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Among the Intellectualoids
Environmental Endgame
Green religion explodes spectacularly.
(Page 2 of 2)
Now, thanks to the public relations imbeciles over at 10:10 Global, we have our greatest proof yet that radical environmentalism is a religion. The gory deaths in the commercial were only secondarily an attempt at humor. They were primarily a masturbatory fantasy for the acolytes of environmentalism. As 10:10 admitted (before the outrage), “It’s a fairly simple and to-the-point premise, I’m sure you’ll agree: we celebrate everybody who is actively tackling climate change… by blowing up those who aren’t.” Among the deniers, there would be great wailing and gnashing of teeth, no doubt.
Fortunately, there’s a solution for we heathens. For October 10, 10:10 is planning a day of global climate action that will supposedly be held in 140 countries. Want to protest their evil ad? This Sunday, leave your car idling in the driveway. Crank your heat up before you leave the house. Grab a couple of aerosol cans and point them skywards.
Don’t think of it as destroying Mother Earth. The earth will be just fine. Think of it as an act of protest against Mother Church.
About the Author
Matt Purple is The American Spectator’s assistant managing editor.
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Vaemar| 10.5.10 @ 6:20AM
Didn't anone previousluy see the nihilism and cultural self-hatred behind "Blackadder?" No surprise that this comes from the same stable.
Toto| 10.5.10 @ 12:48PM
I consider myself to be an environmentalist, and I just saw the commercial, and it is repulsive. How anyone could see humor or anything clever in this ad is beyond my comprehension.
I do know that the producer, Richard Curtis, is a purveyor of adolescent-mentality crap.
Only adolescent boys would find this ad humourous. To anyone with any intelligence, this commercial is creepy and infuriating. And it falls right into the hands of the climate-change-denial movement, of which there are many on this blog.
HotPat| 10.5.10 @ 1:34PM
The "climate-change-denial movement" to which you refer is premised on a complete lack of scientific evidence, but as an true believer, you can't admit that, can you?
222oof| 10.5.10 @ 2:21PM
HotPat, evidently you did not understand Toto's post. Toto is not a part of the "climate-change-denial movement. After he says he's an environmentalist, he says, "And it falls right into the hands of the climate-change-denial movement . . ."
He, obviously, is not a part of this movement. And you are correct about the global-warming deniers movement being premised on a lack of scientific evidence.
There is an avalanche of evidence for global warming.
JKS| 10.5.10 @ 2:38PM
Yep, and its all fabricated. You're a lemming.
WLB| 10.11.10 @ 10:50AM
I was a young adult in the 1970s and vividly remember our erstwhile climate scientists assuring us that if we didn't reduce auto and industrial emissions, a new ice age would envelop the earth by approximately now. They, too, cited an "avalanche of evidence" for their alarmism. They solemnly explained that the particulates from the emission sources they targeted were gathering in the atmosphere and blocking out the warmth of the sun. Anyone who questioned them was branded a "denier." Thus, we quite refining leaded gasoline, catalytic converters replaced mufflers and stacks at industrial sites across the nation were equipped with various filters, etc. Obviously, all these measures worked too well, for the same climate scientist types are now warning of the imminent spectre of global warming or climate change or whatever the term de jour is. So, the question arises: what will be the unanticipated ill consequences of all the "remedies" now being advocated as the "solution" to global whatever? Besides, of course, the further enrichment of those who will profit from the sale of said "remedies," and from the riches bestowed on the publicists of the " green movement," such as the jet setting former VP AlGore. Cheers, all. It' s a wonderous world.
Albert| 10.5.10 @ 3:05PM
An avalanche of evidence? For what? For Global Warming? Or MAN-MADE Golbal Warming? The globe has been warming and cooling for millennia, long before humans industrialized. Planet Earth warms and cools as a result of varying output from the Sun. The evidence for "man-made global warming", as JKS correctly noted, is fabricated. That means Mr. oof, it is, faked. Phony. Manufactured. Not real. Untrue. False. The only reason "man-made global warming" still exists as a viable concept is because AlGore and other crooks make millions of dollars from this scam.
222ooof| 10.5.10 @ 4:34PM
Albert is God Himself.
Albert knows with 100% certainty that the pollution and burning of fossil fuels that blanket the earth and cause the greenhouse effect do not cause global warming.
Albert is infinitely wise. Like God on High, Albert is omniscient.
Kudos and salutations go to the great Albert for his infinite knowledge.
