Carl Pope exits as Sierra Club chairman

The LA Times describes his departure after 18 years as a Sierra Club leader against a backdrop of declining membership, internal dissent, a weak economy and Congressional efforts to undermine environmental regulations. The 66-year-old Pope was executive director until 2009, when he ceded the post to Michael Brune, 40, who came out of the more scrappy Rainforest Action Network and Greenpeace. And the implication is that the Sierra Club’s San Francisco headquarters may not have been big enough for both of them.