ustxtxb_obs_1997_02_28_50_00009-00000_000.pdf

;:4016,00:r . Better Habitats through Chemistry? wants to pay.” In short, his tale was an argument for improved and its abolition. It was hardly the ringing defense of unfettered free markets proclaimed by the Perkies. The story would be much the same, at least from the invited guests, throughout the conference. Much of Friday’s session was devoted to presentations by consultants or businessmen who had found inventive ways to combine local \(i.e., merce: a Midwest landscaper who specializes in native plants instead of lawn grass; a North Texas private zookeeper using upmarket “eco-tourism” to help protect endangered African species; an environmental consultant helping to establish birding trails on private and public Texas lands; an Oregon environmentalist lobbying the state and raising foundation money to purchase agricultural water rights to use in preservation of salmon runs. Peter Emerson of the Environmental Defense Fund described environmental projects in El Paso, San Antonio, and the Gulf, each of which involves the balancing of commercial interests \(utilities, residential develair, water, Galveachieve economic and environmental ends. Each of these projects held useful lessons for environmentalists, but also cautionary ones. Karen Olsson It is difficult to imagine, for example, what a museum-scale preserve of endangered African animals assembled for the entertainment of Dallas tourists can tell us about the destruction of African habitat by the combined forces of empire, post-imperial devastation, and multi-national corporate rapacityexcept that it needs to be stopped, and as soon as possible. During the entire conference, the word “corporation” was rarely uttered, but it’s probably just as well. PERC Senior Associate Richard Stroup \(director of the Interior Department’s Office of Eco-101 fatuities as “Producing the greatest amount of value for society, net of total cost, is the job of the corporation” \(PERC Reports, mides represent the real world; the original Professor Pangloss would have the good grace to blush. Stroup’s wife, Jane Shaw, also a Senior Associate, is co-author of a just-published parents’ environmental manual called Facts Not Fear, with an introduction by that well-known naturalist, Marilyn Quayle. The book, proclaiming that environmentalists are attempting to terrorize our children with made-up horror stories of pollution, is a central document in the current right-wing campaign to stop reauthorization of the National Environmental Education Act, which provides funds to pubIn fairness to the Perkies, while they preach that private property THE TEXAS OBSERVER 9 FEBRUARY 28, 1997