Blueprint for Going Green: How a Small Foundation Changed the Model for Environmental Conservation

by Gerald P. McCarthy

Overview

How one organization took on industrial pollution—and the lessons for our new century 

In 1977, one forward-thinking judge took an ecological disaster—the poisoning of the James River by Allied Chemical—and turned it into a great environmental-protection legacy. The $8 million payment made by Allied would go on to fund the game-changing Virginia Environmental Endowment.

Blueprint for Going Green provides an insider’s account of the remarkable results of this landmark ruling and the foundation it spawned. Over the following decades, the VEE helped to grow the fledgling environmental movement in Virginia into a powerful force for protecting the state’s water quality and conserving its landscape. This inspiring story reveals how a small group can make a profound difference by engaging in public policy work, funding science to advance public policy, and helping to build a lasting and effective citizen-led environmental movement. 

Finalist for the Southern Environmental Law Center's Phillip D. Reed Environmental Writing Award

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813951836
Publisher:	University of Virginia Press
Publication date:	03/01/2024
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 5.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Gerald P. McCarthy is the founding and former executive director of the Virginia Environmental Endowment.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. A Poisoned River: The Disaster That Started It All
2. The Judge's Trust: How an Unprecedented Court Ruling Created the Virginia Environmental Endowment
3. An Independent Board: Establishing the Virginia Environmental Endowment
4. Defining the New Endowment
5. Article XI: The Conservation Article
6. Permission to Pollute: The Clean Water Act
7. The Clean Water Act in Virginia
8. The Clean Water Act: A Case Study and New Challenges
9. Environmental Policy in Virginia: How the Holton Administration Laid the Foundation for Environmental Improvement
10. The Updated Mission of the Endowment
11. The Public Interest
12. The Chesapeake Bay
13. Clean Water and the Growth of Environmental Advocacy
14. Land Conservation and the Growth of Environmental Advocacy
15. The Virginia Conservation Network
16. Telling the Stories
17. Attitudes of Virginians about the Environment: The First Poll
18. Follow the Money: Fiscal Analysis and the 2 Percent Solution
19. Environmental Education: Promoting Environmental Knowledge
20. Science Matters: Fisheries Management in the Chesapeake Bay
21. Climate Change
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Author's Note
Appendix
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

William Kovarik

Far too often, environmental history focuses on combative advocacy and neglects the incremental construction of enduring environmental protection. Mr. McCarthy’s account of the founding and operation of the Virginia Environmental Endowment is essential to an understanding of environmental history at the state level.

Dean King

“'The battle for conservation must go on endlessly,' John Muir famously wrote. 'It is part of the universal warfare between right and wrong.' But in Blueprint for Going Green, Gerald McCarthy, the former head of the Virginia Environmental Endowment, shows another path. In this shining example of turning lemons into lemonade, funds from the monumental 1977 Kepone water pollution settlement (thank you, Judge Merhige) meet inspired thinking, humble leadership, and grassroots resolve to bring adversaries together and to transform the state’s handling of its environmental affairs—making it a model for the nation. Read this insightful book, Citizens, and take note, whether it’s for the preservation of nature or other burning issues: reason + civility = progress!”

E. Franklin Dukes

McCarthy has a sophisticated understanding of the work that the Virginia Environmental Endowment undertook, the impact of that work, and the arena of environmental science and advocacy. The stories that he shares, many of them stories that only he and a handful of others could share, are enlightening.

From the Publisher

“'The battle for conservation must go on endlessly,' John Muir famously wrote. 'It is part of the universal warfare between right and wrong.' But in Blueprint for Going Green, Gerald McCarthy, the former head of the Virginia Environmental Endowment, shows another path. In this shining example of turning lemons into lemonade, funds from the monumental 1977 Kepone water pollution settlement (thank you, Judge Merhige) meet inspired thinking, humble leadership, and grassroots resolve to bring adversaries together and to transform the state’s handling of its environmental affairs—making it a model for the nation. Read this insightful book, Citizens, and take note, whether it’s for the preservation of nature or other burning issues: reason + civility = progress!”—Dean King, nationally best-selling author of Skeletons on the Zahara and Guardians of the Valley: John Muir and the Friendship That Saved Yosemite

McCarthy has a sophisticated understanding of the work that the Virginia Environmental Endowment undertook, the impact of that work, and the arena of environmental science and advocacy. The stories that he shares, many of them stories that only he and a handful of others could share, are enlightening.—E. Franklin Dukes, former director of the Institute for Environmental Negotiation, coauthor of Mountaintop Mining in Appalachia: Understanding Stakeholders and Change in Environmental Conflict

Far too often, environmental history focuses on combative advocacy and neglects the incremental construction of enduring environmental protection. Mr. McCarthy’s account of the founding and operation of the Virginia Environmental Endowment is essential to an understanding of environmental history at the state level.—William Kovarik, Radford University, author of Revolutions in Communication: Media History from Gutenberg to the Digital Age

Editorial Reviews

Far too often, environmental history focuses on combative advocacy and neglects the incremental construction of enduring environmental protection. Mr. McCarthy’s account of the founding and operation of the Virginia Environmental Endowment is essential to an understanding of the state’s environmental history.”—William Kovarik, Radford University, author of Revolutions in Communication: Media History from Gutenberg to the Digital Age

From the Publisher