Celebrity Environmentalists:
Who is, who isn’t?
What do Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Leonardo DiCaprio, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Cameron Diaz have in common? They are all celebrity environmentalists who live their lives to protect the resources on this planet. Not only do celebrity environmentalists improve the earth’s sustainability by driving hybrid cars and living in “green” houses, their name recognition brings notoriety to the cause. In contrast, it was disappointing that another celebrity environmentalist, Al Gore, did not step up to denounce a proposal that would have degraded the resources and experiences in Everglades National Park and Biscayne National Park.
Everglades Betrayal – The Issue that Defeated Al Gore details the strategies and consequences that the former Vice President used to bring about a win in undecided Florida during the 2000 presidential election. Unfortunately, one of those strategies disillusioned his conservation-minded supporters who were hungry for him to stop the proposal to build an airport at the former Homestead Air Force Base. Of all the celebrity environmentalists to have on board, Al Gore was the one who was able to influence the outcome. As depicted in the pages of Everglades Betrayal, it was too bad that he delayed his convictions in order to gain endorsement from the revered Miami-Dade County mayor who supported building the airport. Even John McCain opposed the development of a commercial airport, although he may not have known it at the time. He introduced a bill designed to curtail noisy touring flights over the Grand Canyon by requiring implementation of minimum altitudes, flight corridors, and curfews over national parks.
Readers of Everglades Betrayal will understand the issue from its beginning when Hurricane Andrew destroyed the base and Miami-Dade County proposed its redevelopment into an international airport. From there, not-so-celebrity environmentalists launched one of the most expensive resource preservation fights in history. The only celebrity environmentalist they counted on was Al Gore, and Everglades Betrayal describes the series of events that culminated with the final decision being rendered three days before George Bush took office.
The Everglades Betrayal – The Issue that Defeated Al Gore is now available to you online.
