In the Thick of It: My Life in the Sierra Club

Membership, however, climbed sharply in response to the investigation into the legitimacy of the society's tax status by the IRS from 30, in to 57, in and 75, in The victory over the dam projects and challenges from the IRS did not come without costs. To make up for the power that would have been produced by the dams, the Sierra Club actually advocated for coal power plants. The result of the campaign and its trade-off was, in the words of historian Andrew Needham, that "the Grand Canyon became protected, sacred space," while "the Navajo Reservation"—which housed some of the main power plants picking up the slack — "became increasingly industrial.

Despite the Club's success in blocking plans for the Grand Canyon dams and weathering the transition from c 3 to c 4 status, tension grew over finances between Brower and the board of directors. A membership referendum in upheld the board's decision. But Brower concluded that nuclear power at any location was a mistake, and he voiced his opposition to the plant, contrary to the Club's official policy.

As pro- and anti-Brower factions polarized, the annual election of new directors reflected the conflict.

Main Content

Brower's supporters won a majority in , but in the April election the anti-Brower candidates won all five open positions. Ansel Adams and president Richard Leonard, two of his closest friends on the board, led the opposition to Brower, charging him with financial recklessness and insubordination and calling for his ouster as executive director.

The board voted ten to five to accept Brower's resignation. Michael McCloskey, hired by Brower in as the Club's first northwest field representative, became the Club's second executive director in An administrator attentive to detail, McCloskey had set up the Club's conservation department in and guided the campaigns to save the Grand Canyon and establish Redwoods National Park and North Cascades National Park.

During the s, McCloskey led the Club's legislative activity—preserving Alaskan lands and eastern wilderness areas, and supporting the new environmental agenda: The Sierra Club made its first presidential endorsement in in support of Walter Mondale 's unsuccessful campaign to unseat Ronald Reagan. Carl Pope , formerly the Club's legislative director, was named executive director in They favored a zero-cut forest policy on public lands and, a few years later, decommissioning Glen Canyon Dam.

1. No hay cosa como callar (Edición de la Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes) (Spanish Edition).
2. Aboriginal Convicts: Australian, Khoisan, and Maori Exiles;
3. In the Thick of It.
4. Catalog Record: In the thick of it : my life in the Sierra Club | Hathi Trust Digital Library.
5. In the thick of it : my life in the Sierra Club / J. Michael McCloskey - Details - Trove.

JMS was successful in changing club positions on both counts. Approximately 1, volunteers from around the country, selected by their chapters and groups, were delegates; some nondelegate members also attended. There were seminars and exhibit presentations about current environmental issues and about techniques for more effective activism.

In , several Sierra Club officers quit in protest after the Sierra Club agreed to promote products by Clorox , which had been named one of a "dangerous dozen" chemical companies by the Public Interest Research Group in Also in , the Sierra Club endorsed Senator Barack Obama for President , citing "his strong record of support for clean air, wetlands protection, and clean energy.

Between and , the Sierra Club accepted over 25 million US dollars in donations from the gas industry, mostly from Aubrey McClendon , CEO of Chesapeake Energy , one of the biggest gas drilling companies in the US and a firm heavily involved in fracking. In January , executive director Michael Brune announced [19] that the Sierra Club would officially participate in the first civil disobedience action in its year history as part of the ongoing protest calling on the Obama administration to reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, stating, "we are watching a global crisis unfold before our eyes, and to stand aside and let it happen — even though we know how to stop it — would be unconscionable.

• In the thick of it [electronic resource] : my life in the Sierra Club in SearchWorks catalog.
• Un monde sans la City ni Wall Street: Un grand chantier pour demain - Le projet de Jacques Cheminade, candidat à lélection présidentielle de 2012 (French Edition).
• Refine your editions:!
• In the Thick of It: My Life in the Sierra Club!
• Sierra Club?
• Chanting Hare Krishna (The Art of Mystic Meditation, Kirtan, and Bhakti Yoga. Compiled from the teachings of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada).
• Sierra Club - Wikipedia.

In May , the Sierra Club appointed its first black president of the board of directors, Aaron Mair. The annual High Trips were led by mountaineers such as Francis P. A number of first ascents in the Sierra Nevada were made on Sierra Club outings. Sierra Club members were also early enthusiasts of rock climbing.

In , the first chapter was formed, Angeles, and it began conducting local excursions in the mountains surrounding Los Angeles and throughout the West. Many major innovations in mountaineering have come from Sierra Club members. Norman Clyde and Jules Eichorn , considered among the most famous members of the club, completed many first ascents of peaks in the Sierra Nevada.

Join Kobo & start eReading today

Glen Dawson and Royal Robbins , often on trips sponsored and organized by the Rock Climbing Section of the Angeles Chapter, opened up much of the Tahquitz Peak area to climbing, which at the time was said to contain some of the hardest routes in the world. The Yosemite Decimal System , the primary method of rating a route's difficulty used in the United States, was developed into its modern form at Tahquitz. Steve Roper 's Fifty Classic Climbs of North America , sponsored and published by the Sierra Club, is still considered one of the definitive rock climbing guidebooks in the United States.

