When Bruce Babbitt, then governor of Arizona, ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988, he won praise from environmentalists for his outspoken positions on the deficit and the environment. The Phoenix said he “set the intellectual standard for the campaign.” Babbitt, of course, didn’t win the nomination, but after Arkansas governor Bill Clinton won the presidency in 1992, he named Babbitt secretary of the interior. On April 22, the Harvard Museum of Natural History will award him its Roger Tory Peterson Medal for his tireless advocacy of environmental causes. Babbitt will then give a talk on the state of the environment. The Phoenix spoke with him recently.

Q: Give us a preview of your upcoming speech.

A: I’m working on it right now. I’m going to suggest that what’s been happening in the last several weeks [the Bush administration rolled back a reduction in the amount of arsenic allowed in drinking water and withdrew from international clean-air agreements] is an outrage that is virtually without precedent in the United States on environmental affairs. The US has traditionally been a leader on environmental issues. The president demeans our country and our country’s leadership role about the environment. Finally, I will talk about student activism. There are times when government fails and the grassroots has to take over. It happened during the civil-rights movement. The impetus came through freedom rides and lunch-counter sit-ins, not through government. The Vietnam War was something similar. This is another one of those times when our government is failing us on the greatest moral outrage of the latest generation.

Q: What has been the biggest environmental outrage committed by Bush?

A: First, retracting his promise to regulate carbon dioxide, which is the principal greenhouse gas. During the campaign he made the case for regulating carbon dioxide, and he went back on his promise as president. Second, he walked away from the Kyoto accords. He sent [EPA head] Christie Todd Whitman to withdraw from the Kyoto process.

Q: What do you think Bush’s actions as president so far say to those who argued that there was no difference between Gore and Bush during the presidential campaign?

A: I’m not going to get into the past. I’m only going to talk about the future. This is not a rerun of the presidential campaign. This is looking at the most important environmental issue now and at what our government is and is not doing.

Q: How long do you think Christie Todd Whitman will last?

A: The question is, how long will the policy last? We must organize a wave of popular understanding and concern and political action.

Q: Do you think some of the more vocal environmental activists, particularly those associated with the Seattle-style protests, are needed to get the message out?

A: Our government not only opposes what has been done [but] has no policy of any kind. It’s one of those times when I think a large measure of activism is called for. Where it comes from is not as important as making sure that it comes. Where we’ve had impasses in the past, change didn’t come from political leaders, it came from the people — and it started on university campuses.

Q: But what is the most effective means of environmental activism? Clearly sit-ins and freedom rides and even antiwar marches were all very effective. How do you translate this kind of activism into environmental terms?

A: Each new generation and each new challenge will evoke a new form of protest and response. I don’t know exactly what that is. I do intend to talk about activism during the civil-rights movement. The silence on campus must be replaced by a more active attempt to awaken the public and change the policies of our government.

Babbitt will speak at 4 p.m. at the Harvard Museum of National History, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge. Admission is free, although reservations are required. Call (617) 495-3045.

Issue Date: April 19 - 26, 2001