February 19, 1998
Carl Pope
Executive Director
Sierra Club
San Francisco, CA
Carl:
Much like the Sierra Club's opposition to "Fast Track" trade treaty
authority for President Clinton last fall, I noticed your endorsement in
the New York Times (2/13/98) advertisement against the Multilateral Agreement on
Investment (MAI). The basic environmental reasons are obvious; we don't
want the IMF, the GATT, the World Bank, the WTO, George Soros et al.
overruling hard won domestic environmental laws to force us, some day --
for example --- to allow Charles Hurwitz of Maxxam Corporation to finish
cutting the last remaining old growth redwoods in northern California under
the guise of "free trade." (By the way, like you, I oppose MAI on environmental
grounds.)
So Carl Pope and the Sierra Club are opposed to "open borders" for
financial flows for environmental reasons, but take a "neutral position" on
people flows, which can ultimately be just as destructive. How can you
seriously hold this irrational Sierra Club position on immigration and US
population growth while complaining about the hazards of the Global
Economy? Global "people flows" (of which immigration is a large part) are
part of the Global Economy, which the Sierra Club recently published a
book of essays against.
Such duplicity prompted me during an impulsive moment to label you as the
"Richard Nixon of the environmental movement." Alas I was roundly
chastised by a friend for my libel on the late president. While he
shared your taste for trying to jigger elections (the "A" vs. "B" Ballot Question
fraud), Richard Nixon at least had a more positive environmental record than I first
thought. On the other hand, I never thought I would see the day Tricky Dick
looked "relatively" not bad compared to the Sierra Club. O tempora, O
mores!
Bill Murray
Sierra Club Member
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