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“They Damaged
Themselves” Tom Knudson, Two-time Pulitzer Prize Winner Commenting on His
16-Month Sacramento Bee Investigation of Environmental Organizations
SACRAMENTO, CA - Tom Knudson is not the first journalist to
do an about face where the environmental industry is concerned, but he has
certainly created the biggest ruckus in quite some time.
Knudson, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, blew the lid off
contemporary environmentalism in a five-part Sacramento
Bee series that began April 22 – ironically, Earth Day.
“Environment, Inc.” might well win Mr. Knudson his third Pulitzer.
Short of that his penetrating series has already prompted calls for a
congressional investigation of the fund raising practices of several
non-for-profit organizations that he concedes seem more interested in
promoting conflict than in resolving publicly contentious environmental
issues.
Simple curiosity prompted Mr. Knudson to begin his 16-month
investigation in late 1999. What he found is only partly revealed in his
series. Some insiders he interviewed would talk only on condition of
anonymity. But he was nonetheless able to unearth a Byzantine funding
structure that has transformed old-fashioned concern for the planet earth
into a multi-billion dollar industry that is increasingly disconnected
from the public interests it purports to serve. “I got curious about what goes on
inside these groups,” Mr. Knudson said yesterday in a lengthy telephone
interview. “Journalists have a responsibility to scrutinize all
institutions of power, including government, industry and now
environmentalism, which seems to have become an industry. They’ve
accumulated a lot of power over the last few years. There are more groups
and they are more boisterous. I wanted to learn what I could about their
fundraising practices.” What unfolds is a story that could
easily be made into a television mini-series, complete with Washington
insiders willing to privately concede that their organizations are out of
touch. Even the titles chosen for the five-part series speak volumes of
Mr. Knudson’s discoveries: “Price of Power, Cause or commerce?
Strongest suit, Apocalypse now and Hope not hype” trace
environmentalism’s transformation from neighborhood activist to global
powerhouse. “I heard some very powerful
stories,” he said of an investigation that he estimates cost the Sacramento Bee at least $100,000. “A lot of the material I
gathered was never used because I was given to me in confidence. But it
did serve its purpose by reinforcing the conclusions we drew in the
series.” Mr. Knudson’s remarkable series
is made even more remarkable by the fact that his second Pulitzer – won
in 1992 – was for a hard-hitting series that, among
other things, took the
timber industry to task for harvesting practices then in use in
California’s Sierra Nevada range. Though some readers felt the series
was overly critical of harvesting practices, Mr. Knudson defends the old
series, noting his perception that the timber industry was “in denial”
in much the same way he says environmentalists are now. “Times were different then,” he
said. “Some logging was pretty reckless. But there have been dramatic
changes. State and federal regulations seem to have curbed the old abuses,
but environmentalists either don’t recognize the progress that has been
made or they don’t want to admit that it has occurred. The same old
find-a-new-enemy find-a-new-crisis rhetoric continues, apparently for its
own sake.” Since his series was published, Mr.
Knudson has received more than 900 e-mail notes from readers. Most who
write are complimentary, but a few accuse him of betrayal, suggesting that
he has done irreparable harm to environmental causes. “They damaged themselves,” he
says, “by conducting their affairs in very unappealing ways, by being
very ungracious in victory and by failing to recognize that industries can
be a good environmental stewards too.” Of all of Mr. Knudson’s
discoveries none surprised him more than the ability of some environmental
groups to “cover their fund raising trails.” He said close scrutiny of
their federal tax returns reveals some groups are spending two and three
times as much money on fund raising as they report to donors. Some groups,
he said, don’t meet voluntary
financial standards set by independent charity watchdog groups. Equally troubling for Mr. Knudson
was his discovery that environmentalists And according to Mr. Knudson, many insiders are
worried about what he describes as “the non-stop stream of crisis
making” embodied in direct mail appeals to well meaning contributors
“There is now a fear that the public is jaded and will not respond in a
time of real environmental crisis – like the boy who cried wolf one too
many times,” he explained. Mr. Knudson concedes he is deeply
troubled by what he has witnessed in the rural West in recent years, by
the economic collapse of entire timber and farming communities that have
found themselves in the crosshairs of environmental lawyers and lobbyists.
“Conservation that excludes
people cannot survive in the long run,” he observes. “It must
recognize and work with those who provide resources. I think rural people
have often been treated horribly and arrogantly. It is no wonder so many
are so angry.” But Mr. Knudson’s often
frustrating story is not without a happy ending – or at least the
makings of one. He thinks he may have found environmentalism’s new
frontier, and he likes what he sees. “The creativity and energy that I
found in very small, usually rural groups that no one ever heard of was
very refreshing,” he says. “Given the opportunity, people with very
different points of view are able to solve complex and often controversial
environmental problems. They’re doing great work. Clearly, conservation
is at a crossroads. The only question is will the doers and problem
solvers take over or will those with vested interests in stirring up new
conflicts maintain control.”
[Click
here to read Mr. Knudson’s entire series]
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