Weekend Reader, Sunday Jan. 21

With hundreds of thousands showing up in Washington, New York, Chicago, LA and other cities to raise hell over a smorgasbord of causes, environment, environmental justice, and climate change have at least a toehold.

Los Angeles marchers read the list: "ending violence, protection of reproductive rights, LGBTQIA rights, workers' rights, civil rights, disability rights, immigrant rights, Indigenous people's rights and environmental justice."

Like a year ago, marchers and organizers led with women's issues, further energized by emergence of the #metoo movement. But revulsion toward President Trump and his policies shared the nationwide stages, with twin backdrops of a government shutdown and Trump's one-year anniversary on the job.

It's easy to imagine that the clear success of these two marches, a year apart, represents a credible "Resistance" to a political party that's left its mark on the Supreme Court and holds the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. And march organizers put a strong focus on the midterm elections—a movement that doesn't vote, can't win.

Consider the last time such a movement existed, 1970. The Vietnam War was the central issue; decay and tension in America's inner cities were also a major focus; burgeoning movements on feminism, the environment and more played supporting roles.

Alas, the anti-war, pro-environment, pro-equality candidate, George McGovern, lost to Richard Nixon in an epic landslide two years later. And this new movement has its work cut out for it. In the 1970's, many Republicans had fairly strong environmental leanings. Virtually no Republican officeholders do today.

Despite his support for the war and the dirty dealings of Watergate, Nixon founded EPA and NOAA and signed laws like the Clean Air Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. He also vetoed the Clean Water Act only to see a bipartisan Congress override that veto.

Imagine that happening today.

Trump would of course have no part of such things. But humor me: Today's marches could be the seed of an effective resistance to the most destructive environmental administration in American history as part of addressing a broad range of human rights and wrongs. We'll see. And now, this:

A career like no other: Jack Gerard announced his retirement after ten years at the helm of the American Petroleum Institute, Big Oil's preeminent lobby group. Prior to that, Gerard led the American Chemistry Council, Big Chem's preeminent lobby group. And before that, he headed up the National Mining Association, the coal and hard-rock mining industry's preemineent lobby group. Whew.