“If Antarctica is melting – we have just 3 days to eat all the penguins”

Dear old Comrade Guise has been saying for some time that he’d quite like it if more folk would write for this blog; and given my quite spectacular knack of insulting, offending, annoying, and generally filling up the BULS inbox, I thought I’d give it a bash. After long and careful (5 minutes) consideration as to my target, I figured I’d go for those I like to refer to as the Eco-Warriors.

First let’s get one thing straight; before the legions of St. Al Gore hyperventilate, I’m not out to deny the bleeding obvious, our readership are too intelligent (just) for me to do that. My objections lie not so much with the motivation and the facts behind the Green Agenda, but with the methods and the mentality of many of those who attach themselves to it. I don’t think I’d be alone in saying that it seems to me that the green movement contains the highest proportion of nutjobs and loonies this side of Riyadh.

I could be referring to the ongoing Heathrow expansion farce here. I’m not, but if I were it would be the most topical in a long list of examples of eco-self righteousness. This is the main point of my argument – the actions undertaken by members and organisations within the green movement are carried out with the greatest possible amount of preaching and sanctimonious self-martyring imaginable – one where parallels are found only within religious extremism. For its many faults, I’d say Britain has some pretty damn fine representative structures – not perfect you could argue – but functional. For democracy to be worth anything citizens need to have equal representation; MPs are after all obliged to represent all their constituents regardless of which way they voted. Just because a citizen believes that their opinions are more valid or accurate than everybody else’s, doesn’t entitle them to any more representation, or to a greater say in the legislative process than anyone else.

An example I’d like to use is one I first read about many months ago. Freight trains are used to transport coal to Britain’s many (comparatively advanced) coal-fired power stations. Naturally a bunch of hippies decided they weren’t having this, though rather than follow correct procedure by writing to their MP – or maybe even voting in an election – they took matters into their own hands. They managed to stop a train en route, and having boarded and effectively hijacked it, proceeded to unload the contents there and then (without I might add, any concern for the mess they were making or the poor sod who’d have to clean it up). The issue was resolved when the police “talked them down”. Personally I’d have preferred to have seen their bodies dragged from the site, but you can’t have it all.

There are many other examples like this; from Greenpeace obstructing perfectly legal and legitimate whaling activity in the South Atlantic, to the eco’s with a boycott-fetish on campus, with everything in between; including I might add, the publicity-seeking d-list celebs in Heathrow. What is worst about all this, for me, is that I’m aware of the facts. I’ve read the literature; I’m familiar with a lot of the issues. When there is a strong militant faction within any organisation – who aren’t interested in discussion, who take matters into their own hands, and who arrogantly believe their opinions to be the only ones which are valid – is it surprising when many members of the general public take the reactionary stance that global warming is a mere fiction invented to con us? Hostility inspires suspicion.

Militants will always do their cause more harm than good – and it is always they who cannot see it. If well meaning greens want to save the planet,then they should do it by taking ordinary people into account – talk with them, not to them – rather than treating them like idiots, evil nature killers, or both. Don’t forget; its their planet too.

Angry emails to the usual address, thanks.