“Ah! the truth is a thing I get rid of as soon as possible!” says Lord Goring in one of Oscar Wilde’s plays. “Bad habit, by the way. Makes one very unpopular at the club.”
Patricia Forkan of Humane Society International must know exactly how Lord Goring feels, because she’s now being gored by her erstwhile allies in the environmental movement for having the audacity to support the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
Testifying before the Senate last month, Forkan made a compelling case on behalf of the deal, which is technically called DR-CAFTA because it also includes the Dominican Republic. “In my opinion, the momentum brought about by the DR-CAFTA has brought the issues of protecting the environment, habitat and species protection, and the need for balancing environmental protections and economic development to the forefront in Central America,” she said. “The Central Americans are willing to work hard to address the difficult environmental and economic issues facing the region--they are asking for our assistance, our friendship, and our support.”
In other words, this is a trade agreement that will help the environment.
Forkan comes to the table with a huge amount of credibility. “I have never been accused of being a ‘free trader’ or a ‘globalization supporter,’” she said. That’s for sure. This is a woman who took to the streets of Seattle in 1999 as a protestor against the World Trade Organization. Her group fought against NAFTA as well as normalized trade relations with China.
Yet Forkan is no knee-jerk enemy of free trade. “Unlike organizations that seem only to criticize and complain, Humane Society International also recognizes when we think the United States has done something positive--in this case, the environmental provisions of DR-CAFTA,” she told the senators.
What a breath of fresh air! A dedicated member of the environmental movement chooses to take an unprejudiced look at CAFTA and come to an independent conclusion. Lo and behold, she discovers CAFTA is likely to help preserve habitats and protect endangered wildlife--and she has the courage to announce her views before a panel of senators.
So what’s her reward? Forkan now stands accused of heresy by the Torquemadas of a Green Inquisition. The anti-CAFTA wing of the environmental movement--which is, sadly, most of it--has responded by trying to persecute Forkan and her organization. Several members of Congress have suggested that she changed her views because Humane Society International accepted a USAID grant that helps underwrite a rescue center for howler monkeys.
That’s a silly accusation--a real howler, you might say. The truth is far more interesting: Forkan says she has spent a lot of time talking to Central Americans about the environment, and she has become convinced that they’re dedicated to keeping it healthy. This realization is what led to her support for CAFTA.
Forkan is hardly the only brave soul among environmentalists. There’s also Stewart Brand, founder of The Whole Earth Catalog. In a recent essay, he encouraged his fellow travelers to rethink their views on population growth, urbanization, nuclear power--and biotech food. He called opposition to genetically enhanced food “a mistake,” and noted that “GM crops are more efficient, giving higher yield on less land with less use of pesticides and herbicides.”
But Brand also acknowledged the harmful influence of the Green Inquisition. “A number of leading biologists in the U.S. are also leading environmentalists,” he wrote. They aren’t worried about biotech crops, but they “don’t say so in public because they feel that entering the GM debate would strain relations with allies and would distract form their main focus, which is to research and defend biodiversity.”
Although I sympathize with their plight, I do wish a few of them would show a bit more courage--because when it comes to injecting the environmental movement with common sense, Forkan and Brand need all the help they can get.
I hope that one day they’ll finally be popular at the environmental club.
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“Ah! the truth is a thing I get rid of as soon as possible!” says Lord Goring in one of Oscar Wilde’s plays. “Bad habit, by the way. Makes one very unpopular at the club.”
