viewpoint Thomas L. Kimball Executive Director, National Wildlife Federation
Public demands cleanup, is ready t o pay In the brief span of the last two years, the American’s widespread, but largely passive environmental attitudes have evolved into a growing corps of citizens with a personal commitment to constructive action. A great many people would like to believe that the inevitable, visible decline in the public’s environmental concern indicates that it is on the wane. But abundant evidence supports the fact that these people have grossly underestimated both the scope and intensity of the public’s desire for environmental cleanup and protection. In January 1969, the National Wildlife FedeI.ation commissioned a Gallup Poll to plumb the public’s environmental attitudes. The survey demonstrated that more than 85% of those interviewed were “concemea about the state of the environment; 51% expressed “deep concern” about the effects of pollution. Three out of four, including 63% of families earning under $5,000 annually, said they would be wilting to pay additional taxes earmarked for environmental cleanup. During early July of tbe same year, we commissioned a second survey by the Harris people. One of tbe most significant findings was that a full 97% of those interviewed favored reallocating federal expenditures to provide more money for improvement of the natural environment. A subsequent flurry of public opinion surveys by national magazines and broadcasting companies demonstrated that concern for the environment ranked alongside the key issues of Vietnam and crime. These revelations touched off an unprecedented chain reaction of political rhetoric and opportunism. Industry, including many of the major polluters, rose to the occasion with an estimated $1-billion worth of we-were-interested-in- the- environment-long- before- it became-popular advertising, or about 10 times more than US.companies spent for air pollution control d e vicesin 1969. These political and industrial broadsides had a definite ameliorating effect on the evolving public attitudes toward cause and effect relationships of environmental destruction-primarily because the public, for the most part, really wanted to believe promises of a national commitment to reversing environmental errors of the past. But this period of optimism was short lived. Even ~
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before the smoke began to clear from the battle of the press releases, the public was bludgeoned with repeated proof that most promises were hollow, and environmental destruction continued to accelerate. This realization dulled the ardor of many people, but also prodded others into more insistent demands for action. As the pressure grew, the uncommitted politician increasingly excused his recalcitrance with “political realities,” and corporate polluters began to complain of anticapitalists behind every little old lady in tennis shoes. Both welcomed the inevitable slackening of apparent public interest as a sign that the environmental furor was waning and that it would soon be “business as usual.” . . , ~ ~ . ,*..1-.~~~ N greac aeai 01 eviaence snows iuac sucn nnnlung is wishful and unperceptive. Steadily increasing numbers of citizens are organizing to campaign against politicians who forget their environmental promises when it is time to answer the roll call. Scores of citizen law snits against corporate polluters and governmental “regnlatory” agencies have spawned an entirely new legal discipline of envirorimental advocacy. In the days ahead, we can expect a rapid acceleration of these activities. And as the public’s environmental attitudes CI ystallize, we can expect a rapidly emerging campaign. of social and economic pressures against those who obfuscate in the face of public demand for action. . . Just how far the concerned American is prepared to go is anybody’s guess at this point. Mine is tbat he will go as far as he is forced to.
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Thomas L. KimbaN isa former director of the Colorado Game and Fish Department. He assumed his present position in 1960
Volume 4, Number 11, November 1970 879
