Alan Metrick. "And we have begun an extraordinary defense."

"Begun" is the operative word. Whether the movement can mount a defense worthy of its adversary in the White House will become clear in the months to come.

Next Page: O Ralph and Al, where art thou?

• View blog reactions