Karyn Strickler: Lost in the Fumes: the Sierra Club Sells Out to Clorox

All efforts at reform were squished that year, and for a long time to come, when reformers were overwhelmed by a masterful public relations campaign orchestrated by Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope, who deceptively, but successfully made Club members, the nation and the world believe that the Board was about to be taken-over by an anti-immigration, hate group.

In the 2004 Board election, a group whose membership is still a mystery, called Groundswell Sierra, orchestrated a bizarre independent expenditure-type campaign on which there were no spending limits and no reports, in apparent violation of internal Sierra Club policies and California law. By my estimate, Groundswell spent as much as half a million dollars to elect the old guard -- a group of Board members who were hand-picked by, and the human equivalent of rubber-stamps for Carl Pope.

Beyond the detrimental effects within the Sierra Club, the Groundswell tactics took the focus off of direct assaults on the environment posed by the Bush administration. Squelching all reform candidates' chances didn't stop industry from taking the tops off of our mountains and dumping them into our streams or making our air and water human health hazards. It didn't reverse global warming. The orangutan still faced extinction along with countless other endangered species and their unique habitat. Extractive industry continued to destroy our public lands, profiting a few at the expense of many.