THE PIRACY
OF AMERICA

CORPORATE WELFARE AND ENVIRONMENTAL PILLAGE

Corporate welfare hit the public agenda this November with the launching of Time Magazine’s Special Investigation on Corporate Welfare. While the Time series served to widen the parameters of public debate, it has revealed only the tip of the iceberg on this major story., The Piracy of America: Profiteering in the Public Domain, released by Clarity Press, Inc. in January, 1999 pursues the corporate welfare issue into the environmental arena. It documents how government facilitates corporate destruction of resources which might properly be regarded as the birthright of all Americans — our forests, rivers, minerals, climate, and the air we breathe.

Edited by longtime activist Judith Scherff (The Mother Earth Handbook), and with a Foreword by Thomas Berry (The Dream of the Earth /Sierra Club Books), this anthology of over 20 highly documented articles by seasoned environmentalists indicates the realization on the environmentalist front that some major domestic and transnational corporations, the central actors in globalization, are major causes of and beneficiaries from environmental degradation here at home. It is their actions, their decisions, indeed their modus operandi which predominate in environmental destruction — not the actions of masses of individuals or communities.

Even more importantly, The Piracy of America documents how the pursuit of private profit, the extraction of wealth and the detritus left in its process, is facilitated at the direction of elected officials acting on behalf of certain corporations through those very governmental institutions and agencies whose purpose is avowedly to protect the public interest. It illustrates how the current mix of public and corporate policy generates private profit at public cost, and raises serious questions as to whether current practice provides either overall systemic efficiency or protects the rights of future generations –– let alone the health, wealth and well-being of the present generation of Americans.

The Piracy of America reveals how segments of corporate America strike back at growing public environmentalism, by influencing the conduct of scientific research and media reporting on environmental issues, thereby threatening their integrity as information sources for the public.. As these corporations step up their onslaught on the environmentalist "threat," they have begun to mobilize political constituencies among religious groups and the public at large to support their anti-environmental agenda.

Nevertheless, Piracy also brings good news. On the activist front, new modes of combating environmental deterioration are making an appearance — from lay discovery of hazards and causes of illnesses to environmental organizing in public services, from success in the courts to new innovations in science and technology.

As Jeff DeBonis, referred to by The Economist as the "spark plug" of the environmentalist rebellion in the US Forestry Service, noted: "The Piracy of America is a must read primer on the state of our environment. It is a one stop source encompassing and updating the current condition of our environment, and the prognosis for renewal. Best of all, it links and documents the current dismal state of affairs to the source of the problem — unrestrained corporate profiteering. It is written by people and activists from the trenches who know from first hand experience the truth they write."

The writers in this anthology do not argue against development. Nor do they discuss injuries to nature as if these were independent from human needs. What emerges in the reading of these articles, ostensibly about public domain resources in America, is how these are inextricably tied to human physical and spiritual well being, and to human justice issues that relate to the generation, control and apportionment of wealth. As Buck Parker, President of Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund (formerly Sierra Club Legal Defense) wrote, "This important book underscores a key tenet that we must all recognize and embrace in our daily lives: environmental values lie within the mainstream of our moral and spiritual heritage." M. Douglas Meeks, Professor of Theology at Vanderbilt University referred to Piracy as "full of practical wisdom for transformation from the theological and agricultural traditions. It deserves global attention," he wrote.

Sample articles include: "The Killing Ground: The Destruction of Native American Species," "American Forests," "Cash Register Rivers: Lost to Private Profit," "Living Dangerously: Chemical Contamination in Our Air, Water and Food," "Legalized Extortion: The Threats of Takings Bills," "Science for Sale," "News Pollution," "How Industry Combats Efforts to Protect Our Climate," "Mobilizing to Counter Environmentalism: The ‘Wise-Use’ Movement & the Insurgent Right Wing," and "Popular Epidemiology: Lay Discovery of Hazards & Causes of Illnesses."

Among the contributors: Robert V. Eye, formerly Chief Counsel, Kansas Dept. of Health & Environ-ment.; Dr. David Ehrenfeld, Professor of Ecology at Rutgers and founding editor of Conservation Biology; Dan Fagin, environmental writer for Newsday and Pulitzer finalist 1994; Wes Jackson, founder of The Land Institute, Salina, KS; Marianne Lavelle, winner of Polk Award for 1992 investigation into racial bias in environmental protection; The Very Reverend James Parks Morton, former Dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and President Interfaith Council of New York; John Passacantanndo, Exec. Dir., Ozone Action,Washington; Tarso Luís Ramos is program director at the Western States Center’s Wise Use Public Exposure Project; John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton work for the non-profit Center for Media & Democracy in Madison, Wisconsin, and edit the investigative quarterly, PR Watch.; Dr. Sandra Steingraber, ecologist, author and recent appointee to the National Action Plan on Breast Cancer; Glenn P. Sugameli, Senior Counsel for the National Wildlife Federation; Johanna Wald, Sr. Attorney, NRDC San Francisco office and PewScholar in Conservation & Environment..