Albert| 10.5.10 @ 5:21PM
How do you come up with this drivel? YOU made the blanket statement (which is demonstrably false) about the "avalanche" of evidence. The News is full of stories about how much of that evidence was faked. How do YOU know with 100% certainty that burning fuels DOES cause global warming? You don't. Burning of fossil fuels does put pollutants in the air, but to call this "blanketing" is ludicrous ("blanketing" would mean you couldn't see a blue sky, and this is ridiculous. Choose your words more carefully.) Your comments are meaningless. You offer no facts, no knowledge, and no insight. Go home and pray to AlGore some more.
Michael | 10.5.10 @ 5:25PM
Al and his Church of Global Warming...make that Climate Change...no, make that Climate Instability...or just Church of Climate certainly does provide for some comic relief at times. I half expect that we will soon hear of plans for a cap & trade proposal affecting moose and cattle farts. I know, I'm a heretic. A CO2 exhaling heretic in need of the Reverend Al's offset.
megapotamus| 10.5.10 @ 6:42PM
This is a good example of the anti-science and irrational nature of the Warmist movement. 222, it is not incumbent on anyone in the field of science or rhetoric to disprove anything. It is incumbent on the party making the claim to provide the evidence. In the case of global warming, what evidence that exists is falsified. The Climate Unit emails show this. Have you read them? You should. The biggest names in the Warmist camp in their own words discuss falsifying evidence and managing political/PR issues to their benefit. For myself, I will reconsider the notion of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming when today's Warmies plausibly explain what happened to the Global Cooling of the eighties. Hansen, Holdren and Mann all had their muddy paw prints all over that hoax which had the IDENTICAL solution to the opposite problem. But this begs another question; don't these pukes ever die?
Madge| 10.5.10 @ 7:12PM
Too much hot air in here!
Somebody, open a window.
These blowhards on global warming can't shut their mouths, And their horrific halitosis is killing me.
Stan Redmond| 10.6.10 @ 9:40AM
And how far we've come with an avalanche of manufactured evidence. 30 years ago we were causing uncontrolled global cooling with "fossile" fuel polution. Next we were causing uncontrolled catastraphic global warming with "fossile" fuel polution. Next we are causing catastraphic global climate change with "fossile" fuel polution. Now we are causing catastraphic climate disruption with "fossile" fuel polution. All this avalanche of evidence (aka BS) proves is the same environmental fanatics manufacture data and lie for profit.
Christopher Holland| 10.5.10 @ 8:01PM
Grow up, swtich your brain on. Manmade global warming is the biggest fraud in history. The scientific establishment do themselves an enormous disservice when they refuse to criticise the junk science behind this. After 20 years as an environmental economist, I think that anybody who believes in manmade global warming is simply stupid. There is not a shred of evidence to support this nonsense.
Booger| 10.5.10 @ 6:53AM
Ok, no satire here. I watched as much of the ad as I could stomach (and my name is Booger, for cryin' out loud). The classroom scene was FREASKISHLY reminiscent of my days in high school (aka Hell). I had a biology/chemistry teacher by the name of Bobby Wimberly who was a far-left nut on EVERY issue that came down. Bobby's idea of conducting class was to harangue us about acid rain, atheism, abortion and the evils of Ronald Reagan on a daily basis. At the end of one of his harangues on abortion he suddenly hit upon the idea of "polling" the class. This meant demanding that everyone who "agreed" with him was to raise his/her hand. At first only a few did so, which lead to more yelling and general craziness from Bobby. By the time it was over I found myself as the only student still refusing to raise his hand in support of legalized abortion. Believe me, if Bobby had possessed a button like the one in that ad, he would have used it on me in a heart beat. I've since learned from several of my friends that they experienced similar incidents from their teachers in other schools across the country. Apparently demanding your students raise their hands as agreeing with your Stalinist politics has really caught on with the public school teachers who came on after the sixties. Just a thought for those of you out there who might still think public schools are a good idea for your kids.
Cordially,
Booger
Petronius| 10.5.10 @ 8:17AM
To all captive students
When the teacher tells you to raise your hands giving approval to the whinge of the day, do so with middle finger extended.
Ned| 10.5.10 @ 12:57PM
Aw, c'mon Booger - give us fans something humorous to get through the day! Maybe a letter from Sebilus to the parents of the blowed-up kids?
Changing subjects only a little - I consider it one of my greatest accomplishments to have raised two conservative kids through public school...
Booger| 10.5.10 @ 1:48PM
Duly noted. I am deeply ashamed of my earlier whining and will return to letter writing. Thanks for the reality slap.
