So who are all these evil-appearing “environmentalists?” Should all Birkenstock wearers be suspect? What about the lady at the grocery store with the canvas sack for her purchases?
There is a difference between those of us who care for the earth, want to use it wisely, and believe in recycling—and those who are in decision-making positions, setting policy and/or funding the programs. We are talking about something bigger, something organized, and something with plans greater than saving polar bears or spotted owls; something with plans to fundamentally transform the United States. There are hundreds of these groups influencing policy in America.
This is the second of a three-part series of excerpts from Energy Freedom by Marita Noon
They want to move people into cities where they are easier to control and get rid of inefficient human patterns—which is what happens when people live in rural locations. Many of the ideas lauded by environmental groups only work in cities: electric cars, community gardens, and mass transit. Control is really the issue.
Columnist George Will states: “Today’s green left is the old red left revised. The left exists to enlarge the state’s supervision of life, narrowing individual choices in the name of collective good. Hence the left’s hostility to markets. And to automobiles—people going wherever they want whenever they want. … The green left understands that the direct route to government control of almost everything is to stigmatize, as a planetary menace, something involved in almost everything—carbon. Environmentalism is, as Lawson (author of An Appeal to Reason: a Cool Look at Global Warming) writes, an unlimited ‘license to intrude.’ ‘Eco-fundamentalism,’ which is ‘the quasi-religion of green alarmism’ promises ‘global salvationism.’”
For forty-plus years they have continued what, in the 70’s, was called “conducting this politics of consciousness.” They mostly do not hold political office. Without violence, they have attacked minds. They have transformed society—all while we were sleeping. The environmentalists dream of a new earth. They have visions of a utopia. They do not have any real plans as to how they will get there. But they are conducting politics of consciousness and have managed to transform much of society into believing with them.
The environmental movement has been hijacked and the rank-and-file tree hugger is being used. Today the Birkenstock, love-bead wearers have grown up. They wear suits when needed, and they lobby Washington. Working with big budgets and contributions from wealthy foundations, they have almost unlimited tax-free dollars to push their agenda. They have cadres of attorneys with the sole goal of stopping things—attacking private property rights and free enterprise—in the name of saving nature. Their efforts are connected—if not coordinated.
Their efforts thwart the American dream as only big companies can afford to comply with the regulatory process and buy off the environmental groups and unions.
Groups such as the Sierra Club, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Alliance, Green Peace and Environmental Defense Fund each started as what is generally thought of as an “environmental group.” They worked to save the planet by cleaning up pollution and encouraging outdoor activity. The Sierra Club—probably the oldest of the environmental groups—was founded in 1892. Their long history provides a good example of the environmental movement’s evolution from true naturalists to today’s environmental extremists; how a well-intentioned hiking group can evolve into a group of radical extremists—without the average members knowing the change ever took place.
There have probably always been people who don’t like America—but they became outspoken in the 1960’s. They have been subtly working behind the scenes and most of us have paid no attention. We were sleeping and our freedoms have eroded.
Originally published in the Washington Examiner
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