Paul Watson Fails in Bid to Take Over Sierra Club

On April 21, the Sierra Club announced the results of its vote for five open spots on the group’s board of directors. The anti-immigration/pro-animal rights slate promoted by animal rights extremist Paul Watson garnered only a small number of votes and were defeated.

Of 176,616 Sierra Club members who voted, only 14,527 voted for David Pimental, 13,090 for Dick Lamm, and a paltry 9,765 for Kim McCoy.

And speaking of Kim McCoy, she is of course the animal rights activist who claimed earlier this year that there was absolutely no connection between the animal rights and anti-immigration activists who were seeking seats on the board, saying,

. . . there is no alliance between animal rights people and “anti-immigration” people. Honestly, the two movements could not be more separate, and these allegations are nothing more than an attempt to distract from the real issues and power struggles at hand in this election.

As I noted before, McCoy forgot to tell that to Paul Watson who both on his website and in interviews complained that the anti-immigration candidates were being unfairly slighted as racists and professed his own anti-immigration views. On his web site, Watson posted a FAQ in early April addressing this issue,

2. What about the accusations that you are supporting an anti-immigrant and anti-immigration position?

I am not anti-immigrant and I am not anti-immigration. I am in fact an immigrant. My position is that I support the policies of the Sierra Club that were in effect from 1965 until 1995 which called for the Club to support population reduction and to address the factors contributing to population increase. Immigration is one of those factors. In 1996, the Club adopted a cowardly-head-in-the-sand policy of neutrality on immigration for fear that the issue was politically incorrect.

There are already limits on immigration. My position is that these limits should be lowered to achieve stabilization. The population of the United States is increasing at a rate of 1.1% per year and at this rate of growth, the population of the United States will reach one billion by the year 2100.

In an interview with the Associated Press after the results of the Sierra Club election were announced, Watson went further saying this was the most important environmental issue for the 21st century,

Watson said the Sierra Club cannot afford to ignore the population issue.

“It’s the most pressing environmental issue of the 21st century,” Watson said. “I find it cowardly for any environmental organization to avoid talking about the issue of human overpopulation.”

Yeah, Kim — the animal rights and anti-immigration movements are just world’s apart.

Sources:

Sierra Club Leadership’s Candidates Win. Terence Chea, Associated Press, April 21, 2004.

2004 National Board of Directors Election Results. Sierra Club, April 2004.

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