Due to an increasing focus on political activity and concerns about financial liability, mountaineering activity in the Sierra Club has subsided since the s. Some chapters, mostly in California, continue to maintain large mountaineering programs. The club currently occasionally awards the Francis P. Farquhar Mountaineering Award to outstanding member mountaineers. Brower , who managed the High Trip program from to , while serving as a major in the Army Reserve. In many areas of the country, Sierra Club also organizes hiking tours. Sierra Club's website has a "hiking near me" function.

Section " Sierra Club Near You " shows all the upcoming trips in nearby area. The historic High Trips, sometimes large expeditions with more than a hundred participants and crew, have given way to smaller and more numerous excursions held across the United States and abroad. These outings form a major part of Sierra Club culture, and in some chapters, constitute the majority of member activity.

Generally, chapters in California are much more active with regard to outdoor activities. The Sierra Club presents a number of annual awards. The John Muir Award is given to an individual with "a distinguished record of achievement in national or international conservation causes.

In the Thick of It: My Life in the Sierra Club by Michael McCloskey

Other awards given by the Sierra Club include the Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography , which honors excellence in conservation photography; and the Francis P. Farquhar Mountaineering Award , which recognizes contributions to mountaineering. Land management, access, conservation are traditionally considered the core advocacy areas of the Sierra Club.

Uniquely for a progressive organization, the Sierra Club has strong grassroots organization in rural areas, with much activity focused on ensuring equitable and environmentally-friendly use of public lands. This is particularly accentuated by the fact that the club attracts many people who primarily join the club for recreation and use of public land for hiking. Some Sierra Club members have urged the Club to be more forceful in advocating for the protection of National Forests and other federally owned public lands.

For example, in the Club was criticized for joining with the Wilderness Society in agreeing to a compromise that would allow logging in the Black Hills in South Dakota. A goal of the Sierra Club is to replace coal with other energy sources. The Sierra Club is also opposed to nuclear energy. The Sierra Club opposes dams it considers inappropriate, including some government-built dams in national parks.

The Sierra Club continues to support removal of the dam. The Sierra Club is a member of the BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of environmental groups and labor unions. The BlueGreen Alliance was formed in and grew out of a less-formal collaboration between the Sierra Club and the United Steelworkers. In , the Laborers' International Union of North America left the coalition due to the Sierra Club and other environmental groups' opposition to the Keystone Pipeline.

Electronic Green Journal

Immigration was historically among the most divisive issues within the club. In , after years of debate, the Sierra Club adopted a neutral position on immigration levels. As the club has shifted to the left over the years, this position was amended in to support "an equitable path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants". Although the position of the Sierra Club has generally been favorable towards immigration, some critics of the Sierra Club have charged that the efforts of some club members to restrain immigration, are a continuation of aspects of human population control and the eugenics movement.

Ehrlich 's book, The Population Bomb , in which he said that population growth was responsible for environmental decline and advocated coercive measures to reduce it. Some observers have argued that the book had a "racial dimension" in the tradition of the Eugenics movement, and that it "reiterated many of Osborn's jeremiads. During the s, some Sierra Club members, including Paul Ehrlich's wife Anne , [47] wanted to take the Club into the contentious field of immigration to the United States. The Club's position was that overpopulation was a significant factor in the degradation of the environment.

Accordingly, the Club supported stabilizing and reducing U. Some members argued that, as a practical matter, U. They urged the Club to support immigration reduction. With this book McCloskey offers not only invaluable insight into the past, but also inspiration to carry into the future. In the Thick of It will serve as a good reference for environmental historians. Michael McCloskey not only was 'in the thick of it,' his wisdom and strong leadership put him way out front. He is the true architect of the modern Sierra Club and in many ways of the modern environmental advocacy movement, and In the Thick of It tells the story—a story I thought I knew, but of which the hidden twists and turns only became clear from Mike's book.

His memoir is not only an absorbing personal history, it traces the growth of the leading activist environmental organization and, to a large extent, the history of the entire movement in the United States.

What is Kobo Super Points?

Ehrlich, Stanford University and coauthor of "One with Nineveh". In the Thick of It provides more than a personal view of one of environmentalism's steadiest thinkers and actors: Cohen, author of "The History of the Sierra Club: My Life in the Sierra Club.

Book Description Review Quotes Contents. Ehrlich, Stanford University and coauthor of "One with Nineveh" "For nearly fifty years, Michael McCloskey has been the wisest, most astute analyst of environmental policy in the Sierra Club…. He helped to pave the way for the original Wilderness Act in , and as the club's conservation director worked to see it implemented. Hardcover , pages.

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about In the Thick of It , please sign up. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Jun 02, Scott rated it really liked it. Slow going at points, but McCloskey is person who "steadied the ship" of the Sierra Club after the momentous changes wrought by David Brower in the s, allowing the organization to grow and thrive into the future. Interesting and rare insights into some momentous environmental battles of the day. Jeff Walthers rated it it was ok Aug 26, Connie added it Sep 08, Joe marked it as to-read Oct 23,