Your response

Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1998 11:59:25 -0400 (AST)
From: Owen Hertzman <hertzman@atm.dal.ca>
To: greenweb@fox.nstn.ca
cc: sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca
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I actually found your response very positive.  It seems to me there's a
question of both ends and means that we're struggling to elucidate.

Let's take the qeustion of advisory groups, boards, task forces etc.

I would argue that there is a role for environmentalists on all of these.
They should certainly make it clear, internally and externally, what their
positions are on the issues to be discused and also how they will deal
with attempts to co-opt them or to attribute to them views which they do
not support.

In my view, the larger question is one of education, both of the players
and the public.  

Within the corporate community certain companies and many employees in all
of the companies, are coming to realize that they must use the
Precautionary Principle with respect to issues such as Global Warming.  As
recently as September, the president of BP, which had recently taken over
AMOCO, shocked a seminar at Harvard (according to information I was told)
by coming out very strongly on the "green" side of the issue.  He
apparently went as far as to indicate that executives of AMOCO who weren't
prepared to work for sharply lowered emissions should resign before they
were fired.  Now I'm not saying why he took this position.  What I am
saying is that by serving with industry types one gets a chance to argue
with them one on one on particular issues.  If you convince them, great.
but even if you don't, they've heard the arguments "inside the tent".

Of course nothing is as "cut and dried" as that.  Your advice to your
Montreal friend to stay away from the process was wrong in this case.  If
(s)he had something important to learn and communicate about the region
that the project might influence, we'll never know.

Finally, there's this question of money, especially in this region which
has a small population and not much money floating about.  If people like
you friend and I don't get some additional cash we have to leave.  All
that does is leave the field to others who care less about the problems
we're discussing.  Sometimes we joke around here about "prostituting"
ourselves to lawyers or insurance people or industrial types.  In reality,
you work symbiotically with these people as you do with the media.  In my
case, getting $600 a day for a couple of days work this summer makes up
for getting $2300 for an entire course.  You do the sums--by doing the
first I can afford to do the second (THOUGH we're working to increase the
course numbers).

I may have more on this later. OH

________________________________________________________________
Owen Hertzman                     E-mail: Owen.Hertzman@Dal.Ca
Dept. of Oceanography             Phone: (902) 494-3683
Dalhousie University              FAX:  (902) 494-2885
Halifax, NS CANADA, B3H 4J1

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