The Green Badge of Courage

A Message for Dr. David Suzuki and Other Celebrity Environmentalists It takes little courage to take on easy targets. It takes little courage to excuse the irresponsibility of the poor by focusing upon the greed and excess of the rich. It takes little courage to mine white guilt and blame the affluent 20% while absolving the reckless fecundity of the poor 80%. It takes little courage to mount a pulpit and condemn us for our overconsumption but refuse to acknowledge our overpopulation. It takes little courage to speak of some other country's overpopulation but remain silent about our own. It takes little courage to argue the case for accepting millions of environmental refugees but not talk about their ecological impact. It takes little courage to pretend that hard choices need not be made, and that with just distribution there would be enough to go around. It takes little courage to join the call for African relief, but not insist it be made conditional on family planning. It takes little courage to trumpet technological solutions, but not to admit that technological efficiencies ultimately provoke more growth and consumption. It takes little courage to focus on our per capita consumption, but not admit that it is total consumption that matters---that is, the sum of 'per capitas'. It takes little courage to plead for "smart growth" but not admit that it is still growth, and a fraudulent failure in the face of runaway immigration. It takes little courage to plead for an end of "economic" growth but not admit that population growth is a critical component of it. It takes little courage to concede that population growth is environmentally damaging to North America, but not mention that immigration is its main driver. It takes little courage to argue for a steady state economy, but forget to say we must drastically shrink the economy (and the population) before we freeze it. It takes little courage to argue against growth in the abstract, but accept corporate donations from institutions pushing growth. It takes little courage to jump on the climate change bandwagon, but not object if it monopolizes the agenda and pushes overpopulation off the plate. It takes little courage to resort to accusations of racism, but not accept that name-calling does not refute arguments or address overshoot. It takes little courage to pose as a courageous green crusader but shy away from taboo topics (immigration, birth control and population growth). In summary, it takes little courage to be a counterfeit environmentalist--- a soft green politically correct hypocritical phoney. Tim Murray December 10/2009