Friends' School, Colorado For as long as space endures And for as long as living beings remain, Until then may I too abide To dispel the misery of the world. His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama's favorite Prayer. Many conservative government officials, industry leaders and citizens believe that any sacrifice is warranted to protect short term profit. To these people, preserving ecosystems, species and human health does not make good business sense. However, all their dire predictions of the collapse of the economy, widespread unemployment, and unprecedented corporate losses due to environmental preservation activities have never materialized.
Examples abound of fear mongering and deception by conservative forces.
In May of 1991, an injunction from a Federal District Court banned timber sales on 24 million acres in 17 national forests in Washington, Oregon and northern California until the U.S. Forest Service could guarantee the safety of the northern spotted owl population. Conservative forces spread fear throughout the affected states, predicting that 150,000 workers would lose their jobs and that hundreds of communities would become economic disaster areas. They predicted a depression that would take decades to recover from. Workers and their families from towns where the main income base had been the lumber industry were made angry and fearful by well funded, conservative groups collectively known as the Wise Use Movement. Their misinformation created an adversarial relationship between timber families and environmentalists.