Sierra Club Research Articles

The Shifting Topology of Environmentalism: Human-Environment Relationships and Conceptual Trends in Two North American Organizational Histories

This article approaches environmentalism as a way of positioning ourselves in relation to the world around us. It traces transformations in how two prominent North American environmental groups—the Nature Conservancy and the Sierra Club—conceptualize environmentalism's objects, objectives, and ideal human-environment relationship. Historical narratives highlighting how and why these organizations have redrawn their conceptual maps demonstrate that while mainstream environmentalism's prevailing topology once placed humans apart from and above the environment, the contemporary movement appears to be approaching a more inclusive vision that admits humans as an integral part of the environment. Yet because including human activities and concerns within environmental agendas is neither free from pragmatic problems nor invulnerable to ideological challenges, the article also considers how the same broad conceptual trends that have facilitated the reconceptualization of human-environment relationships may also concurrently complicate it.

Dauvergne, Peter, and Jane Lister. 2013. Eco-Business: A Big-Brand Takeover of Sustainability. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

As Peter Dauvergne and Jane Lister’s important new book makes clear, business is the new “green.” But while “eco-businesses” may share many interests with environmentalists, in the end even the greenest businesses are “fundamentally aiming for the sustainability of big business, not... of people and the planet” (p. 2). When contemplating the merger of business and sustainability, we should proceed with caution. Strangely, many environmentalists don’t see it that way. Disillusioned with half-hearted “commitments” to sustainability, more and more of them have begun abandoning states and international organizations for the private sector. In the hope of jump-starting the stalled movement for sustainability, non-governmental organizations (NGOs)—including the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), the Sierra Club, and Greenpeace—have allied themselves with corporations such as Nike, Starbucks, Procter & Gamble, and Walmart. While such alliances may seem surprising, environmental strategists increasingly see them as preferable to working with posturing or politicized states and international organizations.Moreover, the urgency of the problemswe face demands pragmatism. As one NGO leader puts it, “right now, we need every weapon in our armory to deal with the challenges we’re facing... we don’t have time to get moral about this and question the integrity of using brands....” (quoted on p. 160). And, as boosters in the environmental community point out, working with the private sector has advantages. Money, for one: the big brands are well heeled and ready to share their wealth with like-mindedNGOs. In 2010, theWWF reaped about $20 million by partnering with Coca-Cola. Power, for another: by partnering with Walmart, EDF gets the opportunity to help shape the sustainability policies of a company with over 2 million employees, 100,000 suppliers, and annual sales of almost half a trillion dollars. As one environmentalist observes, “We could spend 50 years lobbying 75 national governments to change the regulatory framework for the way... commodities are grown and produced. Or these folks at Coke could make a [sustainability] decision... and the whole global supply chain changes overnight” (quoted on pp. 19–20). Compared to states and international organizations, businesses have an unparalleled command over resources, suppliers, commodity chains, and consumers that gives them the nimbleness, flexibility, and reach necessary to rapidly effect environmental reforms.

NEBC Meeting News

October 1998. Dr. Lisa A. Standley, the Club's Vice President, spoke on the topic "Beyond the Brooks Range—Flora and Fauna of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge." Among Dr. Standley's many activities, we learned, is participating in Sierra Club out ings. Twice in recent years, she has enjoyed ten-day backpacking trips to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Alas ka. Both trips were in mid-June, and started with a flight into Fairbanks and transfer to a smaller plane that flew through passes in the Brooks Range to the Romanzof Mountains and the coastal plain of the Beaufort Sea, a couple of hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle. The area hiked was between two rivers, the Jago and the Aichilik, which flow northward from the mountains, crossing the coastal plain to the sea. The Refuge is contiguous with Indian lands and National Parks, which add to the wilderness landscape. It is home to the caribou's Porcupine Herd calving grounds and their migration routes to the mountains. Fortunately for us, Lisa was armed with a good camera and the ability to use it well. We were treated to excellent images of the region's plant life, interspersed with those of the often present and possibly curious caribou. Also, landscape shots illustrated some of the Ref uge's varied habitats and unadulterated beauty. The hiking area ranged in elevation from near sea-level to around 5000 ft. Most of the landscape is devoid of tall trees, although some of the narrower valleys supported white and black spruce in sheltered areas. Low willows were the more typical woody vegetation. The narrow valleys generally run east-west while larger river valleys run north-south. Precipitation is surprisingly low there, with only about 10 inches per year, Standley said. The few glaciers seen while crossing the Brooks Range were relatively small and not growing, evidently remnants of earlier times with higher rates of precipitation. The slide images gave a good sampling of the dominant plant families in the Refuge and the Arctic region, in general. The Cyperaceae, a family Standley knows especially well because of her research on the genus Carex, is one of them. Sedges were well represented and tipsy tussocks of cottongrass were frequently underfoot. More frustrating for Lisa than the tipsy tussocks, per haps, was that nearly all the sedges present in June were flowering rather than fruiting, making identification very challenging. An

