Climbing High But Sinking Rapidly

1966 photo of Mazamas on the summit of Pico de Orizaba at 18, 491 feet above sea level, the third highest mountain in North America and the second most prominent volcano in the world after Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa. Half the earth's atmosphere lies below these climbers. The author is fifth from the right.
1966 photo of Mazamas on the summit of Pico de Orizaba at 18, 491 feet above sea level, the third highest mountain in North America and the second most prominent volcano in the world after Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa. Half the earth’s atmosphere lies below these climbers. The author is fifth from the right.

When I was a boy, my mother introduced me to mountaineering through a friend of hers who had undertaken many outdoor adventures. All it took was one trip into the mountains to convince me that this was a great sport. I joined the mountaineering club in Portland that my mother joined during the 1930s and have now been a Mazama for 55 years.

A proud mountaineering tradition
A proud mountaineering tradition

A couple of years later, I organized a trek down the Oregon Skyline Trail. My brother and I hiked 200 miles through mountains neither of us had seen before. And, we carried all of our supplies with us to prove the Seattle Mountaineers wrong. They had claimed that self-sufficient three week trips were impossible. It was a great adventure for teenagers who lived in Chicago at the time.

I also rendezvoused with the Mazamas in Mexico City to successfully climb the third, fifth, and seventh highest mountains in North America. It was one of their first major expeditions that was celebrated recently on its 50th anniversary. Again, we did it all ourselves.

But things change in half a century. Outdoor clubs now want to be about so much more than merely recreation. They want to be big businesses that have many members, many programs, many employees, and impressive facilities. That takes far more money than outdoor enthusiasts typically have. So they look for a money stream.
When I lived in California, I climbed with the Sierra Club as they expanded into political causes far removed from the High Sierras. As that proved lucrative and attracted many more members, the club rapidly expanded but largely lost sight of its namesake. The few of us still interested in mountaineering just kept to ourselves in the Sierra Peaks Section. Now that the club has further expanded with the $30 million they received from Chesapeake Energy to bash the burning of coal, they are hardly recognizable as an outdoor club.

So I was curious if the Mazamas here in Portland had gone the same route, abandoning the high mountains and high ideals for fields of greenbacks. I knew that the climate industry had been heavily recruiting allies in outdoor clubs and that Portland was a hotbed of climate nonsense.

What I found was a club in transition, sinking but not yet sunk. Their Executive Director, Lee Davis, still pays lip service to “having fun,” but is accelerating efforts to turn the organization toward “advocacy.” That is where the real money is, and he is under pressure from their Executive Council to raise ever more money.

To keep from spooking the membership still more interested in mountain recreation than politics, he emphasizes those things that the Mazamas have traditionally supported, such as preservation of fragile mountain environments. But he now includes various radical causes that suggest a sharp left turn. He supports packing club management with ideologues who have already transitioned away from mountaineering. And he just announced that the club will be spending about half of what they collect in dues on “advocacy,” a euphemism for “politics.” Dues are, necessarily of course, going up.

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden
Democratic Senator Ron Wyden

The club maintains close ties with local politicians under another euphemism “opinion leaders.” With Democratic Senator Ron Wyden and Democratic Representative Earl Blumenauer up for re-election in November, they figure prominently in the club’s advocacy. When I suggested that it might not be a good idea for a “non-profit organization” to be involved in partisan politics, they declined a request from Blumenauer to hold a political rally at Mazama headquarters on the East side of Portland. But for all intents and purposes, the Mazamas have become a branch of the ruling party in Oregon. Whenever I recommend that they take a bi-partisan approach and seek the support of politicians in rural areas, I am met with silence or hostility.

Democratic Representative Earl Blumenauer
Democratic Representative Earl Blumenauer

Unable to play a direct political role because of their IRS non-profit status, the Mazama leadership is increasingly emphasizing “Climate Change” over their traditional and broadly supported issues of preserving mountain wilderness and planting trees. It is an effective way to say that they are true believers in all things good (Democrats) and against all things bad (Republicans).

