The.Economist.2007-02-10 (966424), страница 10
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In some of the system's remoter parks, such as Lava Beds National Monument near the CaliforniaOregon border, site of much fighting in an Indian war of 1872-73, the number of daily visitors is down to tenor fewer.The importance of this decline can hardly be over-estimated for big environmental organisations such as theSierra Club: they have depended on what one expert calls “a transcendent experience in nature”, usually inchildhood, to gain new members and thus remain powerful lobbyists for environmental causes.
“The politicalimplications are enormous,” says Richard Louv, a writer whose most recent book, “Last Child in the Woods:Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder”, describes the social, psychological and even spiritualramifications of a dearth of outdoors experience for a generation raised on electronic, rather than natural,stimulation and entertainment.To encourage environmental interest in young people, particularly non-whites who are much less like to visitparks than whites are, Martin LeBlanc at the Sierra Club manages 65 volunteer-led programmes around thecountry to bring inner-city children into direct experience with the natural world.
“We don‘t need to be givingthem propaganda about offshore oil-drilling, not when they're 13 years old,” he said. “We just need to getthem outside.”For its part, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) has had its “Ranger Rick” magazine and educationprogramme for children in place for 40 years, but Kevin Coyle, the group's vice-president for education,thinks that the declining interest in the outdoors has spurred a feeling of urgency among environmentalists.“There won't be a conservation movement 30 years from now if there's no love for nature,” he says.The NWF has created a new “green hour a day” programme to encourage families to spend at least an houra day outside; a website with green-hour activities will go live in March.
The group has also joined withtraditional hunting and sportsmen's organisations, which are also experiencing declining membership andinterest, to lobby state governments for more outdoor-education funding.Mr Louv, the writer, has been busy as well, helping local, state and national groups bring America's childrenoutdoors under a campaign he calls “No Child Left Inside”. He is pleased by the idea's wide appeal. “Thisissue has the power to pull people together from sectors you wouldn't expect. Environmentalists aretraditionally liberal, but conservatives, too, are worried about children and nature,” he said. “It's a grassroots movement in both the literal and metaphoric senses”.Copyright © 2007 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group.
All rights reserved.About sponsorshipHealth careGod, sex, drugs and politicsFeb 8th 2007 | NEW YORKFrom The Economist print editionA new vaccine sparks controversy“THE governor's action seems to signify that God's moral law regarding sex outside of marriage can betransgressed without consequence.” Those words came this week from Rick Scarborough of VisionAmerica, a Christian lobbying group. The US Pastor Council and various Republican politicians have piledin too.Usually, this sort of right-wing animosity is reserved for the likes of Hillary Clinton, but this week's attackwas on one of the Christian right's favourite sons: Rick Perry, the deeply religious Republican governor ofTexas. His offence? Promoting the use of a highly effective new vaccine that is sure to save many womenfrom a nasty form of cancer.
But to some people, it is tantamount to encouraging promiscuity.On February 2nd Mr Perry bypassed the state legislature and mandated vaccination against the humanpapilloma virus (HPV). His order would affect all girls entering sixth grade (at about 11) unless theirparents opt out in writing. Perhaps 20m Americans carry this virus, making it one of the most commonsexually transmitted diseases in the country. Most strains are harmless, but a few can lead to cervicalcancer, the second most deadly form of cancer in women.Merck, a drugs giant, won federal approval for its HPV vaccine last year and has been lobbying for itsadoption. California, South Dakota, New Hampshire and other states now make it available. Virginia,Maryland and the District of Columbia are considering the matter, while Washington state this weekannounced a voluntary scheme.
But no state has mandated its use until now.Why did Mr Perry do it? Some sneerers have noted that his former chief of staff is now a lobbyist forMerck. Others think that the wily governor is distancing himself from his conservative base so that he canmake a plausible vice-presidential candidate in 2008. But there is another explanation: that he had thecourage to make a politically difficult but sound policy decision.
