Will Scott Walker, the GOP and the Tea Party faithfully uphold Wisconsin's environmental legacy?

Will Scott Walker, the GOP and the Tea Party faithfully uphold Wisconsin's environmental legacy?

Or, are they planning to do anything and everything they can to deregulate our precious natural resources with deep-cutting anti-environment initiatives?

Are we ready for it?

We know they're actively preparing their attack, but are we prepared to match their enthusiasm to destroy the environment with our will to protect it?

Since when are economic development and environmental protection mutually exclusive, anyway?  

Imagine tomorrow morning, you wake up, check the news, turn on the radio, or whatever - and you see or hear this:

"Scott Walker holds press conference announcing new environmental deregulation initiative"

Your stomach turns, your blood pressure rises, you start thinking of ways you can fight back, but you haven't heard the best part yet....

"Walker expects swift passage of the bill, and a vote is scheduled in just 2 days"

Now what?

It's too late now.  If we haven't been proactive in preparing our opposition, we may as well have just rolled over and let the steamroller pass without opposition.  Passage will be swift, and the damage will be irreparable.    

What would John Muir, Gaylord Nelson, Sigurd Olson, or Aldo Leopold think?

More importantly, what would they DO?  Would they be in the back seat like we are?  Or would they be proactive?

Will you stand up to protect Wisconsin's environmental legacy?

  

and so it begins... "G.O.P. Push in States to Deregulate Environment"

This is what we can look forward to in the coming months.  The Tea Party and the GOP have grand, short-sighted and incredibly ill-informed plans to deregulate what little environmental resources we have left.  If you don't think this will happen in Wisconsin, think again - beware, and be proactive.  Environmental destruction is on it's way to Wisconsin, and it won't be pretty.  The least we can do is start preparing for it now, and begin building conduit between all of the various agencies, organizations and individuals that have the power and potential to fight back.  If we don't speak with a strong, organized, and unified voice, we won't be heard at all.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/16/science/earth/16enviro.html?_r=1

Organizations that must band together and form a proactive agenda toward protecting and preserving Wisconsin's environment

This is a preliminary list of organizations we feel must immediately begin banding together to take a proactive stance on collectively guarding Wisconsin's environmental legacy against a war that will soon be waged against the protection and preservation our natural resources.

Part of our proactive stance toward protecting Wisconsin's environmental legacy is to ensure there are open and transparent channels of communications between these organizations, so that when the time comes, and they will be able to work together more efficiently, and act as a collective whole with a unified voice, rather than isolated and individual.    

While there may be differences in the individual policies and goals of these organizations, they are all facing the same direction, and their collective strength is far greater than any of them could ever be on their own.  Their cooperation and collaboration could be the only way we can effectively defeat the coming attacks on Wisconsin's environment.  We must be proactive in establishing as many open and effective channels of communications and both formal and informal relationships and alliances between these organizations if we hope to protect and preserve Wisconsin's environmental legacy.      

1000 Friends of Wisconsin and The Land Use Institute 
Aldo Leopold Foundation 
Audubon Society
Bayfield Regional Conservancy
BeSmart Waste Reduction Coalition
Caledonia Conservancy (Racine)
Cedar Lakes conservation Foundation (Washington County)
Chiwaukee Prairie Preservation Fund 
Cooperative Institute for Limnology and Ecosystems Research (CILER) 
Couderay Waters Regional Land Trust (Hayward)
Coulee Region Audubon Society (La Crosse)
Council of Great Lakes Governors 
Daylighting Collaborative
Door County Land Trust
Driftless Area Land Conservancy
Environmental Education Works for Wisconsin (EE)
Fellow Mortals Wildlife Rehabilitation 
Four Lakes Sierra Club
Fox Cities Greenways
Fox River Watch
Friends of Milwaukee's Rivers
Friends of the Platte River
Friends of Scenic Lodi Valley
Geneva Lake Conservancy
Glacial Lakes Conservancy
Great Lakes Commission 
Great Lakes Fishery Commission
Great Lakes Protection Fund  
Great Lakes Radio Consortium 
Great Lakes Science Center
Great Lakes Sea Grant Network Hoy Audubon Society
Ice Age Park & Trail Foundation
Inland Sea Society 
International Association for Great Lakes Research 
International Joint Commission (IJC) Kenosha/Racine Land Trust
Kinninkinnick River Land Trust
Land Trust of Walworth County
Lauderdale Lakes Conservancy
Madison Audubon Society
Madison Environmental Group
Midwest Environmental Advodates (MEA)
Milwaukee Audubon Society

