THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VII, Issue # 107, May 10, 2005
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
DEMONIZING DOE RUN
By Alan Caruba
THE ENVIRONMENTAL EXTREMISTS' WELL-COORDINATED ATTACK ON DOE RUN PERU: ONE OF MANY EXAMPLES OF THE
WAR RADICAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS ARE WAGING AGAINST INDUSTRIAL COMPANIES WHICH PROVIDE JOBS & A BETTER LIFE
FOR WORKERS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES & WHICH PRODUCE THE METALS, ENERGY, & WOOD PRODUCTS THAT ARE ESSENTIAL
INGREDIENTS FOR THE HOUSES, COMPUTERS, CELL PHONES, HOSPITALS, WATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS, & OTHER MODERN
BLESSINGS WE IN THE DEVELOPED COUNTRIES ENJOY & TOO OFTEN TAKE FOR GRANTED
FULL STORY:
You’ve probably never heard of The Doe Run Company of St. Louis or its subsidiary’s copper and lead smelting operation in the
small mountain village of La Oroya, Peru, about 112 miles from Lima, but not long ago, the village had a distinguished visitor, Dr.
Patrick Moore, Co-Founder of Greenpeace and Chairman and Chief Scientist of Greenspirit Strategies. The day he arrived, La Oroya’s
Mayor was leading thousands of marchers.
Were they protesting Doe Run Peru? No. They were demonstrating against radical environmental anti-mining activists, like Oxfam
and groups tied to Christian Aid, the Sierra Club, EarthJustice, and Friends of the Earth. The protestors were demonstrating against
radical environmentalists in order to insure continued operation of the smelting facility that is the town’s lifeblood.
It wasn’t just about jobs, either. Since purchasing the smelter in 1997, Doe Run Peru has launched programs to reduce the pollution
that is associated with all such operations. It’s also provided funds for healthcare, education, reforestation, and hot lunch programs
for local children.
Dr. Moore was impressed. He pointed out that Doe Run had inaugurated new water-collection systems for treating storm water and
sewage, and implemented “the first-ever community-wide” blood-level surveys and reduction programs, using Centers for Disease
Control protocols.
Before Doe Run arrived, the government of Peru and others had owned and operated the facility for 75 years. During all that time, no
effort was made to repair damage to the forests and rivers around La Oroya or to improve the health and safety of people who worked
in or lived near the smelter. During all that time, the activists were nowhere to be found.
Doe Run Peru has spent nearly $140 million: on pollution reduction and health programs, and to plant 106,000 seedlings, modernize
schools, and provide small business and vocational training for nearly 8,000 local women. Some of the women have since started new
businesses in La Oroya and neighboring communities. Life has improved markedly.
The villagers know and appreciate this, which is why they are demonstrating for the company and against the anti-DRP activists.
You’d never know that, if you read the St. Louis Post-Dispatch or watched the CBS affiliate KMOV-TV, a small
television station in St. Louis. Instead, you’d hear that DRP was just another capitalist exploiter of natural resources, intent on
destroying the lives of La Oroya’s poor people.
This well-coordinated attack on Doe Run is yet another example of the war radical environmentalist groups are waging against industrial
enterprises that produce the metals, energy, and wood products that are essential ingredients for the houses, computers, cell phones,
hospitals, water treatment systems, and other modern blessings we enjoy and too often take for granted.
Shutting down the production and flow of these raw materials has become a primary goal of the environmental movement that Dr.
Moore helped found and has since rejected. If their efforts throw thousands of Peruvian workers out of work, that’s just a shame – or a
bonus from the environmentalists’ point of view. No wonder he says the movement “has lost its objectivity, morality, and humanity.”
Too often our “mainstream media” has become an active player in these anti-technology, anti-people campaigns.
Many times, KMOV-TV reporter Craig Cheatham has offered his perverse version of what Doe Run Peru is doing. His
“investigative news reports” have presented opinions, accusations, and unidentified “experts,” at least one of whom was an anti-mining
activist with no expertise in toxicology. They have misrepresented the facts, ignored the 75-year history of neglect, and scrupulously
failed to report both Doe Run’s improvements and the views of the Mayor and other villagers who support mining. About half-way
through one recent report, Cheatham finally inserted a few comments by DRP President Bruce Neil, who might have set the record
straight, if he hadn’t been subjected to the kind of attack journalism normally reserved for serial killers.
Cheatham condemned Doe Run for not redressing 75 years of neglect overnight and the Peruvian government for giving the company
more time to reduce air pollution even further. Neil tried to point out that his company’s programs had already helped reduce average
worker blood lead levels by 31% since 1997, but Cheatham ignored this.
He didn’t mention that the activists have, in all likelihood, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on their anti-mining campaign, but
have done nothing for La Oroya’s people, except, reportedly, to give them some vitamin C tablets, supposedly to help reduce the impact
of lead in their bodies. Cheatham and KMOV have refused to say who funded his most recent trip to Peru, but the station manager
has said it wasn’t KMOV. That has every appearance of a violation of journalistic ethics, further compounding the other sins of
commission and omission.
Stories and editorials in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and attacks by students and professors at St. Louis University, have abused
the truth in similar ways.
These self-proclaimed champions of humanity are unjustly demonizing Doe Run Peru to further their own agendas. They justify their
existence and their attacks by claiming they serve the public interest, but they do nothing to create health or prosperity. In fact, they end
up destroying both the means by which these desirable ends are achieved and the lives of people who want to enjoy just a few of the
many blessings that we in the developed world view as our birthright.
This is what today’s environmental movement is all about. If it sounds anti-American, it is.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center (www.anxietycenter.com).
© Alan Caruba 2005
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
Return to Top of Page
Go to the WEBSITE INDEX
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
Most Recent Articles
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume VII, 2005
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights
Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage
CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION
This is not a commercial website. The sole purpose of the website is to share with interested persons information regarding civics,
civic and social education, political science, government, politics, law, constitutional law and history, public policy, and political
philosophy and history, as well as current and recent political developments, public issues, and political controversies.
POLITICAL EDUCATION, CONSERVATIVE ANALYSIS
POLITICS, SOCIETY, & THE SOVEREIGN STATE
Website of Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr.
Government, Politics, Public Policy, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, Government & the Economy, Cultural Values, Foreign Affairs,
International Relations, Military Defense & National Security, Geopolitics, Terrorism & Homeland Security, American National Interests,
Political Systems & Processes, Political Institutions, Political Ideologies, & Political Philosophy
INDEX FOR THE ENTIRE WEBSITE
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues