An Environmental Program You Should Consider Supporting

Opinion by Clifford C. Nichols, Attorney at Law
for Sierra Times

9/8/03

What do you think of the environmentalist left?

Do you think theyre a threat, or just infuriating?

At the Sterling Environmental Institute, Inc. we think they are a threat. Look at just two of the thousands of outrageous comments some environmentalist groups have made within the last year:

We monitor timber sales, grazing and mining permits, oil and gas leasing, and other threats. We work to prevent these abuses through strategic appeals and litigation.(emphasis added)

The Forest GuardiansWeb Site

[T]rees bring up water from beneath the surface and release it at and above the surface. Every time that I have been aware of that ranchers have removed the trees to improve grazing the result has been more drout [sic].

Environmentalist's letter to the Sterling Environmental Institute.

Obviously, people who would make, much less seriously believe, such statements represent only a minority of Americans. So you may be tempted to shrug them off.

But what's going on is just the tip of a very dangerous iceberg that has been building up for more than 30 years. Radicals are increasingly successful at recruiting young people who have been steeped in lies and other scare tactics about the environment all their lives.

It used to be the case that children in this country were brought up to revere the institutions and values of productive and enterprising business people, to identify with their customs and traditions, to take pride in their extraordinary achievements, and to venerate a national work ethic that brought into existence the very economic power the United States of America enjoys today.

But many of the schoolchildren and college students of today are taught to believe that the needs of human beings deserve no preference over other species in our environment, and that, with respect to the environment, corporate America has as much to answer for as it has to be proud of.

Worst of all, students are frequently taught that any industry that retrieves and puts to productive use any of this Country's natural resources is somehow inherently evil and must be stopped at any cost.

This kind of thinking could very well end up destroying not only the industries these children are being taught to attack, but the future of this Country's economic prosperity that many like you have worked so very hard over your lifetime to create.

To reverse this trend in our children's education, the Sterling Environmental Institute has implemented a national program based upon the following principle: The environment is that place in which we must all learn to live together.

First and foremost, Sterling is dedicated to avoiding the common pitfall of preaching to the choir. For that reason, Sterling aggressively takes its message and programs directly to the public-at-large and invites the average voting citizen to participate in a learning process intended to help re-establish a moral compass for America.

To accomplish this purpose, Sterling promotes a free exchange of ideas among all citizens on issues, laws and policies pertaining to the environment. The objective: to encourage the evolution of a national public consensus that is based upon facts and common sense rather than upon emotion and false science.

By virtue of this process, we at Sterling believe that over time the public will become better educated as to how various environmental policies and laws both can and do affect not only their individual prosperity, but that of our nation as well. Second, as a result of the publics increased analytic awareness of the issues, the average citizen will become increasingly able to recognize and avoid those who, under a cloak of environmental rhetoric, would enlist the publics support of programs that in reality abuse our well-intentioned environmental laws and policies.

To stimulate this national free flow of ideas Sterling uses the following powerful` tools to bring to the publics attention facts about the environment, free enterprise and the productive use of natural resources facts that young people used to learn before political correctness took over:

1. The Sterling Report - A constantly updated web page located at www.waterforthewest.org. It is devoted to making available to the public the most recent local, national and global environmental news, together with Sterlings thought provoking commentary;

2. The Message Forums - These are forums available to anyone visiting www.waterforthewest.org. They are designed to allow people throughout the nation to engage in interactive discussions and debates on a number of current environmental issues and topics;

3. The Sterling Billboard and - This campaign consists of professionally designed Magazine Ad Campaign advertisements placed in a variety of prominent national and local publications and on billboards located on major highways throughout this country. Both are expressly intended to: (i) stimulate public thought and debate on controversial environmental issues and topics; and (ii) invite the public to visit the waterforthewest.org were they can obtain additional information if they choose; and

4. The Sterling Newsletter - This electronic newsletter is used to; (i) contact and educate people throughout the nation about developing environmental issues as they may occur; (ii) analyze for the public's benefit the costs and benefits of the environmental issues and policies upon which they may have to decide or vote; and (iii) again, direct the public's attention to the waterforthewest.org web site where they may obtain a further education on these environmental policies and issues should they need additional information.

In Summary, the Sterling Environmental Institute is committed to taking an aggressive public stand in one of the most important battles in America today -- the fight for our free-enterprise based society against those who both hate it and want to destroy it. And it is doing so by reclaiming public opinion. For where goes public opinion, there goes also public policy close behind.

To help us in this endeavor, we invite you to participate. Please consider visiting us regularly at www.waterforthewest.org and at the same time seriously consider making a periodic contribution to financially support the continuation of our unique, exciting and important work.

And, to those among you who already are participating and supporting our efforts, we at Sterling Environmental Institute extend to you our most sincere and heartfelt appreciation.

Clifford Nichols is an attorney in Albuquerque, NM. He can be contacted by phone at 505-243-4682, or by mail at 300 Central Avenue SW, Suite 2500 West, Albuquerque, NM 87102.

(One of the ads for Water for the West follows:)