The Supreme Court’s Corporate Money “Decision” By Carl Safina
The modern environmental movement originated as a response to
unregulated pollution. But more important than its origin, even
more important than the movement itself, is when and where that
origin was possible. Environmental movements arose not in the
most polluted places on Earth, but in the most democratic,
including the United States, Canada, and western Europe. The
growth of environmental activity elsewhere often paralleled the
overthrow of authoritarian and military regimes and the rise of
democracies. When Vaclav Havel became president of a newly
democratic Czechoslovakia in 1990, he lamented to the Czech
people, “We have laid waste to our soil and the rivers and
forests… and we have the worst environment in the whole of
Europe today.” The previous repressive regime’s suppression of
citizen groups, the press, universities, and other potential
sources of objection allowed it to pollute with impunity while
people stood powerless. Nature is most