As he said this week: “If the medicalcommunity developed a vaccine for lung cancer,” he asked, “would the same critics oppose it, claiming itwould encourage smoking?”Copyright © 2007 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved.About sponsorshipVisa policyKeeping out more than terroristsFeb 8th 2007 | NEW YORKFrom The Economist print editionDisquiet is growing over restrictions on foreign visitors“ON THE boats and on the planes/ They're coming to America/ Never looking back again/ They're comingto America.” Neil Diamond might want to rethink the lyrics of his 1980 hit in light of recentdevelopments.
The number of overseas visitors to the United States (ie, excluding Canadians andMexicans) has fallen by 17% since 2000. Last year, arrivals from western Europe dropped by 3%, despitethe attractions of a weaker dollar and a record-breaking year for world tourism.The travel industry blames a tortuous visa process and a perception of poor treatment on entering thecountry. In a survey late last year, America scored more than twice as badly as the next region (theMiddle East) on traveller friendliness. Respondents said they feared immigration officials more thanterrorists.
New York worries that extra security measures since 2001 are making it less competitive as afinancial centre. American companies are holding more meetings abroad. Universities are moaning too.The “travel crisis” is even cited as a factor in the loss of the 2007 Pan American Games to Brazil.That sort of thing goes down badly with politicians, and they are queuing up to propose fixes.Congressional hearings were held last week. Byron Dorgan, the North Dakota Democrat who chairs theSenate's tourism subcommittee, says new legislation is needed. A bill is expected this year and willprobably borrow elements from the “Blueprint for Change” drawn up recently by the Discover AmericaPartnership, a travel-industry lobby group, with help from Tom Ridge, America's first homeland-securitychief.The document calls for the hiring of more consular staff to bring visa-processing times down from threemonths or more in some countries to below 30 days, and for rapid-response teams when waiting timesspiral—a team sent to India last year cut the backlog from six months to just over a week in a few days.It proposes extending visa-waiver rights to more countries—only 27 now have them—in return for moreinformation on travellers.
And it suggests ending the requirement that all visa applicants attend aninterview at a consular office, a huge inconvenience.The other plank of the proposal is sprucing up service at airports. Geoff Freeman, Discover America'sexecutive director, says the real problem at airports, as with embassies, is lack of people. At half of the20 busiest, he estimates, the customs service is understaffed by 20% or more. Management of queues ischaotic. Disney, which knows a thing or two about line management, has offered to help.
Its advanceshave been spurned.The State Department insists that things are getting better. Foreign scientists offered jobs in America nolonger have to wait several months for clearance, 12% more business visas were issued last year than in2005, and the annual number of student visas has stabilised. But it will take bigger smiles and smallerqueues to win back all those travellers who have decided that it is a lot less hassle to go elsewhere.Copyright © 2007 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group.
All rights reserved.About sponsorshipLexingtonRudy risingFeb 8th 2007From The Economist print editionCan America's most famous mayor become the Republican Party's champion?Kevin KallaugherON FEBRUARY 5th, Rudy Giuliani sort-of-almost declared that he is running for the Republicannomination, filing a “statement of candidacy”. It's a shame these people can't just spit it out; but the“statement” solidified Mr Giuliani's position as the Republican front-runner, an average of five pointsahead of his nearest rival, John McCain, in the polls. It also set off a firestorm between differentconservative factions—with pro-Giuliani forces praising him for being tough on crime and terrorism andsocial conservatives accusing him of “defacing the institution that forms the foundation of humancivilisation”, as Terry Jeffrey, an editor-at-large at Human Events, put it.Social conservatives are a big problem for Mr Giuliani.
He is the most socially liberal senior Republicansince Gerald Ford, in a party that has moved relentlessly to the right on social issues since Ford's day.Tony Perkins, the head of the evangelical Family Research Council, pronounces his candidacy“unacceptable”. Mr Giuliani is pro-choice and anti-gun, pro-civil unions and anti-moral censoriousness. Heis on his third marriage; he once lived with two gay men and a chihuahua, and dressed up as MarilynMonroe for a comedy sketch. This may go down well in Gotham. But will it play in Peoria? A Democraticstrategist quips that it is rather like their party fielding a segregationist.The polling evidence suggests that Mr Giuliani's views could be a problem for rank-and-file Republicansas well as professional culture warriors.
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