Climate change advocacy online: theories of change, target audiences, and online strategy

Widespread adoption of the Internet has transformed how most US political advocacy organizations operate, but perhaps more important has been the formation of new types of advocacy organizations. These ‘Internet-mediated advocacy organizations’ tend to have smaller, geographically dispersed and networked staffs, behave as hybrids of traditional political organizations, and emphasize the use of online tools for offline action. The climate change debate has spurred formation of many such organizations – including 350.org – that now advocate for climate action alongside legacy/environmental organizations. How do these organizations differ from their legacy/environmental counterparts? What does their rise mean for climate change political advocacy? I explore these and other questions through in-depth interviews with top online strategists and other staffers at Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Greenpeace USA, Energy Action Coalition, 1Sky, and 350.org. Interviews revealed broad agreement among Internet-mediated/climate groups regarding core strategic assumptions about climate advocacy, but some divergence among legacy/environmental organizations. They also revealed connections between these assumptions, audience segment targeting, and strategic use of the Internet for advocacy. I discuss implications for the future of US climate advocacy.

Fogbound shores, Antarctica: Leland Curtis.

Despite polar cold and the prospect of whiteouts or gale force winds, landscape painter Leland Curtis (1897-1989) could not resist the allure of Antarctica, and in 1939 he became an artist for the United States Antarctic Service Expedition under the command of Rear Admiral Richard Byrd. Curtis’ paintings of the continent conveyed the stark beauty of this stunning and fearsome land with a sense of intensity. Selections of his work were published in a 1940 Life article featuring Byrd’s exploration of the region. Expedition mandates included mapping a section of the continent’s seacoast, and paintings by Curtis augmented this effort with a more pictorial description. (Expedition to the Antarctic: under Admiral Byrd, it finds 900 miles of new coastline. Life. July 8, 1940:27-33.) Born in Denver, Colorado, Curtis spent childhood years in Seattle and then moved to Los Angeles in 1914, where he received instruction at the Manual Arts High School from artist Rob Wagner. After serving his country in World War I, Curtis found success as an illustrator, and he also painted scenes of his beloved Sierra Nevada and Teton mountain ranges. Curtis showed his paintings at exhibitions that on occasion also featured the work of plein air artist Robert Clunie, noted painter of the Sierras. Curtis was a member of the Sierra Club and its Ski Mountaineers Section, and his renderings of the western crags would in retrospect serve as a rehearsal for painting the landforms of Antarctica. Curtis also documented American desert landscapes, again perhaps a run-through for his later work in illustrating arid Antarctica. (Fox WL. Terra Antarctica: Looking Into the Emptiest Continent. Berkeley, CA:Shoemaker & Hoard; 2007:xiii-276.) In the late 1930s,while skiing, Curtismet individuals from anearlierByrdexpedition, leading toan introduction to theadmiral himself and eventually a spot on the 1939 voyage to Antarctica. In the months leading up to his departure, Curtis was engaged in experimental analysis of paint at California InstituteofTechnology laboratories,duringwhichhepreparedaformulation that could withstand the Antarctic cold (Life, p 30). Therewasprecedent formaking theAntarcticunderstandable through art. In the late 1700s, the British explorer James Cookwas accompaniedbyartistWilliamHodges. Paintings by Hodges from the region are noteworthy in their depiction of human interaction with the elements such as showing ships finding their way along the pack ice (Fox, pp 103-104). Another earlynotable exampleof artistic effort includes thework of physician and artist EdwardWilson,who accompanied explorer Robert Scott in the early 1900s. In Fogbound Shores, Antarctica, the ice along the shoreline and the still water in the foreground are improbably brilliant in a spectrum of blue tones. As indicated in Life, Curtis took many Kodachromes as evidence that the colors were as bright as in his paintings. A glacier