ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE 430

ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCACY AND LEADERSHIP  

Fall Session 1998

 

COURSE TITLE: ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCACY AND LEADERSHIP

TIME & PLACE: Grant Hall 313 TTh 10:30-12:50

INSTRUCTOR: Gregory G. Brown

OFFICE: 317 Grant Hall

PHONE: 564-8267

EMAIL: gregb@alaskapacific.edu

OFFICE HOURS: TBA

 

A. Prerequisite:

Junior standing or consent of instructor.

 B. Course Precepts:

  "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed

citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever

does."

Margaret Mead

 

We live in a pluralistic society. Competing interests as manifested in "interest groups" or "advocacy groups" compete for the attention and discretion of political officials, bureaucrats, the media, and the general public. The extent to which these groups serve the needs of a democratic society is an important question with no clear answer. For better or worse, the fact remains that interest groups play a pivotal role in the functioning of the American political system. To be effective in the political process, we must learn to understand, participate in, and perhaps even appreciate the interest group system.

Interest groups proliferate where there are perceived economic gains and losses and where competing ideologies clash. This leaves few facets of government immune from the oversight and potential influence of groups that believe their members' interests can be furthered through activities such as lobbying, research and investigations, political canvassing, educational programs, and media campaigns. There are also individuals and groups that choose to work outside the system to achieve their goals, for example, through direct action and civil disobedience.

It was once believed that natural resource and environmental management was above the vagaries of interest group politics. Resource allocation and regulatory decisions could be determined "scientifically" by professionals without the need to articulate the values that such decisions represent. This view of natural resource and environmental management still receives much lip service today but an objective view suggests a very different scenario. Interest groups, and in some cases, prominent individuals, can and do routinely shape environmental and natural resource policies. Environmental or natural resource advocacy, the championing of various natural resource and environmental values, is the arena in which all participants, from politicians to managers to ordinary citizens, eventually find themselves.

C. Objectives:

 

  1. To develop an understanding of the role of interest groups in our society—the pervasiveness, proliferation, and effectiveness of these groups in influencing public policy in environmental and natural resource management.
  2. To critically examine some of the existing natural resource and environmental interest groups by examining these interest groups' ideologies, constituencies, organizational structure, resources, activities, and methods of action.
  3. To learn how to use the various state and federal laws that provide citizen access to important information about government activity. This includes the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and various state public disclosure laws often referred to as "Sunshine" laws.
  4. To learn how to use the various state and federal laws that provide citizen access to important information about government activity. This includes the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and various state public disclosure laws often referred to as "Sunshine" laws.
  5. To learn how to effectively use the public hearings process to the participant's advantage.
  6. To develop an understanding of the limits and conflicts of being employed as a natural resource or environmental professional and engaging in advocacy.
  7. To learn the tasks of environmental and natural resource advocates. Specifically, students will learn one or more of the following: How to start and organize an advocacy group, conduct an investigation of an issue, communicate with political representatives, develop a media campaign, engage in various fund-raising activities, and speak in public.

  

E. Required Textbooks:

  The Monkeywrench Gang. Edward Abbey. Avon Books. 1975.

High County News. A Biweekly Publication. Edited by Ed Marston. ($7)

Back Issues: http://www.infosphere.com/hcn

Enough is Enough: The Hellraiser's Guide to Community Activism. Diane Maceachern. Avon Books. 1994.

Readings/Books on Reserve

 F. Grading

  Students will learn about effective advocacy by reading and writing about advocacy issues and by observing or participating in advocacy events. Grades will reflect student efforts in the following areas: 1) reading assigned materials, 2) attending class, 3) completing written assignments, 4) observing/participating in advocacy events, and 5) comprehension of advocacy concepts (exams). Specifically, grade allocation will be based on the following:

20% Attendance and Classroom participation

(no more than 2 unexcused absences allowed)

30% Written assignments

30% Exams

20% Advocacy participation/observation

Readings will be assigned each week. Students should come prepared to discuss the readings in class. Failure to prepare for class by not reading the assigned readings will be considered an absence since the student cannot meaningfully participate in the discussion.

There will be 8-10 written assignments/papers. The majority of these assignments will involve the analysis of an advocacy campaign/issue. There will be a specific assignments on using the Freedom of Information Act and on analyzing public hearings. Students will be required to attend at least one public hearing during the course of a semester to complete the public hearings assignment.

Students are encouraged to observe and/or participate in advocacy campaigns and to report on what they experienced.

  

Environmental Science 430

ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCACY AND LEADERSHIP

 Schedule of Seminar Topics and Readings

 

  1. Introduction to Environmental Advocacy

 

Oct 1: Introduction. Why Study Advocacy?