Milwaukee Environmental Consortium
Mississippi Valley Conservancy (La Crosse)
Nature Conservancy - Wisconsin Chapter
Northeast-Midwest Institute 
Northeastern Wisconsin Audubon Society (Green Bay area)
Northeast Wisconsin Land Trust (Appleton)
Northwoods Land Trust (Eagle River)
Ozaukee Washington Land Trust
Park People of Milwaukee County
Prairie Club
Prairie Enthusiasts
River Alliance of Wisconsin
Rusk County Citizens Action Group 
Sierra Club - John Muir Chapter
   Four Lakes Group (Madison area)
   Fox Valley Group (Appleton area)
   Great Waters Group (Milwaukee area)
   Southeast Gateway Group (Racine area)
Sustain Dane
Tall Pines Conservancy
Urban Ecology Center
Waukesha County Environmental Action League
Waukesha County Land Conserancy
West Wisconsin Land Trust
Wisconsin Bicycle Federation
Wisconsin Green Building Alliance
Wisconsin Metro Audubon Society
Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group (WISPIRG)
Wisconsin Resources Protection Council
Wisconsin Stewardship Network
Wisconsin Wetland Association

Video of Wisconsin Senator Lena Taylor Speaking to Visitors at Fab 14 Homecoming

More videos of Wisconsin rallies to protect worker's rights from Proactive Wisconsin: http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?feature=mhum

Join Proactive Wisconsin!  http://ow.ly/4dsBc

Videos and Pictures from Today's Rally in Wisconsin - March 12, 2011

Organizing in Proactive Defense of Wisconsin's Environmental Legacy

This is where we will organize our defense of Wisconsin's environmental legacy.  "Like" us now, and be among the first to join the discussion! http://on.fb.me/i30on

Proactive Preparations to Defend Environmental Protection and Preservation in Wisconsin

A major assault against Wisconsin’s environmental resources is being actively prepared, and when it is unleashed, there will be little time allowed for public input or debate.  Swift passage and implementation can be expected, and the impact will be far-reaching and irreparable.  

With republican majorities, and an established precedent of passing rushed legislation with intentionally limited public input and absolutely no compromise or negotiation, it would seem there is little that anyone can do to stop this.  

If we hope to make any difference whatsoever, we need to be proactive.  We need to be prepared, and we need to speak with a unified voice.  

Anyone paying attention to Governor Walker’s first few weeks in office had the opportunity to witness firsthand just how brash and deliberately anti-environment this administration intends to be.  They blatantly stripped a citizen’s group of it’s legal due process, in favor of granting special-favor legislation to roll back environmental protection on just one piece of land, for just one wealthy developer (a campaign contributor).  

Environmental groups were forced to scramble at the last minute to respond to this legislation.  In most cases, they only had a single day to prepare, and the republican majority quickly slammed the bill through with very limited opportunity for public debate, compromise or negotiation.  

This bill was just the beginning.  It was a shot across the bow of any organization, institution or individual that cares about protecting and preserving the environmental integrity of the State of Wisconsin.  

We can’t afford to be surprised the next time around.  We can be certain that this assault will be designed to limit our ability to organize effectively and to mute any voice in opposition to their agenda.  If we don’t use this opportunity to take a proactive stance and collectively organize in anticipation this inevitable assault, Wisconsin’s environment is sure to suffer long lasting and irreparable damage.  

We need to be proactive.  We need to anticipate the assault.  We need to have an established infrastructure around this specific agenda so that we might speak with a strong, unified and effective voice of opposition.  


Proposed Strategy:

• Leverage social media to organize ourselves
• Use social media to help crystallize and distill the best ideas, talking points, references, and action plans
• Operate in a transparent and open way - leveraging principles of collective wisdom and open source development  
• Build a Conduit
• Establish and solidify strong communication channels between all parties - toward speaking with a solid, unified voice.  
• Research and Analysis of What Works and what doesn’t work
• Reach out to, collaborate with, and learn from other parties opposing their agenda
• What have they found that works and doesn’t work?  How can we emulate the most effective ideas that work best?
• Educate the Debate
• They depend on public ignorance and complacency to promote their agenda, so we must proactively educate the public with every possible means
• Focus on the Frame
• Frame the debate before they do.  Upon announcing new items, they will frame it in a way that seems generally favorable and positive  - even when it clearly isn’t.  This is the first story media outlets will report, so we must quickly and effectively re-frame the debate in a unified and orchestrated way - bringing attention to the real issues, and informing the public about the specific environmental detriment their proposal will bring.
• Avoid Partisanship
• While we may be working against a specific republican majority in this case, we must speak with a ‘common sense’ tone - not with a divisive partisan tone.  
• Hit Home
• We must emphasize specific and convincing reasons why these issues should matter to each and every citizen of this state. Reinforce the idea that this isn’t just about being tree-huggers or liberals - this is a non-partisan issue that should be important to every single citizen of this state.   
• Avoid Singular Leadership
• Organizers of this initiative remain anonymous, in favor of promoting the collective agenda, not the goals or ideals of any single individual
• Avoid Circular Debate
• This will not be a forum for debate, but a place to share specific ideas that support the pro-environmental protection and preservation agenda.  Since there are countless other forums for engaging in debate, any post, comment or idea stated in opposition of a pro-environment agenda will be swiftly deleted without warning.
• What do *you* think we can do?...  Let’s hear each other, and open channels for discussion

They’re working on their strategy, shouldn’t we be working on ours?