Cordially,
Booger
SoCon| 10.7.10 @ 12:32AM
Ned, you raised two Conservative kids IN SPITE of public school. Booger's right.
FTM| 10.6.10 @ 12:20AM
Public education is too critical a social function to be left in the hands of school teachers.
Jeanette | 10.8.10 @ 5:15AM
Reminds me of an "openly communist" prof I had in college. He had a clique of students who took every class he was allowed to teach. I think they kept him afloat at the school. Many times unsuspecting students like myself protested in class about his very forthright bias. His stock comments was, "I had nothing but capitalist teachers when I was in school." About the best reasoning he was capable of. When the USSR collapsed I yearned to give him a jingle and just go "See, toldya so!." Alas, I've forgotten his name!
bluecollarbytes| 10.5.10 @ 7:31AM
How implausible is that- the idea that (public) school children would ever be 'indoctrinated' in the Tea Party ideas? They currently get schooled in liberal/leftist ideology from kindergarten on.
What a shame. What a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for children to witness and understand our system of govt in action, as it was intended- a govt of the people, govt that can only proceed by the will of the people. These children, in the real world, are being cheated out of a first-hand historical perspective.
looselips| 10.5.10 @ 7:51AM
Apparently you didn't read the whole article.
Bob S| 10.5.10 @ 12:49PM
You're kidding, right? Children do not have the life experience or the perspective to deal with complex political problems. They (supposedly) are there to acquire those tools; that is, when the teacher isn't shoving a bunch of left-wing claptrap and bile upon them.
Malthus| 10.5.10 @ 8:01AM
"Environmentalists" aren't tree huggers, it's amazing how little they really know of biology,physics etc. Let's call them by thir true name i.e GREEN SLIME
catholic mom| 10.5.10 @ 8:10AM
My sweet third grader (in public school) came home the other day and asked me why God made people if all they do is pollute the planet. She ain't getting that from our family.....
Paevo| 10.5.10 @ 8:40AM
Leftists exist only to pollute people's minds...
Nate W.| 10.6.10 @ 12:05AM
Time to home-school!
Tom| 10.5.10 @ 8:12AM
While I agree with his take on environmentalism Crichton was one weird dude.
R Martin| 10.5.10 @ 8:24AM
While the ad is vile, it does make a valid point: school children are being indoctrinated in leftist ideology. And not just in public schools. Students in the priciest of private schools are getting the same stuff. Leftist teachers are the problem, and not just those who belong to unions.
Nate W.| 10.6.10 @ 12:18AM
Glenn Beck has realized that conservative values in America will be erased unless we focus on learning our history and the philosophies behind our freedoms. The left has realized the slow-but-sure path to change hearts and minds through public education (and have been advancing steadily for decades). Unless we stop complaining about "schools these days" and become proactive in educating truth about our Founder's ideas and and institutions, freedom will be wiped out within the next two generations.
dc| 10.5.10 @ 8:55AM
If anyone had any doubts as to whether these eco-communist totalitarians would put the "deniers" into concentration or "re-education" camps if they had the chance, this oh-so-clever ad ought to settle them. They would if they could; they would kill your children in front of you just as the Khmer Rouge did. Their belief system may be, at the margins, different in focus, but the mentality and preferred methods are the same.
In fact all that these vicious baboons are doing is following an old European tradition that goes back to the medieval heretics--define the "others" as sub-human, define yourselves as the revolutionary vanguard, and exterminate as many of the others as you can.
Unless an informed, armed and angry majority is equally committed to resisting these kinds of people, they will not rest until they define "deniers" of their Gaia-green faith as sub-human, and start herding our kids (carbon-emission sources) into death camps. The re-education, as other posters have noted, has already started and is essential to training the young to hate their parents (again, pure Khmer Rouge copycat stuff).
Publicly, of course, the eco-communists disavow the ad. Privately this is an accurate description of their wettest, wildest, happiest dreams.
topeka| 10.5.10 @ 11:06PM
Too soon to say this: Most sheeple are just brainwashed themselves. I am sympathetic because I too believed when I was a child. While I have reason to believe the leadership would give the Khmer Rouge a run for the money, the sheeple have no clue and are terrified by such talk. Sheeple still believe, and will continue to do so until the TV tells them to stop.
