If you are an environmentalist (or “tree-hugger”) like me, as I suspect most Sierra Club members are, you know these are tumultuous, distressing and trying times.
Every morning’s newspaper brings a new upset, a new outrage. I’d be surprised if our current president had ever even been to a national park, yet he wants to open them up to stripmining, resource exploitation and private-industry depredation. Last week they announced that, revoking President Biden’s order, they are opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil-drilling (remember Sarah Palin, “Drill Baby Drill”?), in the process threatening millions of caribou, polar bears and other animals. Even though none of the Big Oil companies even wants to bid on the leases (due to the expense, and backlash from the general public).
The Administration encouraged a Texas oil driller to drill off the Santa Barbara coast, even though the California Coastal Commission shut it down for numerous violations of the Coastal Act. I still remember in 1969, when I was 15, how the massive pipe-burst coated the Santa Barbara beaches with oil, killing thousands of seabirds. It filled the front pages for weeks and months.
One of our Sierra Club members with connections to the Interior Department recently reported that the Administration has identified the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SMMNRA) as “woke”, and is on a mission to shut it down. Remember that the SMMNRA was authorized, and funded, by an Act of Congress. Our current government cares nothing about National Parks, or State Parks, or, for that matter, wilderness open space at all. And it is firing federal workers and laying off others, including national park employees and rangers, and shutting down the government to further its agenda.
So who is doing anything about this?
Fortunately, the Sierra Club for one. As well as a bunch of allied Earth Justice organizations. I urge everyone to contribute whatever you can afford to fund to support this fight.
We’re in the winter of an Ice Age, but it won’t last forever. In fact, yesterday’s elections showed a decisive backlash by the electorate against everything the Administration is pursuing. Keep up your courage and carry on, Sierra Clubbers!
Eric Edmunds, Chair
Santa Monica Mountains Task Force