I read your latest issue with interest- there are deep problems among the fractured forces of environmentalism. Yet, for all the ink expended in hand wringing, I wonder if the moribund nature of the green movement in Southern Utah and in the nation as a whole isn't related more to a cultural and psychological misread by the activists themselves. In short, the target audience has been missed- by a mile.

Take the recent Kane County debacle. The County Commissioners tore down BLM signs declaring certain areas of National Monument closed to off-road vehicle travel, and the county government posted signs on federal lands declaring many tracks open to ORV use. The federal government and the main environmental groups sued and threatened the County, and the Commissioner themselves, with penalties that included possible jail time. The result? Most of the good working people in Southern Utah see these men as courageous martyrs, standing selflessly against the depredations of tyranny and the power of the elite.

Here is an illustration of what has gone wrong with the green movement. It has lost touch with its class-consciousness. Intuitively, there should be an alliance between the preservation of the earth and the working and peasant classes. But strangely, it is the working classes who have been effectively co-opted to stand on the side of the very corporate power structure that actively oppresses them.

Take the Factory Butte controversy in Wayne County. Who opposes the proposal to make the Factory Butte area off-limits to ORV use? It isn't Exxon/Mobil Corp, or Wal-Mart, or Citibank. It's the working class citizens of Wayne County. But the corporate structure stands to benefit from the "people's" struggle to keep public lands open- there's oil in them-thar hills... How did the working people become so effectively co-opted? I believe it is because somewhere along the line, the green movement began to appear to the American working people to be the group that wanted to fence them in (or out) . By refusing to adopt any language other than strict science, by working in the channels of power, instead of at a grass-roots level, ie, a class level, and by adopting a cultural holier-than-thou-I-know-what's-good-for-you-you-ignorant-uneducated-peasant attitude, the green movement has allowed the political right to fill the vacuum by cynically appealing to the emotional sensitivities of the working poor, who have come to see the reactionary conservative movement as the protector of their rights and way of life.

How strange! How tragically ironic! Ironic because it is workers, it is the poor, it is women, it is children, it is indigenous peoples, who stand to benefit the most from environmental justice. From the mercury-laden snows of the Arctic to the anencephalitic swamps of Matamoros, it is the poor and disenfranchised who need a voice that cries for sustainability.

The modern environmental movement suffers from its own form of fundamentalism, its own recalcitrance to engage in a pragmatic approach to the problem of human beings living on the land. "Every endangered species must be saved, and to hell with the people who get squashed in the process. After all, there are too many humans anyway. We need a die(or kill)-off." I have heard such attitudes espoused by folks who claim to be environmentalists. Is it any wonder that plain folks don't take kindly to their message? After all, they are the ones in the cross-hairs! Is it any wonder that ranchers in Southern Arizona kill jaguars? After all, if a jaguar is found, they know their land will be confiscated. Is it any wonder that members of the Rainbow Family, almost all of whom are poor and working class, get confused when environmentalists oppose their gatherings in the National Forests? Is it any wonder that locally, I know a rancher who refused to allow a scientist on her land to document the presence of an endangered species? After all, if such a creature were to be found, its presence would destroy her way of life.

The typical green response to this is one of, "Well, it is sad, but someone has to suffer for the good of the planet." But when the people who have to suffer are the poor, instead of the wealthy corporate elite, environmentalists cry and moan and wonder why they don't have any "broad-based support." Hmmmm. I wonder. I believe that the green movement's only hope is to shake off its self-imposed ideological shackles and invest in a pragmatic strategy to re-enlist the support of the working and peasant classes. This will mean that in some cases, humans will have to come first. But if this pragmatism is based on a willingness to strike a balance that moves towards overall sustainability, then there is a chance for rapprochement between the greens and working people. Such an alliance, in my view, is the green movement's only hope for lasting victory. In essence, the struggle all along has been a class struggle, and it is the class struggle that the environmentalists have lost. Thus they have found themselves losing the struggle to bring about a sustainable future for all of us- here in Southern Utah, and all around the world.

Loch Wade lives in Boulder, Utah