What Good Will Come From The Relay for Clean Air and AirAid?

Avram Friedman

Executive Director of the Canary Coalition

August 21, 2005

The Relay for Clean Air and AirAid are not meant to directly influence the passage of any specific major state or federal legislation. These events are not targeting any one particular egregious violation of emission regulations by a large industrial facility.  No individual public officials are being put on the spot or receiving a comprehensive education on the nuances of intricate emission control issues or renewable energy alternatives.  So, what is the point?  Isn’t this just blowing air into the wind? What is the Canary Coalition trying to accomplish with the Relay for Clean Air and AirAid?

A fair enough question.

The answer lies in the historical reality of social change in this country and around the world, and in the process of assembling all the ingredients necessary to effect that change. Research and organizing information is essential.  Public educational efforts are necessary.  Lobbying and informing legislators is important. Watchdogging the regulating agencies is necessary.  Building a coalition of influence must happen systematically. All of these activities have been and are being undertaken by the Canary Coalition and other groups working on air quality issues around the country. But, there is one essential ingredient that has been lacking in the Clean Air Movement, the ingredient that has been present in virtually all successful past social movements everywhere.

That ingredient is the three-dimensional display of the raw political power of people, the exhibition of unflinching determination, the aura of inevitability generated by the spectacle of people in great numbers willing to put their bodies as well as their minds to work, out front, on the line, for a cause they believe in.

Reasoned arguments for universal voting rights and equal treatment under the law existed long before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the front of the bus and before there were marches on Birmingham, Selma and Washington DC.  But, once these actions were taken, the political movement galvanized, bringing civil rights issues out of the realm of platonic discussion and into the realm of priorities to accomplish for the welfare of the nation.

British newspapers gave little weight to complaints by the people of India that they were forbidden to mine salt on their own land and were being taxed for the salt British companies were mining on the shores of the Indian Ocean. There was no shortage of good, logical reason, no shortage of moral grounds for verbal and written protest by the occupied Indian nation prior to March 13, 1930. But, on that day, when Gandhi began his epoch “march to the sea”, and thousands followed him, the British press and British occupational forces began to take the issue seriously and realized how tenuous was their hold on the Southeast Asian subcontinent.

Early suffragettes were ridiculed and denounced in our country as they put forth rational written and verbal arguments for women’s voting rights that were humorously debated in bars and country clubs around the nation by the cigar-smoking men in power. But, when massive public demonstrations materialized through the organizing efforts of women like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the serious nature of the demands could no longer be denied and the theoretical was transformed into real political power.

A public demonstration of determination, even by a small number of people can raise the intensity and profile of an issue a few notches, helping to focus attention where it is needed. Cindy Sheehan's brave action is a vivid and immediate case in point.

The Clean Air movement in 2005 has reached a point of near stagnation.  Some real progress had been made in the last three decades with the passage and steady improvement of the federal Clean Air Act. With this law we saw, at least, the acknowledgement, by industry and regulating agencies, of the immense health and environmental consequences of man-made air pollution.  And to some degree, we’ve seen a nationwide, over-all improvement in air quality because of this landmark legislation. But, the Clean Air Act also contains huge loopholes, which have now become tell-tale, especially for older industries, the principle sources of most of our air pollution.  Thousands of factories, refineries and power plants have been able to avoid installing comprehensive modern emission control systems for about thirty-five years, since the passage of the 1970 Clean Air Act, despite the New Source Review, 126, Clean Air Interstate and BART (Best Available Retrofit Technology) provisions that were designed to eventually close the loopholes.

Through a system of technicalities, inadequate enforcement and regulatory revision involving logical acrobatics, these “grandfathered” facilities continue to operate and maintain their emission control exemptions way beyond the period of time envisioned by those who created the Clean Air Act, back in 1970. Capping and Trading, Plantwide Applicability Limits, Clean Unit Exemptions, a redefinition of the term “Routine Maintenance”, all methods of legally prolonging a task that should have been performed decades ago, saving tens of thousands of lives, improving the quality of life for millions and preventing the wholesale environmental destruction that has been wrought by acid rain, high ozone-levels, excess nitrogen deposition, and mercury poisoning to name a few of the consequences, not to mention climate change.