winds around the bend between the rocky peaks, its icebergs breaking off into the water. The darkening clouds may portend the approach of a “herbie” (hurricane and blizzard). On the far horizon, a coppery glow hints of a distant world where people bask in the sun on tropical beaches instead of trudging across inhospitable terrain with rimy faces framed by anoraks. It may be of interest to consider how the continent could appear in years hence. Researchers have studied the effect of increasing temperature of ocean water in melting Antarctica’s ice shelves with implications for sea levels (http://news .nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/12/141204-antarctic -ice-melt-sea-level-climate-environment-science/). In 1955, Curtis accompanied Byrd in Operation Deepfreeze I as part of the International Geographical Year effort (a scientific collaboration),withexpeditiongoals to include the gathering of data on glacier activity, marine life, weather patterns, and hydrography (http://www.history.navy.mil/ac /exploration/deepfreeze/deepfreeze1.html). Curtis and other artists are said tohaveportrayedsubjects suchaspenguinsand seals, scienceprograms,andmilitary life. Sponsoredby theNational Science Foundation, Curtis returned in 1957 in Operation Deep Freeze III. With this third trip, Curtis was dubbed the “Dean of Ice Art.” (Fox, pp 201-202.) Much is owed to these pioneers in advancing an understanding of the earth. In similar spirit, the work of medical researchers may be well represented in the words of Robert Clunie in contemplating nature: “Stand I before this great masterpiece seeking truth. In as much as I may be worthy may I find this truth, and so record it.” (Coons R. Robert Clunie: Plein-air Painter of the Sierra. Bishop, CA: Coons Gallery; 1998:182.)

Eco-Apps: Design to Influence Environmentally Friendly Behavior

The search for mechanisms to encourage pro-environmental behavior has ranged from marketing to community events. This study continues the search by exploring how the language and features programmed into mobile social networking applications influence users to experience nature and share those experiences. To guide data analysis, the study uses the social influence network theory and adapts components of influence from the field of online social networking. One hundred posts, spanning almost two years, were analyzed from the Sierra Club's mobile Facebook page, Foursquare's Outdoors Raleigh search, and #Litterati's Instagram feed. Results point to the language and features that can help mobile application developers, government agencies, and environmental advocates to better design mobile apps for pro-environmental behavior. The author concludes with a call for more novel data uploading options outside of text, such as uploading video, creating music to represent nature experiences, or use of external sensors with mobile devices.

Bridging the Research-Practice Gap in Climate Communication

Recent evidence suggests that a research-practice gap exists for climate change communication, whereby practitioners are not making optimal use of knowledge that exists and scholars are not answering questions most relevant to practitioners. Closer collaboration between academics and practitioners is one way to close this gap. We recount our collaboration with a group of Sierra Club staff and volunteers working to improve their climate advocacy and organizing activities. From our collaboration, four ways of improving future collaborations emerged, relating to broad versus narrow applicability of communication recommendations, strategy versus tactics, academic versus experiential knowledge, and proactive versus reactive support.

Litigation—Environment: EPA Reinforces Standards to Use “Representative Data” After Sierra Club

AbstractOn January 22, 2013, in Sierra Club v. EPA, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued an opinion that addressed some Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permitting program issues. Following this case, on March 4, 2013, the EPA issued guidance entitled “Draft Guidance for PM2.5 Permit Modeling,” and on May 20, 2014, issued its final “Guidance for PM2.5 Permit Modeling.” Sierra Club held that the Environmental Protection Agency lacked the legal authority to create an exemption to the PSD preconstruction data‐gathering requirement through the use of Significant Monitoring Concentrations (SMCs).

