Environmental Activism:
A Case Study
Environmental activism is getting more attention than it used to. Today the world is filled with pleas to be “green” by purchasing eco-friendly products and reducing impacts to the earth. Taken a step further, environmental activism involves speaking out against threats to our earth. Environmental activism can be practiced individually or through membership in groups. There are many groups with environmental activism as their mission. The Sierra Club (the nation’s oldest), the National Parks and Conservation Association, the National Audubon Society, and the Natural Resources Defense Council are a few.
Everglades Betrayal – The Issue that Defeated Al Gore is a case study of these groups and countless individuals joining together in an eight-year battle to protect Biscayne National Park and Everglades National Park from the degradation that would have occurred if the proposal to build an airport between the two natural treasures had gone forward. Everglades Betrayal begins when Hurricane Andrew destroyed the Homestead Air Force Base in south Florida. In record time, the environmental impact study concluded that the proposed airport would not negatively impact the nearby resources. Astute individuals noticed egregious errors in the documents and launched one of the most complex and expensive examples of environmental activism in history.
Everglades Betrayal takes readers through the intricacies of this struggle and shows the inner workings of the groups and agencies involved. It reveals the strategies that both sides used and the tools that were employed. In this case study, those strategies were carried out locally and nationally. Anyone interested in environmental activism, land use planning, public land management, or the politics of south Florida that influenced the 2000 presidential election will find Everglades Betrayal interesting.
Everglades Betrayal is an outstanding example of environmental activism by individuals, agencies, and private groups. In the end, environmental activism carried out, and the earth was spared from another assault.
The Everglades Betrayal – The Issue that Defeated Al Gore is now available to you online.
