Antienvironmentalism

DEFINITION: Philosophy that holds that human beings’ immediate economic and lifestyle needs are more important than concerns about the fate of other species and the general environment

Long-standing debates between antienvironmentalists and environmentalists have important influence on both legislators and policy makers as they address environment-related issues.

In the early twentieth century, environmentalism in the United States was largely fostered by wealthy sportsmen who saw the need to protect the outdoors in order to maintain satisfactory areas for their pursuits of hunting, fishing, and camping. The movement got a populist boost in 1962 from the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, which presents an easily understood account of the dangers of toxic substances in the environment. For the first time, the American public began to demand that laws be enacted to protect the environment and clean up land, water, and air that had already been polluted.

Growth of the Environmental Movement

For several years, the environmental movement gathered strength as the public voted into office politicians with environmental orientations. Public outcry surged against polluting companies, leading to boycotts of products. Grassroots, citizen-led efforts such as recycling programs and litter patrols gained support as the public became more educated and concerned about environmental issues. Among the issues that pitted environmentalists against the government and industry were toxic waste incineration, habitat destruction by logging and mining companies, and use of public lands, including national parks.

Two oil crises during the 1970s served to focus awareness on energy conservation and the need to develop alternatives to energy derived from fossil fuels. Many feared that oil supplies were dwindling, while others wished to end US reliance on oil-exporting nations in the Middle East. One important result was a general reduction in the size of motor vehicles. This, along with other technological advances, helped lead to the development of cars that were more fuel-efficient. The research required to accomplish these changes, however, was very costly to automakers.

The 1970s were also characterized by landmark legislation that imposed strict limits on pollution output and resource use and also provided for the remediation of polluted land and water. Large fines were imposed for violations of the new laws, which were enforced by the newly formed US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). One of the most important and pivotal developments was the passage of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, or Superfund, which provided vast sums of public money for the cleanup of designated industrial and military waste dumps and other degraded sites. Signed into law by the US Congress in 1980, Superfund’s provisions allowed the government to bring lawsuits against the responsible parties, requiring them to help pay cleanup costs. In order to avoid fines, many industries were forced to develop and implement costly waste-processing technologies.

The political and economic situation began to change in the late 1970s as industry mounted a counteroffensive against environmental laws. Businesses contended with the burgeoning number of environmental regulations by finding and exploiting loopholes in legislation. A growing number of industries used stalling tactics and countersuits to delay or eliminate the need to implement required changes. Meanwhile, in the western United States, a coalition of loggers, miners, cattle ranchers, farmers, and developers demanded that the federal government transfer control of large tracts of federally owned land to individual states. Members of the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion felt that state ownership would give them more power to exploit the natural resources on the land.

Antienvironmentalist Backlash

A severe backlash against environmentalism began to occur when Ronald Reagan replaced Jimmy Carter as president of the United States in early 1981. Many environmental laws and regulations, which the new presidential administration viewed as barriers to economic progress, were weakened or abolished. A large number of federal judges who had started their careers during the 1960s retired, and they were replaced by politically conservative judges who began to interpret existing laws in favor of industry. The office of the EPA was weakened, and funding for environmental enforcement and remediation was slashed. Secretary of the Interior James Watt, who had been a leader of the Sagebrush Rebellion, promoted legislation to open previously protected areas to mining and oil exploration. The general public, experiencing growth and prosperity for the first time in many years, began to favor short-term economic gains and turned a blind eye to news of the weakening environmental movement.

The late 1980s saw the birth of the wise-use movement, which appeals to the pragmatic and optimistic aspects of human nature by asserting that some optimal balance of resource use and restoration is practicable and that technology, given time and funding, will develop workable solutions to existing environmental problems. This position assumes that human beings can understand the complex ecosystems involved well enough to know what these balances should be. Advocates of wise-use believe that all public lands, including national parks, should be opened to mining and drilling. Like the Sagebrush Rebels, they also promote the strengthening of the rights of states and property owners to exploit resources with minimal federal regulation.

According to the tenets of wise-use, the harvesting of timber from ancient forests would be followed by the planting of an equivalent acreage of saplings. Logging would be timed according to growth rates, and technology would produce fast-growing varieties of trees that would furnish adequate ecosystems for wildlife in the new forests. Environmentalists, in contrast, argue that ancient forests represent complex, irreplaceable ecosystems that cannot be substituted with new forests planted by logging companies. Similar disagreement exists regarding coastal wetlands, which provide vital habitat to numerous species and contain a high degree of biodiversity. Wetlands are frequently located in areas that are desired by real estate developers wishing to build vacation homes or resorts. Environmental protection laws based on the tenets of wise-use mandate that destroyed wetlands must be replaced by new wetlands of equivalent size. Again, environmentalists worry that too many threatened species would be lost in the process of destroying and replacing wetland areas.