Social and political convergence on environmental events: the roles of simplicity and visuality in the BP Oil Spill.

This paper examines how and when newspapers, environmental nongovernmental organizations, businesses, and the government converge on environmental events. Using data on the 2010 BP Oil Spill from newspaper articles in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, press releases by Greenpeace and Sierra Club, press releases by BP, Halliburton, Transocean, ExxonMobil, and Shell, and press statements by the White House Press Secretary, we examine an event's potential to trigger convergence of social and political action. By treating events as political actants, we examine arguments from the agenda-setting and social movement literatures on timing, simplicity, and visuality to understand when political actors converge. We find that convergence is related to temporal cycles but not simplicity or visuality.

DIY Urbanism as an Environmental Justice Strategy: The Case Study of Time’s Up! 1987-2012

idea of just going out and doing it, or as it is popularly expressed in the underground, the do-it-yourself ethic... is not just complaining about what is, but actually doing something different, notes New York activist Steve Duncombe (1997). Over the last quarter century, Time's Up! has taken just such a DIY approach to shaping the urban landscape of New York. Since its founding in 1987, the group has put forward sustainable solutions to urban problems such as pollution, increasing asthma rates, lack of green space, global warming, and congestion, through a direct action approach to street activism, demonstrating the possibilities of community gardens, non-polluting transportation, and bike power. The group has repeatedly offered cost effective approaches to challenges of living. Rather than implore those in power or ask for permission, these activists helped shape what streets and public space could look like with graffiti, guerilla gardening, and festive bike rides, reclaiming vacant lots and car-cluttered streets for people-based uses. In doing so, Time's Up! fashioned the as a mutable work of art challenging the increasingly contested nature of public space (Shepard and Smithsimon, 2011).As with many cities, public space in New York is subject to a highly competitive struggle over access, land use, rules, and policies governing a global city. Over and over, those favoring DIY uses of public space have had to compete with those who see public space as a commodity from which to maximize profit the inch (Logan and Molotch, 1987; Shepard and Smithsimon, 2011). These are struggles over the very nature and meaning of urban space. Influenced movements from squatting to Global Justice and Occupy, Time's Up! has honed innovations in direct action in support of a more sustainable brand of urbanism, helping urban spaces feel vibrant, sustainable, and user-friendly. The following considers the ways the group supported efforts around community gardens and biking, while fashioning a distinct model of sustainable urbanism.Full disclosure: I have been a volunteer with Time's Up! and the do-ityourself movement in activism in New York for well over a decade. This qualitative case study builds on multiple data sources including my voice as an observing participant, discussions with other participants, and historic accounts to highlight the story of Time's Up! and the public space movements it supports (Butters, 1983; Patton, 2001; Tedlock, 1991). Case studies such as this are effective for exploring and describing the life course of both social movements and community organizations (Snow and Trom, 2002; Yin, 1995). This form of research is useful for considering urban behavior and political participation seen throughout this report, as well as highlighting effective practices in planning and development, translating knowledge into action as Time's Up! has done to fashion its own distinct brand of sustainable urbanism (Birch, 2012; Shepard, 2013). In asserting a to urban space challenging a system of automobility, Time's Up! takes part in a distinct lineage of cycling activism extending from the Women's Movement to European socialism, environmentalism and anarchism, the Provo to Situationism, and clashes in the streets during the Republican National Convention and the Occupy Movement. Here, Time's Up!'s cycling advocacy is part of a pro-urban politics, which Henri Lefebvre described as a right to the city (Furness, 2010; Harvey, 2013; Horton, 2006).Through the case study of Time's Up!, we explore do-it-yourself strategies vs. more conventional strategies for urban transformation. When liberal reformers arrive, radical wings often follow, pushing change through direct action rather than more deliberate means. For Martin Luther King's message of nonviolence, there was Malcolm X who preached change by any means necessary. While liberal environmental groups such as Sierra Club support legal means to preserve the natural environment, more radical groups such as Earth First and Earth Liberation Front support blockades; Sierra Club sues and Earth First members climb into old growth trees to save them (Butterfly, 2010; Rosebraugh, 2004; Shepard, 2011). …