John McG| 10.5.10 @ 9:08AM
FYI, these three speeches by Michael Crichton:
* Aliens Cause Global Warming
* Environmentalism As Religion
* The Case For Skepticism On Global Warming
complete with illustrations, are available here: http://tinyurl.com/ybglkxt
Sam Vaughn| 10.5.10 @ 9:25AM
Another one of those reminders that come with increasing frequency. When historians write that revolutions are mde by the people that is completely accurate - Something happens in people's hearts and then in their stomachs, down there where they have had too much or have heard of their ancestors having had too much. Then up they rise. It seems to me unstopppable, because people don't give up,,, that's what happened in the Revolutionary War and that's what brought on the Civil War and a few other internal skirmishes. Everytime this has happened in our history they were ordinary people, men and women, who wanted the right to own and run their own country. It's as simple as that, but to do so we have to overcome our fear.
It is hard to imagine that totalitarianism is really knocking on the door of America, but the Tea Party is and ordinary Americans is all the evidence I need.
I used to joke with my liberal friends that they would if they had the power just line their opponents against a wall and be done with them, no more debating. To see it in film tell's me they would. Vote like your life depends on it, it just may.
Senor Mick| 10.5.10 @ 12:37PM
I often wonder how long it will be before liberals realize that they too can acquire firearms (at least in most parts of the country) and start to put two and two together. It certainly would be interesting of another civil war developed out of roaming bands of armed envirnmentalists terrorizing the godless.
Albert| 10.5.10 @ 5:25PM
Liberals are afraid of weapons. That's why they HIRE others with guns to protect their worthless selves. And incidentally, it is why they push for gun control. They don't trust themselves with guns, so they certainly would never trust other people with guns, except of course, the professional paramilitary folks they hire to protect themselves.
megapotamus| 10.5.10 @ 6:48PM
The general animus of Lefties for weapons is based on their perpetual desire to destroy themselves. They fear that they might listen to the voices in their head if all it takes is point and click technology. When you find the Lefty like Bill Ayers or Bobby Seale who does not eschew them you may be certain they are itching indeed for their own "red button". These freaks are seriously dangerous.
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.5.10 @ 9:28AM
Greens are simply psychopaths with a wold full of useful ignorants.
'Nuff said.
CountryClassKook| 10.5.10 @ 9:53AM
This, I believe, is why the leftists are so enamored with Islam: they love their methods. Destroy all those who disagree with you, man, woman, child, or especially unborn child. They want Islam here so they can learn better how to purge those who believe in traditional values, liberty, God, and family.
Richard| 10.5.10 @ 11:36AM
Also, they love Islam because Sharia dictates every action of the people with dire consequences for those who don't act right.
Appleby| 10.6.10 @ 8:37AM
I actually found a good deal of that in the Mormon church. Which is the main reason why I am not in it now.
CopyKatnj| 10.5.10 @ 12:46PM
They are enamored with Islam because they are afraid of Islam ...... the brutes .....
Liberty in Uniform| 10.5.10 @ 8:09PM
The newest voting bloc of the Left, Muslims.
Bill| 10.5.10 @ 9:56AM
I watched the video all the way through, to the end. It reminded me of the brainwashing of my generation about nuclear war. I saw video spots and movies about "Duck and Cover" for years and years, right up to my college years. The repeated propaganda convinced me that I would not live to be old, since we all would be killed in a nuclear war. Now I am becoming old and I look back on my life and understand just how those unforgettable videos on nuclear devastation shaped my attitudes and thinking about life. The 10:10 ad showing people who don't get on board with the carbon footprint thing will be unforgettable for some kids, who will grow up with those disturbing images and live with them for the rest of their lives. And the enviros ought not to be too smug about what conclusions those kids will draw about how they should live their lives, either.
Richard| 10.5.10 @ 11:41AM
Bill, how did you get that idea? I thought hiding under your desk was silly but I and others I knew recognized these drills as well-meaning but probably ineffectual attempts to save us if the unthinkable happened. I do remember the Cuban Missile Crisis when the SAC base in my town was on full alert, my neighbor Air Force people disappeared, and there was a sense of impending doom among all including my school.
Harry the Horrible| 10.5.10 @ 10:07AM
Whether folks realize it or not, the 10:10 campaign does represent how the environmentalists think and, more importantly, how they "feel. "
They have already murdered millions. For example, the ban on DDT alone has led to millions of needless deaths all over the developing world from malaria and other insect borne diseases.
These are not people to be taken lightly. Nor should we show them tolerance.
Holy State, Holy King, or Holy People's will.
Have no truck with the senseless thing
Just order the guns and kill...