 Oct 6,8: The Origins of Advocacy: Philosophical and Ideological Foundations

 

      1. Grass Roots. Introduction and Chapter. 1 pp. 1-58.
      2. Enough is Enough. Introduction and Chapter 1,2. Pp. 1-28.
      3. Video: Culture Clash. The Hegins Pigeon Shoot.
      4. "Determined Opposition: The Wise Use Movement Challenges Environmentalism." Phil Brick. Environment. 1995. Vol. 37, No. 8 pp. 17-42.
      5. Chapter 1, "Getting Trashed," by Ron Arnold and Alan Gottlieb. In Trashing the Economy: How Runaway Environmentalism is Wrecking America, 1994 (2nd Edition). Bellevue, WA: Free Enterprise Press.
      6. Monkeywrench Gang. Pp. 1-66

 

II. Information Access and Public Hearings

Oct 13,15: Tools of Information Access

 

  1. Freedom of Information Act
      1. Reading: Freedom of Information Act Handbook, Dept. of Interior

        2. http://www.usdoj.gov/04foia/handbook.htm

      2. Reading: U.S. DOJ Regulations for Implementing FOIA

        3. http://www.usdoj.gov/foia/foia0601.htm

      3. Reading: Reference Guide to the Freedom of Information Act

http://www.usdoj.gov/04foia/04_3.html
      1. State Public Disclosure Laws
      2. Case Study. "Phantom Forests" - using the FOIA to access information about the forest planning process.
      3. Monkeywrench Gang. Pp. 67-128

 

Assignment #1. Preparation of FOIA request.

Oct 20,22: Public Hearing Strategies and Procedures

 

      1. Public Hearings Procedures and Strategies. Jean Mater. Chapters 4-8 pp. 47-217.

 

Assignment #2. Preparation of a Fact Sheet.

 

III. Participants, Strategies, Tactics

 

Oct 27,29: Grass Roots Tactics, Ballot Initiatives, Campaigns

      1. Grass Roots, Chapter 2, pp. 59-121.
      2. Enough is Enough, Chapter 3, pp. 29-85.
      3. Video: Caught in a Trap.
      4. Monkeywrench Gang. Pp. 129-197

Assignment #3. Public Hearing Analysis

 Nov 3,5: Interest Groups and Advocacy Participants

 

      1. Insider’s Guide to Environmental Negotiation. Dale M. Gorczynski, pp. 29-92.
      2. Inside the Environmental Movement. Edited by Donald Snow. Executive Summary and Chapter 1, pp. 1-32.
      3. Chapter 1 "The Rediscovery of Interest Group Politics," by Mark P. Petracca. In The Politics of Interests, Mark P. Petracca, eds. 1992. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
      4. Chapter 17, "The Paradox of Interest Groups in Washington: More Groups, Less Clout," pp. 339-364. In Interests and Institutions: Substance and Structure in American Politics. 1992. Robert Salisbury. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
      5. Monkeywrench Gang. Pp. 198-275

 

 Nov 10,12: Non-violence/Civil Disobediance

 

      1. Chapter 7, "The Gandhian Conception of Nonviolence," pp. 97-123. In The Strategy of Nonviolent Defense. 1996. Robert J. Burrowes. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
      2. Issue of "No Compromise" Newsmagazine
      3. Video: Call to Direct Action
      4. Monkeywrench Gang. Pp. 276-387.

 

Nov 17,19: The Media

 

      1. Enough is Enough, Chapter 6, pp. 175-281.
      2. Grass Roots, Chapter 4, pp. 179-219.
      3. Video: YES/NO Campaign Adds Oregon Measure 18
      4. Guest Speaker

 

Assignment #4 Preparing a News Release

 

Nov 24: Lobbying and Constituent Communications

 

      1. Enough is Enough, Chapter 7, pp. 282-340.
      2. Write Your Congressman: Constituent Communications and Representation. Stephen Frantzich.

 

Assignment #5 Political communication--written

Assignment #6 Lobbying--Oral communication

 

Dec 1,3: Appeals and Litigation

 

      1. Grass Roots, pp. 108-113, 276-277.
      2. Overview of Federal Court System (http://www.uscourts.gov/)

3. Video: The Southern Poverty Law Center

 

Assignment #7 HCN Advocacy Issue Analysis

 

IV. Organizational Components

 

Dec 8,10: Building an Organization and Fund Raising

 

1. Enough is Enough. Chap. 4 pp. 86-101

      1. Grass Roots, Chapter 5, pp. 220-267.
      2. Enough is Enough. Chap. 5, pp. 103-168.
      3. Handouts: Sample Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws

 

Dec 15,17 Misc. Topics: Professionalism and Environmental Advocacy

Advocacy through Curriculum Development & EE