The Idiocy of Enviro-moralism

I read two great pieces in the new york a few weeks ago.  The first is an amazing rant by Stanely Fish, blasting all the lifestyle changes and costs incurred for his family to “go green.”  I agreed with everything he said – but aside from a powerful love for what seems to be an obsessive compulsive wife, I can’t see why he went through it all.  Stanley writes…

. A few months ago, we decided to renovate a 30-year-old kitchen. The plans were modest; the contractor was engaged; the price was reasonable; I was happy. Then I went on a trip and when I returned, everything had changed. I was informed that the wood we had ordered for the cabinets comes from some far-off place and would have to be stored, transported, stored again and transported again, adding scandalously to the carbon footprint of my poor small kitchen. If we were to avoid being labeled environmental criminals, we would have to de-order the wood (somehow we managed to do this without incurring a restocking fee) and we would have to find a company in a nearby locale that would send us wood from a tree that was not cut down until our order had been received. (How this would be monitored is something I never found out.) The same company would also immediately plant a tree to replace the one we were harvesting, and we would receive a certificate attesting to all this from the Forestry Stewardship Council.

- http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/i-am-therefore-i-pollute/

The sheer idiocy of the whole thing is striking to me.  As you readers know, I have a profound respect for Nature and the living, breathing, intelligent entity that is planet Earth.  Nonetheless, the green agenda is not an environmental movement – at least not a rational one.  It is born out of an irrational moralistic ideal.  Again, the brilliant (but always big government republocrat) new york times sheds light on the psychopathology of moralism.  You can read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/magazine/13Psychology-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

The sheer self righteousness of this green movement is no different than that of radical right wing christians.  And just as global islamic terrorism grows abroad, we have a growing menace of domestic eco-terrorism in our own backyards.  Welcome to the new era of crusades where the rational and peaceful are nailed to the cross.  We live in a country where hummers are firebombed and where research facilities are vandalized.  Where is are the calls to liberate us from the menace of enviro-terrorism?

Here is a recently dugg article on the dangers of wind turbines to bat populations.

http://digg.com/environment/Wind_turbines_make_bat_lungs_explode

Of course bats are one of the main checks on rampant mosquito populations.  Preserving populations of bats is very important to human well being and comfort. Still, enviro-moralists are quick to decry any solution to the energy crisis short of returning to the stone age – thus sabotaging the progress of not just humans, but the future of all life on earth.

I would like to think there is a clear glimmer of hope, but I’m not so sure.  The mainstream has adopted the enviro-moralist agenda and bureaucrats are quick to pander with expensive solutions that will do nothing to make our world healthier and “greener.”  Still, such a dangerous and narrow ideology will eventually destroy itself in the darwinian market of ideas.