Environmentalism secrets

By Fred Gielow

April 1, 2006

If you think environmentalism is all about saving the Earth, protecting the whales, stopping pollution, and the like, here's some news. It's not! Listen to what environmental advocates themselves have to say:

 

• "I think if we don't overthrow capitalism, we don't have a chance of saving the world ecologically. I think it is possible to have an ecologically sound society under socialism. I don't think it's possible under capitalism."

  Judi Bari, Earth First! member.
  [Environmentalism equals replacing capitalism with socialism.]

   

• "The environmentalist's dream is an egalitarian society, based on rejection of economic growth, a smaller population, eating lower on the food chain, consuming a lot less, and sharing a much lower level of resources much more equally."

  Aaron Wildavsky, political scientist and professor.
  [Environmentalism equals making everybody equal; that is, it's communism.]

   

• "No matter if the science is all phony, there are collateral environmental benefits... [C]limate change [provides] the greatest chance to bring about justice and equality in the world."

  Christine Stewart, Canadian Environment Minister.
  [Environmentalism equals changing the world.]

   

• "We must make this an insecure and inhospitable place for capitalists, and their projects... We must reclaim the roads and plowed land, halt dam construction, tear down existing dams, free shackled rivers, and return to wilderness millions of tens of millions of acres of presently settled land."

  David Foreman, EarthFirst! member.
  [Environmentalism equals a return to primitive living.]

   

• "We've got to ride the global-warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing, in terms of economic policy and environmental policy."

  Timothy Wirth, Clinton Administration U.S. Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs, and one of a number of politicians (including Barbara Boxer, Barney Frank, Al Gore, John Kerry, Christopher Shays, and others) who were designated as "Green Leadership for the '90s."
  [Environmentalism equals changing policy by claiming – even without substantiation – it's necessary to save the world's environment.]

   

• "[W]e have to offer up scary scenarios [about global warming and destruction of the environment], make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts one might have... Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest."

  Stephen Schneider, Stanford University environmentalist.
  [Environmentalism equals lies "if necessary."]

   

• "We routinely wrote scare stories about the hazards of chemicals, employing words like "cancer," and "birth defects" to splash a little cold water in reporters' faces... Our press reports were more or less true... Few handouts, however, can be completely honest, and ours were no exception... We were out to whip the public into a frenzy about the environment."

  Jim Sibbison, former EPA press officer.
  [Environmentalism equals government-sponsored deception.]

   

• "Not only do journalists not have a responsibility to report what skeptical scientists have to say about global warming, they have a responsibility not to report what these scientists say."

  Ross Gelbspan, former editor of The Boston Globe.
  [Environmentalism equals silencing debate, and stifling contrary opinions.]

   

• "I would freely admit that on [global warming] we have crossed the boundary from news reporting to advocacy."

  Charles Alexander, Time magazine science editor.
  [Environmentalism equals indoctrination.]

Writer John Meredith summarizes:

"The radical environmental movement is destroying America. It is turning our society, once based on individual freedom and responsibility, into little more than mindless followers of regulations established at the whim of unelected special-interest groups."

Walter Williams has the last word:

"While the Soviet Union has collapsed, communism is not dead. It has [been] repackaged under a new name: Environmentalism. Communism is about extensive government regulation and control by elites, and so is environmentalism."

Fred Gielow is the author of "You Don't Say," and is involved in property rights activities at: http://www.youdontsay.org/.