The smell is pungent, a mix of manure and sawdust. Past the domed silos and chicken wire fences, a hilly patchwork of fields and tilled earth stretches into the distance. Humps appear and disappear behind the row of mooing cows, as a large fluffy animal darts in front of the silos. Something tha looks more like a muppet than a mare is lazily lying in the grass.
By the end of the decade, the word "green" may have a whole new meaning when applied to the environmental world. This green refers to money and economic growth, and environmentalists are out to prove that it is not as incompatible with its agenda as the business press, right wing think thanks and anti-green movements would make you think.
In the weeks after the Exxon Valdez struck in Bligh Reef and spilled 11 million gallons of oil across the Prince William Sound, who could doubt that this drunk boating accident was anything less than a horrific disaster? Jeff Wheelwright, for one.
The market for environmental books has changed considerably since the surge of green books sales that followed the watershed of Earth Day 1990. While the large New York trade book companies have withdrawn from what they see as a glutted market, specialty houses are thriving by filling a niche that has branched into a diverse array of topical estuaries.
Giggling and nervous, the young boys in eagle headdresses, feathers, and jingling deerskin boots swooped across the makeshift stage. At their backs, a diffident corps of Walatowan drummers pounded out a thudding beat on their massive instruments. Mischievous four-year-olds slipped on the roadie’s headphones and bobbed their heads to the music. Across the gym, a passing boy playfully mugged for a string of Nikons and videocams, while others flashed peace signs to the crowd. The kids were clearly amused by the media attention, the famous rock stars and their musical gear. But to the New Mexican pueblo village, the concert promised much more: Folk-rockers the Indigo Girls and Native American activist Winona LaDuke were there to help them raise money for consciousness, and to defend their land and culture from a new form of cavalry charge.
Chuck Leavell is used to getting applause. After all, as the keyboard player with the Rolling Stones on the Voodoo Lounge world tour, he performs in front of cheering throngs every night. But last april Leavell made another group stand up and cheer – The National Arbor Day Foundation. When he’s not sharing the stage with the Stones, Eric Clapton, or The Allman Brothers, Leavell can be found on his 1,500 acre tree plantation in Twiggs County near Macon, Georgia. He takes such good care of his trees that the Foundation gave him its 1995 Good Steward Award.
Federal agents and environmental activists are working scared, thanks to physical threats from right-wing extremists backed up by sympathetic local officials. Over the past 18 months, anti-government vigilantes, from the militias to conservative "Wise Use" groups, have threatened and intimidated their perceived enemies in Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Texas, and Idaho.
After Barbara Niehauser put new white siding on her Cincinnati, Ohio, home three years ago, it soon showed signs of blackening – again. "My Neighbor asked,’Whats wrong with your house?’" Niehauser recalls. "I told her, ‘It’s the buses.’" Belching diesel buses stopping and starting right in front of Niehauser’s house used to emit murky clouds of exhaust.
Amid the ultra-hip demimonde of New York City’s nightclub scene, Larry Bloch has established Wetland Preserve as a home for satisfying live rock and roll shows – and the only such venue for the environmentally-concerned. Dozens of activist flyers covering the walls and a VW bus full of eco-conscious paraphernalia top club-goers off to the nature of the place. Above the threshold, a sign reads, "We Labour to Birth Our Dance with the Earth."
Devestating bombs. Defoliating chemicals. Nuclear wase. Is a "green" military possible? Probably not, but from restoring sand dunes to "bioremediating" contamindated soils with turkey manure, the U.S. Department of Defense has started to make enviornmental conservation part of its mission.
