We applaud the courage and vision of Michael Lacey and Jill Stewart, two writers at the Phoenix New Times, (Phoenixnewtimes.com) for their six-part cutting expose ("Crying Whale") of the long drawn-out struggle of the Mexican government and Mitsubishi against the anti-development forces of the NRDC and IFAW.

These writers' year-long investigation demonstrated convincingly that the proposed salt extraction plant in the Baja at San Ignacio Lagoon was a project that would not have harmed gray whales, and would have enhanced the terrestrial environment of the Biosphere Reserve, through providing a refuge and feeding grounds for millions of migratory birds that would have made use of the brine shrimp in the evaporation ponds. Sadly, the project was never brought to completion because of the $15.5 million dollars spent on lobbying and media campaigns by NRDC and IFAW, who incidentally, increased their own profiles and their membership, to say nothing of their coffers, through this effort. The new battleground is cyberspace, and paid media advertising.

Lacey and Stewart's recent (11/21/01) courageous feature should be read by all who are concerned about the politics of anti-development. The article chronicles the ways in which the anti-salt plant project was a demonstration of eco-terrorism at its worst. Celebrity pawns lent their own images to IFAW's drive to intimidate Mitsubishi with a campaign that encouraged individuals and institutions to divest themselves of stock in the company. In the end, the Clinton administration informed the Mexican government of the advisability of seeing to it that the project was scrapped. Imperialism has many faces, but the false green one is among the most offensive.

Even anti-development advocates themselves admitted that the campaign had not been about gray whales. Whales were merely an image vehicle for a power train that was aimed at stopping development in an under developed region, simply because it was possible to do so through an appeal to an affluent cyberpublic. The whole exercise was intended to be a demonstration of power for its own sake. Industries and governments the world over must heed this as a warning that cyberpolitics and cyberpower to misinform a gullible public can be expected to put on more demonstrations that are pretenses of environmental altruism.

Development for people and their environments is the new target of these green protest machines. They have evolved from animal rights, to environmentalism, to power brokers amongst governments whose leaders are weak and politically insecure. Unholy deals have been made, and can be expected to build upon this and other successes.

Both fisheries and forestry are the next vastly and unfairly maligned targets of the so-called new environmentalists. In the very near future, it is imperative that these industries and range-relevant governments sit down together to discuss this impending threat to sustainable use, ecosystem management, and human welfare. The realities of cyber-response to future anti-development campaigns must be considered in a global perspective that includes both domestic and international politics, and the merits of development under regulated, science-based regimes. Industry and governments together must conduct public relations on a global scale in a truly educational, truthful, proactive manner. There is no other way for sustainable development forces to win in this changed political arena. The bottom lines are tallies of both corporate and biological realities.