Richard| 10.5.10 @ 11:42AM
Exactly. Never accept the descripton "well-meaning" when environmentalists are the subject.
Dagny Taggert| 10.5.10 @ 11:15AM
Greens are too yellow to admit they're Reds.
John Navratil| 10.6.10 @ 9:54AM
Yup! They're watermelons.
Redstateboy| 10.5.10 @ 12:10PM
the amount of trash left behind by the Liber-ul hate-Americafest attnedees just held in Wash. compared to the trash left behind by the Beck Rally attendees demonstrates the hypocrisy found on the Left
Ned | 10.5.10 @ 1:09PM
and by a MUCH smaller crowd, too....
Redstateboy| 10.5.10 @ 1:38PM
I recall watching a program concerning a Pod of some 40 odd Pilot Whales that beached themselves in Florida a few years back... there they were.. all these Environmental do-gooders working around the clock to "Save" these misguided creatures of nature.. eventually they got 2 (TWO) out to sea.. and they both died.. and ah... they were so sad... and God's just gotta be up in Heaven - just shaking his head at their arrogance and stupidity.
Steve A| 10.5.10 @ 2:00PM
My family & I were on vacation at a Florida beach last year. I got the kids some flashlights & buckets & we went out to try to get some crabs on the dunes one night. We saw a group of people kneeling in a line in the dark. Sea turtles were hatching & they had dug a trench from the nest all the way to the surf so they could not possibly get lost. When we walked up with the flashlights they almost tackled us for fear that we would disorient the turtles with the lights. I asked them how we could confuse the turtles if you have already dug a trench for them & was called an ass*#*^. I then asked how the turtles ever made it in the past without their assistance & was told to go away. The good news is that my kids were exposed to the freakin lunacy that is the enviro wacko movement & will never forget it.
Joe D.| 10.5.10 @ 2:45PM
222OOF and your other dumb friend, Hot Par are dead wrong. There is an avalance of evidence of no globa cooling or warming as you like to change from decade to decade. An now climate change. Climate changes all the time and is not dieing from man made autos, factories, etc. So same us your stupidity. We, and you, have had enough facts, truths and evidence presented on these pages to get you to understand. So if you are that blind then there is no hope for you or your brethen responders on this page.
bucko36| 10.5.10 @ 3:09PM
The "Video" and "Punch" line at the end of the "link" below is a much better solution to the "Political and Environmental crise" facing this Great Country and the World.
http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=37546
Alan Brooks| 10.5.10 @ 5:07PM
"I have an idea for a commercial. A teacher is speaking to a class [snip]"
Maybe the kids would be more interested in marijuana.
bernardo| 10.5.10 @ 5:22PM
Many of us have long considered the green movement to be a religion. Now we are getting a glimpse at its notions of jihad.
lucian88| 10.5.10 @ 6:22PM
Do some research on Deep Ecology and you will find that the fundamentalist label fits.
Radical depopulation is the stated goal of the intellectual elite in this specialty. They disagree about how to go about it but they all agree that it must be done.
wl| 10.5.10 @ 8:15PM
If you believe that man descended from animals then you have your excuse to behave like one.
The Green Machine is just another descendant of the warped anti-God thinking of the Left.
Longplay| 10.5.10 @ 8:43PM
Gee, I wonder if those hilarious Brits would laugh at this (likely soon to be seen) commercial:
An imam in charge of a class full of regular ol' Brit kiddies asks, with no pressure mind you, which children will go home and forcibly convert their mums and dads to Islam, or say, bomb the local train station. All but two little twits in the back excitedly raise their hands. "Great!", says the imam, as he enters the secret code on his cell phone and ... blows up the two twits. HAHAHAHA !!!! What a riot !!!!!! Coming soon to a school near you.
Tony in Central PA| 10.5.10 @ 8:46PM
The next thing you know, some 10:10 whacko is going to take people hostage at The Discovery Channel and threaten to kill the ones who have children.
Elrond Hubbard| 10.5.10 @ 9:45PM
I forced myself to watch that vile piece of crap and the thought occured: why, during the production of the video, didn't someone involved stop and say "What the hell are we doing? We're murdering children." I assume adults were involved, where were they?
topeka| 10.5.10 @ 11:19PM
Have you lived with these people? Worked with them? No doubt they gave no thought to the implications, or the stunning parallels to other violent, extremist ideologies within their tent. What terrifies me is their willingness to express themselves by revealing their true thoughts. I would have expected them to make the same faux commercial at the top of Matt's column. And then been faux-shocked at the "call for censoring the truth" by the "easily offended."
