Imploring the audience to act like 'owners, not renters' Howard Ernst, author of the 2003 Chesapeake Bay Blues, spoke to a rapt Yale audience on Tuesday November 11, 2003 regarding the flaws in the effort to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.

Ernst, assistant professor of political history at the United States Naval Academy, tilted at several environmental myths in his 50 minute speech. Chief among them was the notion that a voluntary, collaborative approach to protecting the Chesapeake is working.

He noted that it's not pollutants, over harvesting, or toxics that cause the bay to continue to decline. It is instead the political process. He exploded three myths in discussing the cause. The first was what he called the "grand illusion" that with more money and more time the bay will improve. The second is that there is an environmental silver bullet yet to be discovered, admonishing those who would advocate for science as the key to environmental restoration. Lastly, he deplored the "cult of courtesy" now evident in the Chesapeake Bay environmental community. A community that has evolved into a set of cozy partnerships that thrives on symbolic outcomes, but has made little progress. According to Ernst, "the Bay's bureaucracy is formidably complex and is not held to any standards of accountability. There appear to be no answers to Who's in Charge?, Who's responsible?, and Who's accountable?" Ernst' solution is elegant in its simplicity: more law with clear accountability. This would require a greater political will to clean up the Bay than now exists.

Ernst carefully outlined the role of government as steward: "The role of government is to create the incentives and punishments to ensure people treat the land as if the live on it eternally." According to Ernst, this is not now being done in the Chesapeake Bay and because of this the Bay continues its decline.

"Conflict, not consensus, defines environmental restoration," Ernst went on to state. A greater command and control effort is necessary from the federal government to exert the necessary change in human behavior. To do so, the environmental community needs to reactivate and aim its efforts at politicians.