Closing Statement - Earth Day at 40, a Look Forward

• Author: Leslie Carothers
• Position: President
• Pages: 60-60

Page 60 ❧ THE ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM Copyright © 2010, Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org.

Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, May/June 2010

ELI Report

This year’s Earth Day celebration

inspired a number of special oc-

casions to ref‌lect on where the envi-

ronmental movement has been and

where it is going. ese included

the f‌irst annual meeting of the EPA

Alumni Association and a White

House Conference on America’s

Great Outdoors. Here at ELI, we

held a Board of Directors meeting

to review our mission and an Earth

Day reunion of over 100 veteran

staf‌f and supporters.

Headlining the EPA alumni gath-

ering was William Ruckelshaus, the

agency’s f‌irst and fourth administra-

tor. As an agency alumna who served

under him in the early days, I enjoyed

hearing Ruckelshaus ref‌lect on taking

over a new organization responsible for

carrying out a stack of laws comparable

in their economic and social impact

to the New Deal. In his trademark

dry and humorous style, Ruckelshaus

recalled learning early on that EPA’s ac-

tions made almost everyone — except

on good days the public — mad about

something. President Nixon’s business

supporters did not much like what

was coming out of EPA. Even Walter

Cronkite complained about having to

install a holding tank on his boat.

On the positive side, Ruckelshaus

cited his ability to hire the best people,

without much interference from the

White House; the advent of color TV

to bring home to citizens the ugly

impacts of pollution; and the ability

to deploy major public funding as well

as tough legal duties and deadlines to

move foot-dragging municipalities to-

ward cleanup of their wastewater.

He also stressed the importance of

leadership at all levels. Ruckelshaus

serves as Chair of the Puget Sound

Partnership, a broad-based organiza-

tion promoting collaborative solutions

to protect the waterbody from the

impact of coastal and watershed devel-

opment. He pointed to the example of

two local leaders who came together

to help their community hammer out

a plan to control runof‌f in one of the

ecosystems af‌fecting water quality and

habitat in Puget Sound. Of course, his

own leadership in and out of govern-

ment sets a f‌ine standard.

At the White House Conference,

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, the

host, was happy to be upstaged by his

boss, President Obama, who thrilled

the audience of 500 conservation-

minded individuals and leaders of

organizations from around the country

by “just showing up,” as one of them

put it. But he also had a message for

the group. Remembering President

eodore Roosevelt’s White House

meeting on conservation a century

ago, Obama called for action and

collaboration to protect our national

landscape, to increase opportunities for

outdoor recreation for everyone, and

to reach out to Americans to reconnect

them to their natural heritage.

Like Ruckelshaus, the president

stressed the role of leadership, especial-

ly grassroots leadership in all sectors, in

f‌inding solutions and opportunities for

consensus. Even in times of crisis, he

concluded, we are “called to take the

long view.” Salazar and Agriculture De-

partment Secretary Tom Vilsack mod-

erated panels on conserving working

lands and energizing citizens, followed

by small group discussions to exchange

ideas on how to form the necessary

partnerships to make progress.

Many of these same themes

were prominent in the discussion

of ELI’s vision and mission at the

recent meeting of our board, which

included several staf‌f members. e

participants wrestled with various

formulations of a vision statement

incorporating goals of environmental

health, economic prosperity, and

social justice. And they focused on

what ELI has contributed and should

contribute to bringing about the de-

sired future state.

Much of ELI’s agenda in fact re-

sponds to the continuing needs high-

lighted in Ruckelshaus’s remarks. We

strive to provide the highest quality of

education and publications for people

in the environmental profession; to

foster dialogue about environmental

law, science, values, and choices with

the profession and the broader public;

and to perform research and analysis

drawing upon the best thinking in

all sectors, to come up with practical

governance tools — those carrots and

sticks — that can change the behavior

of individuals and institutions in a

positive direction.

As Ruckelshaus and Obama agreed,

what the country needs are more lead-

ers who are ready and able to work

with others to bring about change. A

big part of ELI’s continuing mission is

to equip those leaders with the ideas,

and the experience of working with

other stakeholders, necessary to be ef-

fective. ELI’s own remarkable band of

alumni, board members, staf‌f, partners,

and volunteers who came together

to celebrate this Earth Day are living

proof that we are helping to foster that

kind of leadership both inside our hall-

ways and outside our doors.

Closing Statement

Earth Day at 40, a Look Forward

Leslie Carothers

President