Sierra Club Environmental Apprenticeship Program

Sierra Club Environmental Apprenticeship Program

Gendered Transactions: Identity and Payment at Midcentury

Gendered Transactions:Identity and Payment at Midcentury Lana Swartz (bio) According to company lore, the idea for Diners’ Club1, the first “universal charge card,” emerged in 1949 when Frank X. McNamara, a New York City businessman, was dining out with a client and realized that he had forgotten his wallet at home. He was able to sneak to off to call his wife, who drove in from Long Island “with cash in her pocket and a hot look in her eye” (and, in some accounts, “curlers in her hair”) so that he could pay for the meal and avoid embarrassment and potential loss of business (Sutton 1958). While he waited, the story goes, McNamara decided that this sort of thing should never happen again, that any “responsible businessman” should be able to sign a tab for a restaurant everywhere (Linehan 1956). The Diners’ Club origin story is powerful, often repeated, and probably apocryphal (Simmons 1995). But like most good marketing myths, it demonstrates the imaginary from which Diners’ Club emerged: who the founders thought their consumers were and what their needs and aspirations might be. Even if McNamara never left his wallet at home, the tale reveals the context that animated the Diners’ Club card. The commuting businessman, the expense account dinner, and the suburb and the housewife in it were all interrelated midcentury American inventions, and the charge card, like the highway that the unnamed Mrs. McNamara drove in on, became an infrastructure that helped make them possible. To understand this infrastructure, it is crucial to know that the Diners’ Club card was not, as it is sometimes described, the first credit card. Although the terms were sometimes used interchangeably, the Diners’ Club card was not a credit card but a charge card. In fact, it preceded the [End Page 137] credit card by at least fifteen years. Unlike later, true credit cards, the Diners’ Club card was not tied to an account of revolving credit. It did not allow members to carry a balance, and it charged yearly membership fees instead of interest. For the first few decades, most of its revenue came from merchant fees. It has been quite convincingly argued that consumer debt has been, and continues to be, a powerful social force in American life (see, for example, Mandell 1990; Cohen 2003; Nocera 1995; Martin 2002; Hyman 2011). Very little attention, however, has been given to payment infrastructures themselves, that, in fact, are not always tied to debt. This essay foregrounds payment as distinct from, but in relation to, debt. Payment systems, as Bill Maurer (2012b) puts it, are the “plumbing” of modern economies.2 Attending to debt alone misses the pipes for the water that flows through them. Furthermore, studying the history of payment systems such as the Diners’ Club card is essential for encountering new and emergent payment systems, which increasing rely less on debt and more on other revenue models, notably those that trade on the value of identity in the form of personal transactional data. Payment is always already a vector of identity. It is a tool used to perform and determine identity. It is one of what Michel Foucault (1998) called “technologies of the self,” those techniques through which “selves” are performed and policed according to available discourses. The way people pay marks them and marks the nature of their economic agency in everyday life. Particular payment instruments construct particular social relations. Georg Simmel (1900), for example, argued that modern money—which can be understood, in this sense, as a payment instrument—made people strangers, but it also made it possible to interact, trust, and pay as strangers. Like national currencies, payment forms define territories and foster within them a “common economic language with which to communicate” (Helleiner 1998, 1414). Crucially, payment tools produce difference. Paying with a jar of pennies or a debit card that benefits the Sierra Club or a large wad of cash or a black American Express Centurion each produces distinction and meaning. This process is reciprocal: payment forms are marked by those who use them and also by the context in which they are used. Payment can be used to create or dissolve social...

