Two groups call Earth Day ‘war against humanity’
■ Organizations plan a third
consecutive trip to Washington,
D.C., to protest environmentalism
By Kathryn Petersen
forthe Emerald
For the past 32 years, people
have celebrated Earth Day in vari
ous ways. The University campus
has its own celebration planned
that involves a festival, speakers
and educational events. But two
organizations, the Center for the
Moral Defense of Capitalism and
the Ayn Rand Institute, have much
different plans than others.
Following their tradition of the
past few years, these two organiza
tions have gathered their allies and
plan a third consecutive trip to Wash
ington, D.C., to protest Earth Day and
environmentalism.
“The real meaning of Earth Day
and the environmental movement as
a whole is the rollback of industrial
civilization,” said Nicholas Proven
zo, chairman and co-founder of the
Center for the Moral Defense of Capi
talism. “Environmentalism is a
wholesale war against humanity. By
placing nature over people, environ
mentalism actively works to return
man back to the stone age. ”
Dr. Onkar Ghate, resident fellow at
the Ayn Rand Institute, agrees with
Provenzo. “If you actually look at
what environmentalists say and do,
they have a different goal, and people
don’t realize that,” Ghate said. “Envi
ronmentalists sacrifice the interests of
man for so-called wilderness and na
ture, and that needs to be exposed. ”
Vivian Vassall, the chapter chair
for the University’s OSPIRG chapter,
does not fully understand the two or
ganizations’ position on the topic.
“Seeing that Earth Day is not politi
cal and it’s a celebration that every
one can take part in, it’s interesting
that people would protest it,” Vassall
said. “Earth Day is probably the least
controversial aspect of the environ
mental movement, if an aspect at all. ”
While Vassall described OSPIRG’s
philosophy of Earth Day as “spread
ing consciousness of the problems on
our planet,” Provenzo and CMDC’s
philosophy is much different. They
believe that Earth Day is and should
be “a day dedicated to celebrating the
benefits of industry and technology,
the critical importance of property
rights, and the larger notion that man
has the ability to properly solve the
problems and challenges of his exis
tence without sacrificing his life or
lifestyle,” Provenzo said. But Univer
sity Professor John H. Baldwin, direc
tor of the Institute for a Sustainable
Environment, rejects that idea.
“Ridiculous,” Baldwin said.
“Oh, the right-wingers. What on
earth are they talking about? It
sounds to me like they are has
tardizing science for a profit.”
While the environment may be
cleaner and healthier because of the
Environmental Protection Agency
and clean air and water legislation,
Ghate and the Ayn Rand Institute do
not think that the innovations and
regulations are good for humanity,
Ghate said.
“I don’t think that something like
the EPA or endangered species acts
should exist at all,” Ghate said. “I do
not think that animals and trees and
so on have life. Humans have life. We
should be able to develop any land
we own to further mankind. We are
definitely pro-man.”
Baldwin, however, suggested
that furthering humanity and the
environment are not necessarily
mutually exclusive.
“There is a middle ground,” he
said. “I’m all in favor of sustainable
economic development. You can
be green, into the economy and
pro-man.”
Provenzo disagrees. “There is no
balance between a view that says that
man’s life is a primary value and a
view that says that wilderness comes
first,” he said. “That many people
think that there can be a union be
tween the two shows that unfortu
nately, many people don’t fully un
derstand what is being debated here. ”
For anyone who wishes to publicly
debate Provenzo and his ideas, he has
renewed a challenge to “debate any
member of any environmentalist or
ganization at any college campus in
America.” He can be contacted at
(703) 625-3296 or at
http://www.moraldefense.com/Pro
Tech. More information on ARI’s
stance on environmentalism is avail
able at http://environmentalism.ayn
rand.org.
Kathryn Petersen is a freelance reporter
for the Emerald.
New dumpsite proposed off Washington
coast—largest ever in Pacific Northwest
By Hal Bernton
The Seattle Times
CHINOOK, Wash. (KRT) — Six
miles off shore and 210 feet below
the surface of the ocean spreads
the largest dumpsite ever proposed
off the Pacific Northwest coast.
It's a 14-square-mile patch that
may eventually hold tens of mil
lions of cubic yards of sediment
dredged up from the mouth of the
Columbia River in the annual ef
fort to keep the river mouth clear
for seagoing vessels.
Army Corps of Engineers offi
cials say they are running out of
places to dump and want to use at
least some of this site in the
decades ahead. But the deep-water
plan would waste a precious re
source: sand that could bolster a
70-mile stretch of eroding Wash
ington beaches north of the river.
The Columbia River once played
an extraordinary role in building
up the southwest Washington
beaches. The old free-flowing river
— which drains 259,000 square
miles of United States and Canada
and is subject to intense seasonal
flooding — washed down vast
amounts of sediments, which then
were flushed north by coastal cur
rents. Studies indicate virtually all
the sand on the southwest Wash
ington coast came from the river.
But during the past half-century,
much of the Columbia has been
tamed by dams that created a net
work of slack-water pools. The sand
flow has dropped by nearly 70 per
cent, and its movement north is im
peded by a river-mouth jetty built to
help large-vessel travel.
The prospect of chronic beach
erosion has some people calling
for a fundamental rethinking of
yearly dredge disposal at the
mouth of the Columbia. Rather
than dump at sea, corps critics say,
it's time for a more aggressive —
and more expensive — effort to get
sand into the surf zone or directly
up onto the shrinking beaches.
"We're looking at some 20 years
until we get to a critical point —
but if we wait to do anything un
til then, it will probably be too
late," said George Kaminsky, a
Washington Department of
Ecology geologist.
Even with less sand washing
down from inland reaches, the riv
er mouth still clogs with sedi
ments. Most of the sand now
moves in from the offshore
seafloor, according to Kaminsky,
who coordinates a long-term
study of the southwest Washing
ton coastline.
Turn to Dumpsite, page 5B
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