Dear HCN,
I read with interest Ray
Ring’s article on environmentalism in Montana (HCN, 12/17/01: Bad
moon rising) and have followed the comments others have made. Mr.
Ring and all the writers make good points, but they all miss one
reason environmental concerns have lost local support. To use
Clinton’s campaign motto – “It’s the economy,
stupid!”
The economic conditions in Montana now
are different than those that existed in the 1970s, when I was
growing up there. Then, the economy was stronger and there was more
support for environmental protection. Montana has failed to
diversify its economy and is still too dependent on the declining
extractive industries of agriculture, logging and mining. The
balance of Montana’s population feels the economic impact of the
decline of the extractive industries and they are looking for some
reason that things have changed for the worse. It is difficult to
see and understand some of the shifts in the national and worldwide
economy when you live in an area as isolated as Montana. This
leaves the general population feeling that things are out of their
control, hence the rise in the popularity of anti-government
sentiments and conspiracy theories.
The
environmental movement has focused so much on the fight over what
we are against that we have not done a good job of communicating
what we are attempting to create. Consequently, people negatively
impacted by environmental protection easily accept the
characterizations of environmentalists that opposing forces
present. In economically depressed areas such as Montana,
environmental-protection policies need to be tied to
economic-growth policies for the efforts to succeed. Nothing is
going to improve until local leadership helps the rural areas move
into the current economy, promotes education (unlike the current
governor of Montana) and restores faith in government by not
favoring the industries that extract natural resources but do not
leave capital and profits in the state.
Mark Spinti
Sandy,
Utah
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline ‘It’s (Montana’s) economy, stupid!’.
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