Environmentalists believe their opponents are no better than.... oh, um, well on second thought - HIV is probably higher than their opponents.
CJohnson| 10.6.10 @ 12:13AM
Maybe those who didn't raise their hands had their power shut off last week and walked to school. Add cannabalism to the list of ills plaguing environ-mentalists.
Russell | 10.7.10 @ 12:51AM
10:10 has merely done to Carbon Prohibitionists what the Muppet Show did to Mad Men with this spot on spot ad spoof -
First Muppet: "What do you think about Gonella Bread?"
2nd Muppet: "I don't like it."
First Muppet grabs giant cannon from offstage, blows 2nd Muppet to smithereens, and aims barrel at audience,:
"Now what do YOU think about Gonella Bread?"
Now that Blackadder’s author has taken a dig at gung ho Greens making fools of themselves, will someone please buy off Morano and Monckton so we can go back to science as usual ?
Kendall | 10.7.10 @ 6:38PM
222000f is just one of the simple-minded believers in the global warming crisis who occasionally post here. There is no evidence of a crisis. Climate has risen and fallen since the earth had a climate. To think that our era is unique in that regard is nonsense. There is nothing particularly unusual about the modest warming we experiencecd from 1978-1998. And in all other periods of the 20th century, there was no causal relationship between CO2 and temperature. What made 1978-1998 unique was that it coincided with the political ambitions of a scientific illiterate and divinity school flunk-out named Albert Gore, Jr. who dreamed that environmentalism and the global warming scare would vault him into the White House. Since the end of the 500 year Little Ice Age about 1850, we have, fortunately, experienced a slight warming trend. This is good thing. Good for humans, good for plant and crop growth. Yet, even after the roughly 1 degree C rise in temperatures since 1850, we are still about 1 degree below the 3,000-year average. The whole AGW CO2 global warming scenario is one gigantic scam which appeals to followers of the global warming religious cult, and those who feed off billions in federal research grants. I have asked dozens of global warming true believers what the current globally-averaged temperature of the world is, to within 2 degrees, and none have been able to provide a reasonably accurate answer. Nor have they been able to indicate how much temperatures have increased over the last century. After babbling for a while, they usually manage to blurt out something about a "consensus of scientists" or Al Gore's "An Convenient Truth" as proof. They are similarly misinformed about sea level rise, "extreme weather events." and practically everything else calling for even a modicum of scientific acumen or factual data. The 10:10 ads, however, provided a useful and revealing glimpse into the mindset of such totalitarian types who believe this hogwash, just as the "Climategate" scandal exposed the faux scientists like Michael Mann who cooked the books and attempted to squelch dissent from the orthodoxy.
Vasu Murti | 10.7.10 @ 6:59PM
"The late Dr. Michael Crichton, a scientific genius in his own right, gave a groundbreaking speech in 2003 in which he claimed environmentalism was a fundamentalist religion..."
In a 1990 op-ed piece on dolphin-safe tuna, entitled, "Dolphins, Tuna and Hypocrisy," conservative Christian K.D. Billinglsley claimed that environmentalism was quickly becoming the nation's civil religion.
I don't think Christianity is in any immediate danger, and the churches ARE beginning to seriously address animal issues.
My own experience, being both pro-life AND pro-animal, has been that pro-choice environmentalists, vegetarians, vegans, etc. are open minded enough to listen to and consider a politically liberal pro-life message. Pro-lifers, on the other hand, resist even considering a pro-animal message, often with sectarian reluctance.
"A diet that can lead to heart attacks, cancer, and numerous other diseases cannot be a natural diet," writes Keith Akers in A Vegetarian Sourcebook (1983). "A diet that pillages our resources of land, water, forests, and energy cannot be a natural diet. A diet that causes the unnecessary suffering and death of billions of animals each year cannot be a natural diet."
I understand there are conservative Christians who fear vegetarianism...which is kind of like being afraid of nonsmoking, nondrinking, or recycling.
Ronald J. Sider of Evangelicals for Social Action, in his 1977 book, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, pointed out that 220 million Americans were eating enough food (largely because of the high consumption of grain fed to livestock) to feed over one billion people in the poorer countries.
A pamphlet put out by Compassion Over Killing says raising animals for food is one of the leading causes of both pollution and resource depletion today. According to a recent United Nations report, Livestock's Long Shadow, raising chickens, turkeys, pigs, and other animals for food causes more greenhouse gas emissions than all the cars, trucks and other forms of transportation combined.
