As aging green heroes, these former rads have coddled up to the very groups they used to revile as spineless sell-outs and have taken money from the same foundations they used to denounce as agents of big oil. It's all about getting big. And the budgets of the big environmental groups have bloomed since Bush got into the White House. The national Sierra Club now has more than 500 professional staffers. That's more than the timber industry and mining trade groups combined. Carl Pope, the Sierra Club's CEO, makes about $100,000 a year-or $96,000 more than the per capita income on the Sioux's Pine Ridge reservation, where 8 out of 10 adults are unemployed.
Yet, bigger isn't necessarily better. Go ask Enron and Worldcom.
Grassroots greens are getting angry as they've experienced the big groups undercut them time after time. "The actions of the Sierra Club and Wilderness Society in the Black Hills reinforces the accusations by the wise-use community that the environmental movement lacks integrity and accountability," says Denise Boggs of the Utah Environmental Congress. "This is yet one more shameful example of the Sierra Club and Wilderness Society looking out for their political connections instead of for the land and wildlife that must actually live with the repercussions of their deal cutting."
Yet, bigger isn't necessarily better. Go ask Enron and Worldcom.
Grassroots greens are getting angry as they've experienced the big groups undercut them time after time. "The actions of the Sierra Club and Wilderness Society in the Black Hills reinforces the accusations by the wise-use community that the environmental movement lacks integrity and accountability," says Denise Boggs of the Utah Environmental Congress. "This is yet one more shameful example of the Sierra Club and Wilderness Society looking out for their political connections instead of for the land and wildlife that must actually live with the repercussions of their deal cutting."