Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Environmental EXTREMISM
It's nice to see people wake up and pay attention once in a while. George Will commented on media bias and global warming over the weekend and Iain Murray at the Corner noticed and linked to two similar articles in UK papers.
Ah, but you see it is no longer good enough to proclaim apocalyptic visions of the end of the world from fossil fuels forcing us all to radically change the way we live. No, according to (I know you have heard of him by now) Dr. Eric Pianka we need to kill off 90% of humanity to "save the planet." The Pearcey Report was where I first picked up this story here and here and because it's good, here is Greenie Watch's take on the matter.
Now, I have to say, the coverage on this is amazing - this isn't news. Greenie Watch correctly notes that this kind of talk has existed since the beginning of the environmental movement in the 70's. What's more, it's inevitable given the viewpoints, philosophies, and underlying assumptions of many in the environmental movement. CS Lewis foresaw this in the wake of WWII.
So, two points I want to make on the matter. Firstly, it has long been said that communism is not dead, it has changed it's name to the "green movement." There is some insight in that, but I think if you scratch the green commie you're going to find a fascist underneath. Only a fascist would dare propose the elimination of 90% of humanity with a straight face. Remember, even most communists viewed the Stalin purges as an abomination.
But the second point I wish to make is the really important one. Guys like Pianka are useful - they become a yardstick that we can hold up to "more moderate" environmentalists and say "Do you support this guy?" He is a tool we can use to force those people into a little critical thinking. That's why I'm not specifically tackling the guy's assertions here - I don't need to - who needs to are people like the Evangelical Climate Initiative - they have to make plain why it is they are not like him and will not end up where he is.
Related Tags: environmental extremism, Dr. Eric Pianka, global warming, climate change, Evangelical Climate Initiative
Ah, but you see it is no longer good enough to proclaim apocalyptic visions of the end of the world from fossil fuels forcing us all to radically change the way we live. No, according to (I know you have heard of him by now) Dr. Eric Pianka we need to kill off 90% of humanity to "save the planet." The Pearcey Report was where I first picked up this story here and here and because it's good, here is Greenie Watch's take on the matter.
Now, I have to say, the coverage on this is amazing - this isn't news. Greenie Watch correctly notes that this kind of talk has existed since the beginning of the environmental movement in the 70's. What's more, it's inevitable given the viewpoints, philosophies, and underlying assumptions of many in the environmental movement. CS Lewis foresaw this in the wake of WWII.
So, two points I want to make on the matter. Firstly, it has long been said that communism is not dead, it has changed it's name to the "green movement." There is some insight in that, but I think if you scratch the green commie you're going to find a fascist underneath. Only a fascist would dare propose the elimination of 90% of humanity with a straight face. Remember, even most communists viewed the Stalin purges as an abomination.
But the second point I wish to make is the really important one. Guys like Pianka are useful - they become a yardstick that we can hold up to "more moderate" environmentalists and say "Do you support this guy?" He is a tool we can use to force those people into a little critical thinking. That's why I'm not specifically tackling the guy's assertions here - I don't need to - who needs to are people like the Evangelical Climate Initiative - they have to make plain why it is they are not like him and will not end up where he is.
Related Tags: environmental extremism, Dr. Eric Pianka, global warming, climate change, Evangelical Climate Initiative
