As a Kiwi, I suppose I should be proud that "100% Pure New Zealand" gets to "host" World Environment Day this year. Frankly, with politics consistently getting in the way of sustainability, I'm not. However at least it's given the government an excuse to throw some money around so that local groups can promote various E-friendly events over the week, and mayhap that it will have some positive results.
But come WED - an upgrade from plain old Arbour Day - on Thursday, there'll still be plenty of stone-throwing sceptics who doubtless will elect to ignore or even pour scorn on the occasion. So I'd like to do my bit to put them off their aim by critiquing some of the missiles they're fond of hurling.
"Environmentalism is a religion."
As if religion were a terrible thing. Well, perhaps it is; but it's ironic those who use this put-down are, generally, religious.
What they're really saying is you can't trust science. Or, more precisely, you cannot have faith in science. Sub-text: you can only have faith in God; anything lesser is not worth worrying about.
In other words, the facts that science provides us with to help explain our existence and give us knowledge of the universe around us are mere petty detail, and cannot make a fundamental difference - because that is God's role, alone.
Meaning: give up and accept your pre-ordained fate. Oh, and feel free to do whatever you will to the world in the meantime, because it ultimately won't matter a jot. It's God's plan, not man's.
Great. Just roll over. So much for self-determination, will, and freedom of choice.
"Environmentalism is anti-capitalist."
This assumes capitalism is the answer to our prayers. In God we trust. (See above.)
Actually, the New World Order graphically depicted on American currency is rooted in the Illuminati vision of science prevailing over religion. Bit of a contradiction, but then so is excusing rape and pillage for the purpose of profit as some form of God-given right.
In that context, environmentalism certainly is anti-capitalist, just as it is anti any other system that ignores the health of the planet for the sake of an abstract concept of wealth. Or vice versa devours the wealth of the planet for an illusory conceit of health.
Meaning: don't let a conscience get in the way, regardless of who or what you have to trample on to get yours. Oh, and don't worry about the future; you'll be dead, and if your offspring can't cope, tough.
Greed rules. That gets rid of compassion, sensitivity, or any other suggestion of care.
"The environment is naturally cyclic; man makes no difference."
This, in some ways the most invidious of the pet rocks, wraps denial of science up with egotistical greed and presumes that we mere mortals actually are God. Or at least can play the part well enough to remain inviolate while all else disappears into a quagmire.
Of course there are natural cycles, producing widely varying environments over differing lengths of time. We may not fully understand the mechanics of these cycles, but we know enough to have identified several primary factors - such as solar activity, particulate and gaseous atmospheric concentrations, oceanic thermal dynamics, and the like.
Moreover we know that man is busily exacerbating a number of these critical factors, and in so doing we are not so much producing our own "cycle" as corrupting the existing natural pattern. Hence, climate change.
It's a basic universal law: every action produces a reaction. Why anyone would think humans are immune from this principle is beyond me. But evidently, some do. And are so impressed by their own illogic they stop up their ears to the truth.
Meaning: I don't want to know, in case I have to take the blame. The ultimate cop-out. Childishly sociopathic though it is.
And there goes common sense.
So, as a contribution to Environment Week, look not at what you believe but at why you believe it. Do some clinical self-analysis; consider whether you've thought these things through for yourself or simply adopted someone else's measure of them.
Oh, and some pertinent scripture wouldn't hurt. After all, if this is God's environment, you might find you want to re-assess your respect for it.
