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Article Reprints:

Peter Schwartz

Don't trade man for nature Boise Idaho Statesman, Apr 22, 1999

Abstract:
This July, Edwards Dam, a small hydroelectric facility on the Kennebec River in Augusta, Maine, will be torn down by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Environmentalists often declare their philosophy openly. For example, David Graber, an environmentalist with the National Parks Service, described himself as among those who "value wilderness for its own sake, not for what value it confers upon mankind. ... We are not interested in the utility of a particular species, of free-flowing river, or ecosystem to mankind. They have intrinsic value, more value - to me - than another human body, or a billion of them."
(Copyright 1999 The Idaho Statesman)

Full Text:
For the first time in American history, the government is ordering the destruction of a dam - for environmental reasons.

This July, Edwards Dam, a small hydroelectric facility on the Kennebec River in Augusta, Maine, will be torn down by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Its crime? It is blocking the path of fish that swim upstream to spawn.

As recounted in a N.Y. Times article, "the hindrance the Edwards Dam posed to migratory fish outweighed the benefit it provided in electric generation."

On Earth Day, it is worth noting this event, for it illuminates the essential meaning of environmentalism. The closing of Edwards Dam is the implementation of environmentalism's fundamental, though often unrecognized, tenet: that man ought to be sacrificed for the sake of nature.

The common view of environmentalism is that its goal is the betterment of mankind - that it wants to purify our air and clean up our parks so that we can live healthier and happier lives. But that is a very superficial interpretation.

When environmentalists are faced with a conflict between the "interests" of nature and those of man, it is man who is invariably sacrificed.

The requirements of human life are not the standard by which environmentalists make their judgments.

Environmentalists often declare their philosophy openly. For example, David Graber, an environmentalist with the National Parks Service, described himself as among those who "value wilderness for its own sake, not for what value it confers upon mankind. ... We are not interested in the utility of a particular species, of free-flowing river, or ecosystem to mankind. They have intrinsic value, more value - to (sic.) me - than another human body, or a billion of them."

The environmentalist goal, in other words, is to protect nature, not for man, but from man.

Human beings survive by reshaping nature to fulfill their needs. Every single step taken to advance beyond the cave - every rock fashioned into a tool, every square foot of barren earth made into productive cropland, every drop of crude petroleum transformed into fuel for cars and planes - constitutes an improvement in human life, achieved by altering our natural environment.

Litter-free streets or pollution-free air - or any provable benefit to man - is not what environmentalists seek.

Their aim is to eliminate the benefits of the man-made in order to preserve - unchanged - nature's animals, plants and dirt.

Earth Day is an appropriate occasion for challenging the environmentalists' philosophy. It can be the occasion for recognizing the Earth as a value - not in and of itself, but only insofar as it is continually reshaped by man to serve his ends.

Peter Schwartz, editor and contributing author of "Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution," is chairman of the board of the Ayn Rand Institute.

Credit: Knight-Ridder Newspapers

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