Arthur Hailey - Overload

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Laura Bo Carmichael was next on the stand.

Despite her small, slight figure, the Sequoia Club chairman occupied the witness chair with grande dame demeanor, She was wearing a severe, tailored suit of beige gabardine and, as usual, her graying hair was cut severely short. She wore no ornamentation or jewelry. Her manner was serious. Her voice, as she responded to questions put to her by Roderick Pritchett, was crisp and authoritative.

"We have heard stated in previous testimony, Mrs. Carmichael," Pritchett began, "that a public need for more electrical power justifies building a coal-powered generating plant in the Tunipah area. Is that your opinion?"

"No, it is not."

"Will you explain to the commissioners your reasons-and those of the Sequoia Club-for opposing that construction?"

"Tunipah is one of the few, the very few, remaining natural wilderness areas in California. It abounds with treasures of nature-trees, plants, flowers, streams, unique geologic formations, animal, bird and insect life, some of those features representing strains which have become extinct elsewhere. The region is, above all, magnificently beauti-1ful. To despoil it with a huge, ugly, high-polluting industrial plant, serviced by a new railroad-itself polluting and intrusive-would be sacrilegious, an ecological stride backward to the last century, a blasphemy against God and nature."

Laura Bo had spoken calmly, without raising her voice, which made her statement more impressive. Pritchett paused before his next question, allowing the impact of her words to sink in.

“The spokesman for Golden State Power & Light Mr. Goldman," Pritchett said, "has assured the commission that disturbance of the natural state of Tunipah would be minimal. Would you care to comment on that?"

"I have known Mr. Goldman for a number of years," Laura Bo responded. "He means well. He may even believe what he says. But the truth is: No one can build any kind of a plant at Tunipah without doing tremendous, irreversible environmental damage."

The Sequoia Club manager-secretary smiled. "Am I correct in my impression, Mrs. Carmichael, that you do not really trust GSP&L where that 'minimal damage' promise is concerned?"

"Yes, you are-even if that promise could be fulfilled, which it cannot."

Laura Bo turned her head, directly addressing the two occupants of the bench who had been listening intently. "In the past, Golden State Power and most other industrial companies have proven themselves untrustworthy where environmental choices were concerned. When they were left alone they poisoned our air and water, plundered our forests, squandered mineral resources, scarred our landscapes. Now that we live in another era, where these sins are recognized, they tell us: Trust us. Our past mill not repeat itself. Well, I, and many others, do not trust them-in Tunipah or anywhere else."

Listening, Nim thought: there was a compelling logic to what Laura Bo was saying. He could, and did, dispute her view of the future; Nim believed that GSP & L and other organizations like it had absorbed the lessons of old mistakes, and had learned to be good ecological citizens, if for no other reason than that nowadays it was simply good business. However, no fair-minded person could argue with Laura Bo's assessment of the past.

Something else she had already done during her short time on the witness stand, Nim decided, was raise the level of debate far above the gallery-playing pettiness of Davey Birdsong.

"A few minutes ago," Pritchett said to Laura Bo, "you stated that some strains of natural life at Tunipah have become extinct elsewhere. Will you tell us what they are?"

The Sequoia Club chairman nodded. She said with authority, “There are two that I know of: a wild flower, the Furbish lousewort, and the Microdipodops, otherwise known as the kangaroo mouse."

Here is where we part company, Nim mused. He remembered his argument with Laura Bo over lunch two months ago when he had ob-1jected: "You'd let a mouse, or mice, prohibit a project which will benefit millions of people?"

Evidently the same possibility had occurred to Roderick Pritchett because his next question was: "Do you expect criticism on those two issues-the Furbish lousewort and the Microdipodops? Do you expect people to say that human beings and their desires are more important?"

"I expect a great deal of that kind of criticism, even abuse," Laura Bo said. "But nothing changes the short sightedness and folly of reducing, or eliminating, any endangered species."

"Would you explain that a little more?"

"Yes. A principle is intervened, a life-and-death principle which is repeatedly and thoughtlessly violated. As modern society has developed cities, urban sprawl, industry, highways, pipelines, all the rest-we have upset the balance of nature, destroyed plant life, natural watersheds and soil fertility, banished wild creatures from their habitat or slaughtered them en masse, disrupted normal growth cycles, all the while forgetting that every intricate part of nature depends on all the other parts for continuance and health."

From the bench the commissioner injected, "But surely, Mrs. Carmichael, even in nature there is flexibility."

"Some flexibility. But almost always it has been pushed beyond the limits."

The commissioner nodded politely. "Please proceed."

Her regal manner unruffled, Laura Bo continued, “The point I am making is that past environmental decisions have been' based on short term expediency, almost never a larger view. At the same time, modern science-and I speak as a scientist myself-has operated in self-contained compartments, ignoring the truth that 'progress' in one area may be harmful to life and nature as a whole. Automobile emissions-a product of science-are a huge example, and it is expediency which permits them to stay as lethal as they are. Another example is the excessive use of pesticides which, in preserving certain life forms, have wiped out many more. The same is true of atmospheric damage from aerosol sprays. It is a long list. We have all been moving, and still are, toward environmental suicide."

While the Sequoia Club chairman had been speaking, the hearing room had hushed to a respectful silence. Now no one moved, waiting for her next words.

"It is all expediency," she repeated, her voice rising for the first time.

"If this monstrous Tunipah development is allowed to proceed, expediency will doom the Furbish lousewort and the Microdipodops, and much else besides. Then, if the process continues, I foresee the day when a single industrial project-just like Tunipah-will be ruled as more important than the last remaining stand of daffodils."

The concluding words brought an out burst of applause from the spectator section. While it persisted, Nim thought angrily: Laura Bo was using her stature as a scientist to mate a non-scientific, emotional appeal.

He went on seething for another hour as the questions and responses -in similar vein-continued.

Oscar O'Brien's subsequent cross-examination of Laura Bo produced nothing in the way of retraction and in some areas strengthened her earlier testimony. When the GSP&L counsel inquired with a broad smile if she really believed "that a few populated mouse holes and an unattractive wild flower-almost a weed-are more important than the electrical needs of several million humans," she replied tartly, "To ridicule is easy and cheap, Mr. O'Brien, as well as being the oldest lawyer's tactic in the book. I have already stated why the Sequoia Club believes Tunipah should remain a natural wilderness area and the points which seem to amuse you are two among many. As to the 'electrical needs' of which you speak, in the opinion of many, the need for conservation, of making better use of what we have, is a greater need by far."