A New York Times report documents how the environmentalist Sierra Club group imploded after trying to maneuver into diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in the last few years.
The report included many firsthand accounts of how racial activists were brought into the fold and then colonized the environmental mission, leading to the downfall of the organization.
‘That’s fine, Delia. But what do wolves have to do with equity, justice, and inclusion?’
The Sierra Club was one of the foremost influential environmentalist groups before it allowed social justice proponents to hijack its agenda, the report suggested. The result was a drop in donations and membership and a rise in layoffs.
A tax filing analysis showed that the group consistently brought in tens of millions of dollars more every year than it spent from 2015 until 2019. In 2020, it was about even, but the expenditures far exceeded revenue in 2022 and 2023.
“Sierra Club is in a downward spiral,” read a letter to the leadership from a group of managers.
The Sierra Club had about four million members and supporters in 2019 but has lost a whopping 60% of those since, the report claimed.
The report said the organization pivoted to expand its focus during President Donald Trump’s first term to include racial justice, labor rights, gay rights, immigrant rights, and other causes. That experiment failed so badly it had to fire Ben Jealous as executive director, whose previous job had been heading up the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
On the way there, the group aliened many of its dedicated volunteers.
It drove away longtime volunteers who loved the club’s single-minded defense of the environment, by asking them to fully embrace its pivot to the left. Some even felt they were investigated by the club for failing to go along. Many hard-core supporters felt the Sierra Club was casting aside the key to its success: It was an eclectic group of activists who had one, and sometimes only one, cause in common.
The Sierra Club also issued an “equity language guide” that warned employees against using problematic words, including “vibrant,” “hardworking,” “lame duck session,” and even the word “Americans.”
One Sierra Club director objected to a budget that paid for only two full-time employees to fight Trump’s policies on the Arctic refuge while funding the equivalent of 108 full-timers on DEI. They passed the budget despite his protest.
After former President Joe Biden won the election in 2020, the report said that the Sierra Club lost supporters over a public argument about making Israeli divestment an environmental issue. The group backed off on the issue but not before damaging support.
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One anecdote included in the report was a staff member’s response to an ecologist volunteer who opined that Sierra Club should seek more protections for the wolf population in Colorado.
“One of the staff said, ‘That’s fine, Delia. But what do wolves have to do with equity, justice, and inclusion?’” she recalled.
The Colorado chapter responded: “No one was investigated or accused of values misalignment on the basis of wolf conservation efforts.”
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