Dispatches

Dispatches

Leave It in the Ground: Science, Politics, and the Movement to End Coal Use

Over the past few years, climate scientists have developed a new approach to studying the effect of greenhouse gases on climate change; the focus of study has turned from the annual amount of greenhouse gas emissions to the total amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The new model predicts that the earth’s average daily temperature will rise further than previously thought, and that the time in which this rise can be limited is shorter.At the same time, political activists concerned with climate change have shifted their tactics – and perhaps their strategy – from an emphasis on lobbying and education to an emphasis on direct action, mass protest, and civil disobedience. This change has been driven in part by purely political considerations, such as the strength of climate denial in the US House of Representatives and the failure of the Copenhagen talks. However, it has also been driven by knowledge of the scientific developments. For example, Bill McKibben, leader of 350.org, frequently refers to climate scientist James Hansen’s statement that if all the carbon stored in the Athabascan oil sands were released it would be “game over for the planet.”This paper examines parallel changes in the summary assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and in the approach of climate activists, with case studies of the Sierra Club’s “Beyond Coal” campaign and the campaign to stop the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Forest Kindergartens: The Cedarsong Way by Erin K. Kenny

 2014 Children, Youth and Environments Children, Youth and Environments 24(2), 2014 Forest Kindergartens: The Cedarsong Way Erin K. Kenny (2013) Vashon, Washington: Cedarsong Nature School, 111 pages. $20.00 USD (paperback). ISBN 978-0-615-84920-1. Nature-based early childhood education has been a growing movement in the United States since the mid-1960s and has had the most significant growth in the last ten years with programs popping up at nature centers all over the country. While that was happening, nature-immersive types of programs, generally referred to as forest kindergartens, have been flourishing throughout Europe and in recent years, Asia. Despite a growing nature-based early childhood education movement, the forest kindergarten didn’t appear on the scene in the U.S. until 2007. The arrival of this program, its success, and the publicity it has received is undoubtedly due to the program’s founder, Erin Kenny. Kenny has a bachelor’s degree in environmental education from Evergreen State College and a Juris Doctorate in environmental law from the University of Washington. While her initial dream was to be a lawyer for an organization like Sierra Club, her professional path went a slightly different direction. In 1996 she established the non-profit American Forest Education Foundation. She then moved to Vashon Island in Puget Sound, where after a variety of nature-based teaching roles and publishing a book, A Naturalist’s Journal, she decided to establish an outdoor preschool. The Cedarsong Preschool opened in 2006 with the “commitment of no less than two-thirds outdoor time.” However, her real vision was to have an entirely outdoor preschool, which she made happen in 2007 by establishing the non-profit Cedarsong Nature School under the umbrella of the Ancient Forest Education Foundation. The result was the first forest kindergarten in the United States. Someone new to the nature-based early childhood profession might ask what the difference is between a forest kindergarten and a nature-based preschool. Kenny does a nice job early in the book defining forest kindergartens from her perspective and distinguishing them from nature-based preschools. As I read Kenny’s definition the biggest distinction for me is the idea of full nature immersion. As she says, “Nature immersion is defined as unstructured free time in nature resulting in an intimate, deep, and personal connection to the natural world” (4). The book title clearly focuses on forest kindergartens and Kenny explains in the preface that her goal in writing this book was to “inspire and empower others to create authentic nature immersion experiences for young children, whether as parents or educators.” Book Review: Forest Kindergartens: The Cedarsong Way 240 There is no question that this book is inspirational, primarily because it is full of Kenny’s passion for connecting children to the outdoors. The book is divided into three main parts and it is in the second part, where she addresses the forest kindergarten curriculum, where I think the most inspiration can be found. A big part of this section of the book is devoted to the four seasons and a beautifully written explanation of what the teachers and children had done each month of those seasons. This is the section where I found myself being able to really get a sense of what happens every day in the program. I felt like I could see the children splashing in puddles, smell the woods, and hear the laughter of the children and teachers. Whether brand new to the field or a seasoned professional, any reader is sure to find inspiration and joy in this section of the book. As one of those seasoned professionals I was so thrilled when I learned Kenny had written this book. There have been other forest kindergarten resources published in Europe, but this is the first U.S. publication on the subject. I was looking forward to learning more details on how this program operates in the United States. I was hopeful this book would, as Kenny proposed, empower nature-based early childhood professionals in the U.S. by providing a clear picture of a typical day; explain how this philosophy can be implemented elsewhere in the country; and acknowledge...

