Sierra Club Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Founded in 1892 by conservationist, explorer, and naturalist John Muir, the Sierra Club has become one of the most prominent environmental organizations in the United States with more than 700,000 members. It also has affiliations in Canada (Sierra Club of Canada, founded in 1963) and a Sierra Club Student Coalition (founded in 1991). The U.S. Sierra Club organization consists of a nationally run chapter, chapters in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, as well as hundreds of local and regional groups.

The Sierra Club organizes two main programs: The first promotes the use of political action to protect wilderness areas and the natural environment; the second encourages and facilitates outdoor activities, such as hiking and camping. Since its creation in the late 19th century, the national Sierra Club organization has engaged in a growing number of political campaigns related to the environment, including its current initiatives of increasing the nation’s alternative energy sources to address the concerns of global warming and air pollution, promoting safe and healthy communities through the attainment of cleaner air and water, and protecting the nation’s wildlife and natural landscapes.

Local Sierra Club groups also take on other specific environmental and social campaigns that are more closely related to local political, economic, and development concerns. In 2002, for example, the Central Ohio Group launched an aggressive campaign to stop sewer overflows that release untreated sewage into local rivers in Columbus, Ohio.

Strategies employed by the Sierra Club include litigation to enforce environmental regulations (such as the Clean Water Act), lobbying Congress, letter writing, public protests, political rallies, and community outreach and education. The Sierra Club and its tactics are generally considered to be more mainstream approaches to environmental activism, as opposed to extreme or violent methods of political action utilized by other environmental groups.

“The Trouble With Wilderness”

The Sierra Club is widely known for its political activism with respect to environmental concerns, however, the organization (like many environmental organizations) is also important in shaping public perceptions and understanding of nature and society. For example, rhetoric used by the Sierra Club in its environmental campaigns and initiatives frequently refers to “wilderness” areas, protection of “wild places,” and society’s “connection to nature.” Drawing upon its founder’s conservationist vision, the Sierra Club advocates the creation and protection of public lands, wildlife refuges, and protected areas, where human impact on the physical environment is minimized or even eliminated.

Environmental efforts such as these have come under criticism from some scholars for their illusions of preserving an untouched, pristine nature. In his essay “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature,” for example, William Cronon claims that this appeal to save an external, good, and untouched nature (that of “wilderness”) creates and reinforces views of nature as an idea or object that is external to humans and society. This has reinforced a romantic nature/culture dichotomy that actually inhibits the environmental movement through its portrayal of humans as the very enemy from which nature must be protected. At the same time, that which is not wilderness (such as the urban landscape) becomes less important in the environmental protection movement.

Cronon’s claims have been refuted by the Sierra Club and other scholars, including Bill Willers. In his essay, “The Trouble with Cronon,” Willers argues that Cronon fails to recognize the “biological significance of wilderness” and the “philosophical truth” of nature’s inherent right to exist. As such, the group disagrees with the critique of the Sierra Club’s treatment of the environment and society posed by Cronon and others. The Sierra Club has continued to wage successful battles against environmental degradation and pollution in various political arenas, from national to local levels, in both “wild” and urban places, and is an important force in environmental policy making.

Global Population Debates

The Sierra Club has also received attention and criticism regarding its global population and environment program. Currently, the Sierra Club’s population program includes the promotion of family planning initiatives around the world and public education about reducing individual consumption levels to decrease pressures on natural resources that occur with increasing population.

These programs became especially contentious with respect to immigration and migration in the mid-1990s when the Sierra Club voted not to take an official position on U.S. immigration policy. This decision came under heavy criticism from individuals and organizations that believe U.S. population growth, which is driven largely by immigration, should be controlled. Critics argued that if the Sierra Club did not take a position on U.S. immigration, the result was a de facto pro-growth policy in the United States. Because individual consumption levels are among the highest in the world in the United States, critics contend that population growth there has a particularly high impact on resource use and consumption worldwide. However, the club’s immigration policy remains neutral on immigration as of 2006.

The Sierra Club’s initiatives, campaigns, and programs vary widely from remote wildlife protection to stopping urban water pollution. From wilderness protection to immigration policy, an environmental group such as the Sierra Club concerns society in nearly every position. It has significantly shaped both public perceptions and public policy in the United States and beyond.

Bibliography:

William Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness: Or Getting Back to the Wrong Nature,” in William Cronon, , Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature (W.W. Norton, 1995);
Frederick B. Meyerson, “Immigration, Population Policy and the Sierra Club,” Population and Environment (v.26/1, 2004);
James D. Proctor, “The Social Construction of Nature: Relativist Accusations, Pragmatist and Critical Responses,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers (v.88/3, 1998);
Sierra Club, www.sierraclub.org;
Willers, “The Trouble With Cronon,” Wild Earth (6, 1996);
Ben Zuckerman, “The Sierra Club Immigration Debate: National Implications,” Population and Environment (v.20/5, 1999).