My recent essay, The Hypocrisy of Environmentalism, certainly struck a nerve. Many responses were positive, however, several of the negative ones were downright nasty. The one that struck me the most came from a woman who wished my untimely demise and called me "subhuman." Others queried as to why I was so upset with the green movement: for what have they ever done to me? To this question, I shall limit my answer to my professional and personal experiences — with the unsavory practitioners of green socialism — and will close with some final thoughts.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Professionally, I have first-hand experience in dealing with a family-owned sawmill that closed down its operations when it became economically unfeasible to continue battling with environmentalists. As a surety bond underwriter, I provided performance and payment bond credit to this timber-products company — which was one of my absolute favorite clients. Such bonds guaranteed that the timber would be harvested and paid for as prescribed by the contract with the U.S. Forest Service. During the years of this business relationship, I watched this once-thriving business be slowly strangulated by greenies.
An important lesson, I learned about environmentalists, is that they "play" dirty. One example of the underhandedness this lumber company endured, at the hands of environmentalists, pertained to a false claim that a wolf’s footprint was found on a remote road that went through a timber sale my client had recently secured (in a nearby national forest). Based upon the "discovery" of this footprint, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) shut down this sale and called in wildlife biologists to investigate the matter — after all, wolves are an endangered species and hadn’t been seen in this particular national forest for decades. Several months elapsed and it was finally determined that the footprint was either that of a coyote or some hiker’s pet dog. By the time the USFS gave my client the approval to harvest the timber, winter was upon us and the timber would have to be harvested in the ensuing summer. The environmentalists knew that the trees would eventually be harvested; yet, they had accomplished the goal of inflicting economic damage on this family-owned business — for the revenues, profit, and cash flow this timber contract would have generated, in the current fiscal year, had to be pushed into the next year. Indeed, even eco-fascists understand the time-value of money.
To make matters worse, my client had to deal with harassment, vandalism, and tree spikings. To be sure, environmentalists condone eco-terrorism. Fortunately, none of their employees were injured by these nutty greenies. Nonetheless, the owners of this sawmill became emotionally exhausted from constantly worrying about employee and personal safety. In this terrific little company, employees (not trees) were viewed as family.
In the end, my client could no longer afford to engage in expensive battles with the environmentalists. It came to the point where every timber sale would be contested with a lawsuit. Operating the sawmill ceased to be a profitable venture, hence, the family decided to close down the business. This was heartbreaking as dozens of long-time employees had to be let go and, in turn, dozens of high-wage jobs were lost. My client agonized over the impact the sawmill’s closing would have on scores of families while the environmentalists danced with joy as the trees (a renewable resource) would be "saved." At this point, it became crystal clear to me that environmentalists really view humanity as nothing more than a parasite sucking the life out of Mother Earth. Of course, we know who the real parasites are.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
One of the favorite targets, of greenies, is the SUV. A couple of years ago, a silly anti-SUV campaign emerged under the banner of "What Would Jesus Drive?" Even Bill O’Reilly, an anti-SUV goon himself, provided prime-time coverage for this vapid campaign. Of course, he and his guests concluded that Jesus wouldn’t drive a sports utility vehicle — as if they knew the mind of God. What arrogance.
Corresponding with the aforementioned anti-SUV campaign came a wave of SUV vandalism in the Pacific Northwest. Unfortunately, my SUV was vandalized to the tune of $700 worth of damage. When I reported this incident to my insurer, the claims adjuster stated that an obvious pattern had materialized in which SUVs had been targeted for vandalism. Thankfully, the repair work was absolutely perfect and my insurer treated me with the highest level of professionalism. This incident reinforced in my mind that the good guys were the capitalists and the bad guys, as usual, were the private-property-hating green socialists.
When it comes to writing essays for LRC, I have discerned an unmistakable pattern pertaining to e-mail responses. Inevitably, when I write an unflattering essay about the green movement, I receive virus-infected e-mails — yet another example of greenies trying to damage my private property. Fortunately, Symantec provides excellent anti-virus software. Thanks to a profit-seeking company, no damage has been done to my personal computer.
SOME FINAL THOUGHTS
Amongst the responses I have received, there were those from individuals who are simply animal and nature lovers navely sympathetic to the green movement. Such respondents believe that ethical vegetarians and environmentalists have clear claim to the mantle of moral superiority. To these people, my advice is to be careful with whom you associate. If you dig deeper into the green movement, disturbing facts will come to light. Here are a few:
- In writing The Green Book, Libyan dictator and terrorism sponsor Muammar Al Qadhafi has written what is considered, by many, to be the manifesto for green socialists the world over.
- Nazism was a green socialist movement.
- Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler were both vegetarians.
- After the Soviet Union collapsed, Mikhail Gorbachev — that skull-cracking communist — became the president of Green Cross International.
- The party platform, for the Green Party of the United States, advocates socialism — quite frankly, I consider Ralph Nader to be a communist.
When looking at the vile characters listed above, it came as no surprise that an environmentalist would wish me ill — or for that matter, call me subhuman. To this I will close with a quote from Dr. George Reisman’s magnum opus Capitalism:
The kind of potential murderers that are to be found in the ranks of the environmental movement are, for the most part, probably not personally violent in any apparent way. In eras that are philosophically and culturally better than our own, they might even pass their entire lives quietly, in modest obscurity, causing harm to no one. In such a better era, Hitler might have passed his days as an obscure paperhanger, Himmler as a chicken farmer, and Eichmann as a factory worker or office clerk. Lenin would probably have been a disgruntled intellectual, and Stalin perhaps an obscure cleric. But in the conditions of a collapse of rationality, frustrations and feelings of hatred and hostility rapidly multiply, while cool judgment, rational standards, and civilized behavior vanish. Monstrous ideologies appear and monsters in human form emerge alongside them, ready to put them into practice. The ecology movement is just such a movement, with just such a potential. Its expressions of approval for such images of a terrified human being, being eaten alive by alligators, is an invitation to torturers and murderers looking for a rationale to call for the exercise of their blood lust.
To embrace environmentalism is tantamount to embracing terrorism, war, death, and destruction.