Beyond regulations: Industry voluntary ban in arsenic use

Firms play a key role in pollution abatement and control by engaging in beyond-compliance actions without the force of law in voluntary programs. This study examines the effectiveness of a bilateral voluntary agreement, one type of voluntary programs, negotiated between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the pressure-treated wood industry to phase-out the use of chromated copper arsenate (CCA), a poisonous arsenic compound. Arsenic is ranked number one on the EPA's priority list of hazardous substances. Unlike a majority of earlier studies on voluntary programs, dynamic panel estimation and structural break analysis show that while a technological innovation in semiconductors is associated with arsenic use increases, the CCA voluntary agreement is associated with a reduction in arsenic use to levels not seen since the 1920s. A voluntary ban in arsenic acid by pesticide manufacturers in the agriculture sector has also contributed to arsenic reductions. Furthermore, the results suggest that environmental activism has played a role in curbing arsenic use. Increasing stakeholder pressures, as measured by membership in the Sierra Club, improves voluntary agreement effectiveness.

Regulating CO Emissions

The Supreme Court gave several industries a victory last week when it agreed to review next year part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s approach to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Industry groups, including the American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry trade association, brought the case. At issue is EPA’s attempt to use the Clean Air Act to limit greenhouse gas emissions from industrial facilities such as refineries, power plants, and chemical companies. These groups argue that EPA’s proposed regulatory approach “oversteps the authority granted by Congress in the Clean Air Act,” according to the American Petroleum Institute, an oil industry trade group. Similarly, ACC says EPA has “misread” the Clean Air Act and its carbon dioxide permitting scheme “is not the appropriate way to address greenhouse gas emissions from industrial sources.” Environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council, however, interpret the Court’s decision to review ...

Litigation—Renewables: Renewables Ruse: Preparing for the Quiet Campaign Against Renewable Energy

AbstractPublicly, national environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council love renewable energy. They loudly portray wind and solar power projects as the noble protagonists combating the toxic villainy of coal‐fired power plants while creating innumerable “green jobs” along the way.

A Healthier Wood

As if it wasn’t enough to have their homes inundated, possessions destroyed, and lives uprooted, Gulf Coast evacuees of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina had to endure another indignity: The trailers given to them by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for safe shelter made them sick. Trailer interiors used composite woods, and the urea-formaldehyde resins that bound those composites were emitting formaldehyde into the air inside. In 2008, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention tested the trailers and found formaldehyde levels of up to 590 ppb, which is several times the limit deemed acceptable by the Environmental Protection Agency. A petition put together by the Sierra Club and signed by many evacuees described some of the symptoms. “Their lungs burn. Their eyes tear,” it read. “Many suffer from headaches and other illnesses that have required frequent doctor visits and, in some cases, hospitalization.” The episode highlighted the long-standing issue of formaldehyde ...

Leading Associations

Leaders make vital contributions to the survival and success of civic associations, but they vary widely in levels of commitment to those groups. Why are some leaders more committed than others? We draw from scholarship on civic participation, volunteering, social movements, and team management to develop an original explanation. Although theory suggests individual and organizational factors may explain differences, most prior empirical studies examine only individual-level hypotheses. We use data collected from 1,616 Sierra Club volunteer leaders and the 368 chapters and groups they led to conduct multilevel analyses of the determinants of behavioral commitment among leaders. At the individual level, we find that leaders with more applicable skills, available time, and aligned motivations are more committed to the organization. At the organizational level, we find that leaders whose organizations are more complex, and who are on teams that operate more interdependently, share work more equally, and devote smaller shares of time to meetings, are more committed. These findings have implications for scholars of leadership and commitment and for organizations seeking more committed leaders.