Scientific Controversy

Another significant trend in antienvironmentalism toward the end of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first involved public confusion over scientific debates concerning such topics as the hole in the ozone layer and global warming. Industry and government scientists often questioned and condemned dire predictions advanced by other scientists. The government frequently responded by requesting additional research before requiring vast, expensive reductions of known pollutants. Rather than believe the frightening scenarios painted by some scientists, many people sided with scientists who questioned the validity of these and other threats to the global environment.

Mainstream environmental organizations that evolved from small groups of fervent individuals were led by full-time professional lobbyists based in Washington, DC. Details of new legislation were negotiated among industry, government, and environmental leaders. National environmental organizations grew increasingly cumbersome and expensive to run. Many began accepting large donations from the same industries they were trying to monitor, which created serious conflicts of interest. Top industry executives became members of the boards of directors for environmental organizations. At the same time, these corporations also made large donations to elected officials and thus gained access and influence in government. As the 1990s progressed, membership in large environmental groups began to decline as "donor fatigue" set in, questions persisted about the true urgency of various environmental issues, and cynicism arose about the possibility of environmental progress under such circumstances.

A relaxation of concern about environmental problems came about in the late 1990s in the wake of encouraging news about improvements of environmental indicators such as air-pollution levels of certain gases in the aftermath of implementation of cleaner energy production. For example, atmospheric levels of sulfur dioxide, which leads to acid rain, decreased in the United States and Europe after cleaner coal- and oil-burning technologies were implemented. The air-quality goals of many cities were met through a combination of fuel efficiency and "scrubber" smokestacks. While environmentalists warned such progress did not indicate the end of environmental threats, the general public became less tuned to these issues once their direct negative effects were relieved.

A controversial strategy advanced by a coalition of industry, government, and environmental leaders involves tradable pollution permits. According to the plan, the government assigns utilities a certain number of pollution units per year. An especially clean-running plant will not need all of its units and will be able to sell them to plants that exceed their allotments. This system was criticized by many environmentalists, who contend that some utilities are able to buy their way out of the need to reduce pollution. The position thought to be antienvironmentalist in this context would maintain that the plan is a realistic method of controlling overall levels of pollution without putting older utilities out of business while they endeavor to upgrade their performance.

The revelation that environmental degradation can, in certain cases, be reversed over a fairly short span of time led to the argument on the part of antienvironmentalists that nature is surprisingly resilient, and therefore environmental protection does not need to be so stringent, costly, and regressive. Environmentalists counter such arguments with a call to remain vigilant and to include the health of the environment in national and global visions of the future.

Political Considerations

The relative popularity and success of antienvironmentalism versus environmentalism often depends on the political climate. In the United States, political conservatism has tended to be more accepting of antienvironmentalism, elements of which came to often feature in Republican platforms. This alignment largely began during the Reagan administration and grew stronger into the twenty-first century. For example, the Republican administration of President George W. Bush was noted for supporting policies seen as antienvironmental, such as oil drilling in the Arctic. However, having antienvironmentalists in power also helped motivate a surge in grassroots environmentalist organization, with greater public attention drawn to issues such as climate change in the twenty-first century.

The opposite effect was seen with the election of Democratic president Barack Obama in 2008. His administration was largely seen as pro-environmentalism, and strongly voiced support for climate change mitigation and other green policies, despite some environmentalists arguing it did not go far enough. In response, conservatives allied even more deeply with antienvironmentalist industries and other groups. The movement attacking mainstream climate science and other environmental science became more powerful, finding great success in sowing doubt in the general public.

A culmination of this attitude was seen in the election of business tycoon Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, after he expressed radically antienvironmentalist views on the campaign trail. His cabinet eventually included several noted antienvironmentalists and climate change skeptics, bringing the movement an unprecedented level of power and visibility. The Trump administration took steps not only to block new environmental legislation, but also to undo existing protections and regulations and severely weaken the EPA. However, this rise in antienvironmentalism did appear to again incite a public backlash. Environmentalist activist groups mounted an increasingly organized resistance, staging events such as a March for Science in Washington, DC, on Earth Day 2017. Following the election of President Biden in 2020, many of the antienvironmentalist views and their subsequent policies were rolled back. Biden’s stance on environmental issues largely mirrored that of the Obama White House, with goals to reach zero emissions by 2050, the reinstatement of environmental laws, and reentering the Paris Agreement.

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