Researchers from the University of Chicago similarly concluded that a vegetarian diet is the most energy efficient, and the average American does more to reduce global warming emissions by not eating animal products than by switching to a hybrid car.
"Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation."
---Union Nations' Food and Agriculture Association
70% of the grain grown and 50% of the water consumed in the U.S. are used by the meat industry. (Audubon Society)
Over 260 million acres of U.S. forest have been cleared to grow grain for livestock. (Greenpeace)
It takes nearly one gallon of fossil fuel and 5,200 gallons of water to produce just one pound of conventionally fed beef. (Mother Jones)
Conservatives love "family values," right?
The following quotes, points and facts are excerpted from Please Don't Eat the Animals (2007) by the mother-daughter writing team of Jennifer Horsman and Jaime Flowers:
"A reduction in beef and other meat consumption is the most potent single act you can take to halt the destruction of our environment and preserve our natural resources. Our choices do matter: What's healthiest for each of us personally is also healthiest for the life support system of our precious, but wounded planet."
---John Robbins, author, Diet for a New America, President, EarthSave Foundation, and a devoted family man.
One study puts animal waste in the United States to between 2.4 trillion to 3.9 trillion pounds per year. The United states produces 15,000 pounds of manure per person. This is 130 times the amount of waste produced by the entire human population of the United States.
Factory farm pollution is the primary source of damage to coastal waters in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Scientists report that over sixty percent of the coastal waters in the United States are moderately to severely degraded from factory farm nutrient pollution. This pollution creates oxygen-depleted dead zones, which are huge areas of ocean devoid of aquatic life.
Meat production causes deforestation, which then contributes to global warming. Trees convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, and the destruction of forests around the globe to make room for grazing cattle furthers the greenhouse effect.
The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations reports that the annual rate of tropical deforestation has increased from 9 million hectares in 1980 to 16.8 million hectares in 1990, and unfortunately, this destruction has accelerated since then. By 1994, a staggering 200 million hectares of rainforest had been destroyed in South America just for cattle.
"The impact of countless hooves and mouths over the years has done more to alter the type of vegetation and land forms of the West than all the water projects, strip mines, power plants, freeways, and sub-division developments combined."
---Philip Fradkin, in Audubon, National Audubon Society, New York
Agricultural meat production generates air pollution. As manure decomposes, it releases over 400 volatile organic compounds, many of which are extremely harmful to human health. Nitrogen, a major by-product of animal wastes, changes to ammonia as it escapes into the air, and this is a major source of acid rain. Worldwide, livestock produce over 30 million tons of ammonia. Hydrogen sulfide, another chemical released from animal waste, can cause irreversible neurological damage, even at low levels.
The World Conservation Union lists over 1,000 different fish species that are threatened or endangered. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimate, over 60 percent of the world's fish species are either fully exploited or depleted. Commercial fish populations of cod, hake, haddock, and flounder have fallen by as much as 95 percent in the north Atlantic.
The United States and Europe lose several billion tons of topsoil each year from cropland and grazing land, and 84 percent of this erosion is caused by livestock agriculture. While this soil is theoretically a renewable resource, we are losing soil at a much faster rate than we are able to replace it. It takes 100 to 500 years to produce one inch of topsoil, but due to livestock grazing and feeding, farming areas can lose up to six inches of topsoil a year.
Livestock production affects a startling 70 to 85 percent of the land area of the United States, United Kingdom, and the European Union. That includes the public and private rangeland used for grazing, as well as the land used to produce the crops that feed the animals. By comparison, urbanization only affects 3 percent of the United States land area, slightly larger for the European Union and the United Kingdom. Meat production consumes the world's land resources.
Half of all fresh water worldwide is used for thirsty livestock. Producing eight ounces of beef requires an unimaginable 25,000 liters of water, or the water necessary for one pound of steak equals the water consumption of the average household for a year.
The United States government spends $10 million each year to kill an estimated 100,000 wild animals, including coyotes, foxes, bobcats, badgers, bears, and mountain lions just to placate ranchers who don't want these animals killing their livestock. The cost far outweighs the damage to livestock that these predators cause.
The Worldwatch Institute estimates one pound of steak from a steer raised in a feedlot costs: five pounds of grain, a whopping 2,500 gallons of water, the energy equivalent of a gallon of gasoline, and about 34 pounds of topsoil.
Thirty-three percent of our nation's raw materials and fossil fuels go into livestock destined for slaughter. In a vegan economy, only two percent of our resources will go to the production of food.