An easy way to establish that this shift is political rather than knowledge-based is to request a discussion of the merits of their positions, especially that humans are destroying the Earth’s climate by burning fossil fuels. While it is surely obvious that industrial encroachment on pristine wild lands constitutes a threat to these lands, it is far from obvious that CO2 creates a similar challenge for the planet. But those who rule the Mazamas have no scientific expertise. Discussions? You have to be kidding!

Further evidence of their political intent involves windmills and ethanol. If they really were environmentalists, they would oppose industrializing the last open spaces in Oregon with windmills, especially in the Columbia River Gorge. These spoil scenic vistas and kill many endangered birds and bats. They would also oppose environmentally destructive ethanol. Even one of their heroes, James Hansen, opposes that. And he comes from the corn capitol of the world – Iowa! But too many Mazamas have become party-line Democrats, unable to think for themselves.

At a recent meeting, one activist reported seeing a barge transporting diesel fuel up the Columbia River. She wanted the Mazamas to investigate, since the leadership has already taken a position against transport of crude oil by train, without of course, consulting the membership. I asked if they were opposed to the shipment of all refined oil products, such that gas stations in the Gorge and further East could no longer get the fuel they need. I also asked if they opposed the shipment of ethanol through the Gorge. They had not thought about the details.

But Lee Davis was quick to point out that they wanted to end not only all crude oil shipments by rail but all other commercial rail traffic as well. His idea was to seize the Union Pacific railroad tracks on the Oregon side and “re-purpose” them for light rail public transportation to Hood River and beyond. He claimed to have talked to “Senator Mark Johnson” who expressed enthusiasm. Never mind that Johnson is really a State Representative, known for his enthusiasm for all things wildly impractical and expensive close to election time.

Even more astonishing, Davis wants all public lands in Oregon dedicated to recreation and not “resource extraction.” More than half of the state of Oregon would be declared off limits for timber harvesting, mining, grazing and all other productive activities that Davis deems unsuitable. Even contemplating that much set aside for their personal use is amazing arrogance for the Mazamas. With just 3,400 members, fewer than one in a thousand Oregonians is a Mazama.

To make sure that this elitism carries forward to the next generation, the Mazamas conduct many “educational programs” to indoctrinate young people with their political “values.” Some are legitimate training sessions in mountaineering techniques. But a disturbing number are “Green Team” efforts in support of climate ideology.

What a change I have observed from my early years with the Mazamas, when they thought of mountaineering as an adventure, building character and knowledge of the natural world. In those days, our heroes were more likely to be Lewis and Clark than Wyden and Blumenauer.

Gordon J. Fulks lives in Corbett and can be reached at gordonfulks@hotmail.com. He holds a doctorate in physics from the University of Chicago's Laboratory for Astrophysics and Space Research and has no conflicts of interest on this subject.
Gordon J. Fulks

Gordon J. Fulks lives in Corbett and can be reached at gordonfulks@hotmail.com. He holds a doctorate in physics from the University of Chicago’s Laboratory for Astrophysics and Space Research and has no conflicts of interest on this subject.

(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Northwest Connection.)

 

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Comments to: Climbing High But Sinking Rapidly
  • September 23, 2016

    Gordon,

    Climate “ideology” does not exist. There is simply climate and the science of climate.
    Most anybody that has “Climbed High” has a more than usual respect for the environment. Gordon, is there a ideology around dumping trash in the wilderness? Or raw sewage in our rivers? If you think those things are a problem then why would you suggest that pumping trillions of pounds of man produced carbon containing compounds into the air is OK?
    We are only here for a tiny amount of time. We are stewards for that time. Why would you place your belief on environmentalism on the side of the industrial polluters.
    We all need to respect the place we live in. Please reconsider your position on environmentalism. We your help too.
    Russell Kelley

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