I had the honor of serving as one of David's "assistants'' during the last few years of his life. We co-wrote several articles, often appeared together on panels and worked jointly to stop the extortionate Headwaters forest deal and Sen. Dianne Feinstein's attempt to increase logging in the national forests of the Sierra Nevada.

The rap against David was always that he didn't know how to compromise. He is described as a crusader, a warrior, pugnacious and militant. We are reminded that the Sierra Club removed him as director after he had built the organization 40-fold over a 17-year span. He went on to found Friends of the Earth, which also dismissed him due to his aversion to taking half a loaf.

Some trace this reticence to compromise back to 1956 when David, already the leading environmentalist in the country, signed off on the building of Glen Canyon dam. It was part of a deal to keep the Bureau of Reclamation from building the Echo Park dam inside Dinosaur National Monument in northern Utah. He often referred to this trade-off as "the biggest mistake of my life.''

In subsequent years, David stood toe-to-toe with water barons, speculators, bureaucrats and politicians to stop the building of dams in the Yukon and the Grand Canyon. Exhibiting a flair for media, David argued in full-page ads in the New York Times, "Should we also flood the Sistine Chapel, so tourists can get nearer the ceiling?''

By 1996, David was the most famous Green Party member in the country. He was blunt in his criticism of the Clinton-Gore administration, shocking the mainstream environmental community with his charge that Bill Clinton and Al Gore had done more harm to the country's forests and streams in four years than presidents Reagan and Bush had done in 12. David was deeply alarmed by our current disastrous course, labeling the economic boom of the '90s a "global liquidation sale.''

David was a coalition builder to the end, bringing union workers and environmentalists together to found the Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment in 1999. At a Houston hotel bar, he and David Foster of the United Steelworkers of America worked out an agreement that read: "If you will promise to make sustainable jobs a product of environmental protection, we will promise to make environmental protection our most important job.''

Just weeks before his death, David penned an editorial for the magazine In These Times, in which he cited the latest statistics on ozone depletion, nitrogen imbalance, climate change and species extinction. He concluded by imploring progressives and environmentalists to use the voting booth to send a strong message.

"Don't sell your soul to fear in this election. Choose hope and vote for a future that is unpredictable, rather than the downward spiral we can see plainly in front of us. After all, risk is the spice of life, variety is just the meat and potatoes. Vote Nader, and begin to create a future you can really believe in.''

Ironically, three of the major environmental organizations that David is most closely associated with -- the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters and Friends of the Earth -- all declined to follow his lead in last Tuesday's election.

The officers of those organization might better pay tribute to his memory by heeding his sage advice. "The planet is burning,'' he often said, "and all I hear from them is the music of violins.''

How can a society built on the notion that the natural world exists merely for the pleasure of and exploitation by human beings possibly serve the Brower legacy? In my view, not much can be hoped for from our current political quagmire. As David said, "When they win, it's forever. When we win, it's merely a stay of execution.'' What is needed is not an issue-by-issue approach to environmental restoration but a new way of thinking about the environment. David's vision, shaped over decades of experience as an avid and expert mountaineer, was about the connectedness of all life. You don't solve global warming by bringing more nuclear power plants online. You don't save endangered species by further compromising their habitat. You don't save the forest by cutting more trees.

The last time I saw David was at the Green Party convention in Denver last summer. Everywhere he went crowds of admirers young and old surrounded him, wanting to spend just a brief moment in the aura of a legend. I watched him talk softly with people, smile and laugh while he signed copies of his latest book.

A friend who stood by David's bed in the days before his death told me that he maintained his optimism even as the cancer finally had its way with him, his body compromised but his intellect sharp, his spirit serene.

David Brower challenged us to comprehend both the awesome beauty of creation and the awesome responsibility we have to preserve it. Whether we meet that challenge will determine nothing left than our survival.

Dan Hamburg is a former member of Congress and was the Green Party candidate for governor of California in 1998. He is currently executive director of Voice of the Environment.

©2000 San Francisco Chronicle

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