"It seems disingenuous for the intellectual elite of the first world to dwell on the subject of too many babies being born in the second- and third-world nations while virtually ignoring the overpopulation of cattle and the realities of a food chain that robs the poor of sustenance to feed the rich a steady diet of grain-fed meat."
---Jeremy Rifkin, pro-life AND pro-animal author, Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Culture, and president of the Greenhouse Crisis Foundation
The number of animals killed for food in the United States is 70 times larger than the number of animals killed in laboratories, 30 times larger than the number killed by hunters and trappers, and 500 times larger than the number of animals killed in animal pounds.
Les Brown of the Overseas Development Council calculates that if Americans reduced their meat consumption by only 10 percent per year, it would free at least 12 million tons of grain for human consumption--or enough to feed 60 million people.
According to the editors of World Watch, July/August 2004:
"The human appetite for animal flesh is a driving force behind virtually every major category of environmental damage now threatening the human future--deforestization, topsoil erosion, fresh water scarcity, air and water pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, social injustice, the destabilization of communities and the spread of disease."
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is now challenging those who think they can still be "meat-eating environmentalists" to go veg, if they really care about the planet.
Inevitably, some will likewise challenge those claiming to be "pro-life" to be consistent as well. Pro-lifers -- telling the rest of our secular society not to kill the unborn -- are hardly in a position to object when told not to kill animals.
In 1992, talk show host introduced Ingrid Newkirk, Executive Director of PETA, to his politically conservative audience by saying: "Here's the woman who wants to take the meat off your tables."
During the course of the interview with Dennis Prager, Ingrid Newkirk admitted: the animal rights movement is divided on abortion.
(Since animal activists make up a cross-section of mainstream society, this is to be expected.)
Writer and activist Jean Blackwood noted, however, in the July 1993 issue of Harmony: Voices for a Just Future, a peace and justice periodical on the religious Left:
"Many of the young people who make up the animal rights and environmental movement grew up with pro-abortion rhetoric in their ears. They can make the mental shift from banning CFCs, outlawing whaling, and abolishing clearcuts to 'a woman's right to choose' with such alacrity that one might suspect no self-contradiction was involved."
On the Democrats For Life e-mail list in either 2003 or 2004, Maria Krasinski mentioned a poll which found animal activists evenly divided on abortion.
The political reality:
peta2 is now the largest youth movement of any social change organization in the world.
peta2 has 267,000 friends on MySpace and 91,000 Facebook fans.
A few years ago, PETA was the top-ranked charity when a poll asked teenagers what nonprofit group they would most want to work for. PETA won by more than a 2 to 1 margin over the second place finisher, The American Red Cross, with more votes than the Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity combined.
The bottom line for conservatives and pro-lifers in general: ignoring animal rights means ignoring political reality.
“If anyone wants to save the planet,” says Paul McCartney in a PETA interview from 2001, “all they have to do is stop eating meat. That’s the single most important thing you could do. It’s staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty. Let’s do it! Linda was right. Going veggie is the single best idea for the new century.”
John2| 10.8.10 @ 3:51PM
Are you sane? Do you think anybody will buy this drivel?
I will leave the length of your drivelation for another commenter.
Nancy Cohen| 10.8.10 @ 9:03AM
A full 10% of the population are sociopathic.
I think you can find most of them in the Green movement, 10/10, the Democratic Party, the progressive movement, msnbc, and Peta.
And they are dangerous people.
Allen Johnson| 10.8.10 @ 11:55PM
I suppose that some environmentalists become a church of sorts. That is, their environmentalist beliefs become all-encompassing and interpreting in their world view.
However, I would believe it quite accurate to say that most American Spectator subscribers are part of the "church of Mammon." (to use the Aramaic phrase for money that Jesus made well known in opposition to it). That is, the pursuit of wealth is the trump card over environmental sustainability, peaceful relations with other nations, a degree of distributory justice with other people (think the biblical Jubilee and Sabbath years), and so forth. The climate deniers, I think, are more concerned about maintaining their way of life than thinking about the future. So this generation and maybe another will "idle their cars and overheat their houses" as the writer arrogantly says, until the last drop is gone. Future generations will have to find other sources of energy in an overheated world. So maybe the author of this piece is with the "church of selfishness."
--Allen Johnson
Henry K. Stanford| 10.14.10 @ 1:49PM
This is a great article, but why does it have to be marred by an idiotic grammatical error? The text should read: "..."for us heathens."