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The Political Climate Is Turning Green
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18300 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
10 / 1990 |
2,448 Words |
| Author
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Richard T. Sylves
Richard T. Sylves is professor of political science at the
University of Delaware. He is the author of The Nuclear
Oracles (Iowa State University Press, 1987) and lead editor of
Cities and Disaster: North American Studies in Emergency
management (Charles Thomas Publishers, 1990). |
Last April, Earth Day 1990 was celebrated with both tumult and reverence; but will its messages be remembered on the campaign trail, in government, and most importantly, in the voting booth this November? Twenty years ago the original Earth Day was inaugurated by a vocal minority of environmental activists who were forced to confront a sea of skeptics. Yet the burgeoning environmental worries of today have convinced most people that environmental problems are real and that something needs to be done about them. Polls show that voters are demanding that their elected officials have at least a commitment to action. They also show that citizens are willing to support strong environmental protection efforts even if it means personal cost and sacrifice. Also, unemployment, inflation, and fear of the Soviet Union do not motivate people as much as they once did. Voters appear freer to focus on “quality of life” issues, foremost among them, environmental issues.
Candidate George Bush successfully capitalized on environmentalism in his 1988 campaign, whether boating across Michael Dukakis' Boston Harbor or walking New Jersey beaches fouled by medical and sewage waste. In January 1989 he assumed office as the nation's first self-avowed environmental president. He immediately changed or reversed many of the Reagan administration's environmental police, and he appointed William K. Reilly, of the Conservation Foundation, his Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief. Besides submitting a widely applauded, tough reauthorization of the Clean Air Act, which finally attempted to address acid rain pollution, Bush has proposed elevating the EPA to cabinet-level status, has limited leasing of new offshore drilling sites, has acted to preserve more wetland property, and has, albeit awkwardly, attempted to grapple with the problem of global warming.
Bush is not the only public figure tuned to environmentalism. Congress watchers report that in this legislative year sponsors of almost any type of bill must show the impact their measures will have on the environment as a prerequisite of floor consideration. Similarly, potential 1992 Democratic Party presidential contenders, foremost among them Sen. Albert Gore of Tennessee, have already begun staking out environmental terrain in hope of winning this broad-based constituency.
So what will all this mean in the November 1990 election? Global warming, ozone layer breakdown, and acid rain, to name a few, are arguably serious national and world environmental concerns. However, few votes will be cast on the basis of candidate stands on these issues. Political experts claim that the
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