Activist organizations working on clean air issues are now reduced to arguing the finer points of these programs, some of which will extend exemptions indefinitely. In some cases, the tide has turned against progress with individuals and organizations feeling they have to settle for a small step backwards, rather than risk suffering a larger setback.

This backward drifting motion is unaffordable and unnecessary in the context of the global environmental crisis the world faces at this moment.  The limited gains we’ve seen on some air quality issues are almost purely as a result of research, reason and educational efforts that have been effective and powerful, but, not enough. We’ve been pulling this two-horse cart with only one horse.

Perhaps it’s the dawning of the computer age that has offered the power of the internet and email and so much more, that has detached us from the physical roots and realities of democratic politics and created the illusion that the only tools available to grassroots social activists are  our computers, research, logical, just cause and enough money to pay an environmental lobbyist. But, this limited agenda and methodology has only been able to nibble at the edges of the core problem, a problem that we are running out of time to solve. Some scientists are telling us that global warming, for instance, may reach the point of no return in less than 20 years. There is no time for the type of compromise that is being accepted on energy and pollution issues. Either we're going to save the planet or we're not. A sincere effort with a realistic chance at long-term success means hitting the streets and demanding real progress, now.

Now that the research has been done, the information permeates the public consciousness, there has been acknowledgement on all levels that air quality and climate change is a major factor in our lives, now that all this groundwork has been done, now, we need to move, not only our agenda for clean air, but move, transform the political landscape itself to accommodate that agenda.  We need to galvanize these elements into a dynamic political movement that can’t be pushed around by a few bully bureaucrats protecting industrial interests. It’s time to go back to the roots of the democratic process, to get people involved en masse, to hit the streets, to rally, to generate a new political atmosphere in this country that will no longer tolerate dirty smokestacks while our children are wheezing from asthma attacks. It’s time to germinate a new civil rights movement in America declaring that we all have the right to breathe clean air…as the Canary Coalition is doing with The Relay for Clean Air and AirAid.

The process of organizing a demonstration like this is as important as the event itself in creating the atmosphere of a movement. Like-minded organizations, news agencies, magazines, businesses, schools, sports clubs, entertainment industry figures, speakers, the police, local and state elected officials, Park Service officials, and more, all are contacted.  Many of these entities will have a role to play on the day of the event, some helping to support the cause, others warily following the action (like police and Park Service) and others officially neutral, like the press.  But they all will contribute to the atmosphere that is being generated.  The networking will have benefit beyond the day of the event.  The publicity will bring more people, more money, more interest to the movement.  Before the first step is taken on the Relay for Clean Air, virtually every statewide public elected official, every DAQ and DENR administrator, every major newspaper editor, every grassroots environmental activist in North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, West Virginia and beyond will know that this event is taking place because press releases have been sent out, articles have already been published and people are already talking on the internet, phone and at meeting places in local communities.

Then the event will take place and generate a new wave of news coverage that will reverberate again through newspapers, radio and television stations in this region and around the world through the internet. The people who have directly participated in the organization and implementation of the Relay and AirAid will feel the intensity and purpose of their actions and enjoy the sense of community they’ve experienced. Word of mouth will play its role in expanding the activist network and adding to the atmosphere of Movement. 

This year’s Relay for Clean Air and AirAid will not, in themselves, cause the change in paradigm that is needed to overwhelm federal legislators into cleaning up old, dirty smokestacks and writing a new energy plan based on renewable energy resources, conservation and energy efficiency.  It’s unlikely that a Gandhian change of political atmosphere can be achieved overnight. But, the goal of these events is no less than to be part of a chain of events that has the potential to achieve such a change in paradigm.  We are fortunate in having the availability and grandeur of the Great Smoky Mountains and Blue Ridge Parkway as our backdrop to focus national attention on the issue. This year’s Relay and AirAid will be impressive, make its mark, and spur a continuing network of grassroots activities.  It may inspire the organization of other events around the country, just as this was itself inspired by demonstrations, marches and rallies of the past.  Next year, it will happen again, organized with more experience, a larger participating network and greater name recognition. And this civil rights Movement will grow until our right to breathe clean air is universally recognized and the laws and regulations of the land reflect the reality of what the people have demanded.

For more information about the Canary Coalition visit www.canarycoalition.org