[diggers350] R4 'Analysis': Are environmentalists bad for the planet?

[Dan Olner]

Interesting - I'd note the following: I went to a Freedom Society (libertarian) (anti) climate change talk recently-

http://www.tfa.net/climateweek/

Apart from the ravings of David Bellamy et al, something the most fascinated me was the great wodges of pamphlets and books at the back by various rightwing thinktanks from the UK and the US. Of particular interest was an A4 booklet called "Green monitor: the real costs of the environmental movement" produced by-

http://progressive-vision.org/

Green Monitor has a website -

http://green-monitor.org/

 - where they aim to "highlight the real harm done by these groups in the developing world."

The list of issues on that site is the same as the booklet: for everything from DDT to Palm Oil, environmentalists' "ideological agenda" is, they claim, a direct cause of underdevelopment.

Just as with the climate denial echo-chamber, this meme about "environmentalists being bad for the planet" is being pushed by people with enough money to set up right-wing thinktanks and produce a lot of glossy material.

Dan
________________________________
From: diggers350 at yahoogroups.com [diggers350 at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Paul Mobbs [mobbsey at gn.apc.org]
Sent: 27 January 2010 01:23
To: envlist at yahoogroups.com; climate_change at foe.co.uk; diggers350 at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [diggers350] R4 'Analysis': Are environmentalists bad for the planet?



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Hi all,

Have a listen to this.

I've only had a cursory listen, and I might go back over it again if I have
time to put "finger to keyboard" on its content. It appears to me that it
proceeds from the notion that the ONLY major problem we have in the world is
climate change -- and thus omits reference to the limits to human ecology in
general, and the failure of the the "growth economy" to internalise this
issue.

Certainly I think "The Ethical Man" needs to decide whether he's into
'ethics/justice', 'green consumerism' or serious environmentalism -- perhaps
you might like to contact the Beeb on that too!

P.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00q3cnl/Analysis_Are_environmentalists_bad_for_the_planet/

Analysis - Are environmentalists bad for the planet?

The BBC's 'Ethical Man' Justin Rowlatt asks if the environmental movement is
bad for the planet. He explores the philosophical roots of a way of thinking
that developed decades before global warming was an issue. He also examines
some of the ideological baggage that environmentalists have brought to the
climate change debate, from anti-consumerism and anti-capitalism to a
suspicion about technology and a preference for natural solutions. Could these
extraneous aspects of green politics be undermining the environmental cause,
and are some environmentalists being distracted from the urgent task of
stopping global warming by a more radical agenda for social change?

Justin speaks to green capitalists including the Conservative MP John Gummer,
who thinks that technology and reinvented markets hold the answer to tackling
global warming. He talks to Greenpeace chairman John Sauven about green
attitudes to so-called techno fixes, including nuclear power, and discusses
green conversion tactics such as so-called identity campaigning with Tom
Crompton from the conservation charity WWF and Solitaire Townsend, co-founder
of the green public relations company Futerra.

The programme also hears from the leading green thinkers Jonathon Porritt and
Professor Mike Hulme, founding director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate
Change Research, and from the theologian and United Nations advisor on climate
change and world religions Martin Palmer. Martin sees parallels between some
parts of the green movement and millenarian cults who have claimed that 'the
end of the world is nigh'. Justin also interviews Andrew Simms from the New
Economics Foundation, who believes we can only tackle climate change if we are
weaned off our addiction to consumption and economic growth.

Broadcast on:
BBC Radio 4, 8:30pm Monday 25th January 2010

(available until next Monday)

- --
"We are not for names, nor men, nor titles of Government,
nor are we for this party nor against the other but we are
for justice and mercy and truth and peace and true freedom,
that these may be exalted in our nation, and that goodness,
righteousness, meekness, temperance, peace and unity with
God, and with one another, that these things may abound."
(Edward Burroughs, 1659 - from 'Quaker Faith and Practice')

Paul's book, "Energy Beyond Oil", is out now!
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Paul Mobbs, Mobbs' Environmental Investigations
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