Some History
Green Delaware is a grassroots organization concerned with environmental and public health issues in Delaware and surrounding states. We advocate policies consistent with good health, preservation of biodiversity, and long term sustainability. We believe that achieving these ends also requires progress towards human relationships based on peace, justice, and democratic forms of government.
Green Delaware is both a new organization, founded in 1995, and an old organization, in the sense that we draw on close relationships with long-established organizations such as Delaware Citizens for Clean Air and the Coalition for Nuclear Power Postponement. Activities for Green Delaware in 1999 will continue to focus on solid waste (we oppose garbage incineration and support recycling) and water quality (we want the City of Wilmington, DE, to stop discharging untreated sewage into its rivers.) Our greatest achievement of 1998 was securing the passage of Senate Bill 98 in to law and thus banning garbage incineration in Delaware's "Coastal Zone." The Coastal Zone includes the proposed Pigeon Point incinerator site between New Castle and Wilmington, and a strip along the entire Delaware coastline on the Delaware River and Bay. The previous year, 1997, we endured the State's demands for a membership list, which were withdrawn after we held a press conference about it.
Why Green Delaware?
Why should a state as well endowed with natural and human resources be as polluted and unhealthy as Delaware? Why are we destroying our natural resources and quality of life so a small minority of property owners and developers can get richer? Why do we let some of the world's worst environmental offenders write our environmental laws? We think Delaware can do much better.
A truism is that all activists feel their areas are the most difficult to be found anywhere. Still, Delaware, with it's traditions of control by the chemical industry, paternalistic, anti-democratic style of government, and determination to remain a preferred legal home for corporations everywhere, poses special challenges. For instance, our small size, with a total population of around seven hundred thousand, makes it hard to build independent organizations supported by member dues. The weak state of journalism in Delaware means that public dialog tends to be limited, with alternative points of view not treated seriously, and often blacked out completely.
Perhaps it's not surprising, in these circumstances, that Delaware has an ineffective "environmental community," and environmental concerns are far from the forefront in policy making. Seldom do civic, peace and justice, or "good government" organizations emerge from the corporate shadows and offer serious challenges to the status quo. No member of the Delaware General Assembly regularly speaks out publicly on behalf of environmental or public health concerns while many members actively work to weaken environmental protections.
Given this sad state of affairs in Delaware, therefore, we challenge you to read on, respond, and get involved.
