A recent example here in Australia shows that these extremist groups are still alive and well. It seems that the extremist Earth Liberation Front secretly visited the Melbourne home of Hazelwood power station boss Graeme York and hand-delivered a menacing letter.
The letter said this: "The irreplaceable and precious eco-systems of this Earth are worth much more than your manicured lawn, expensive car and opulent suburban house. Your property will not remain safe so long as Hazelwood continues to pollute at such an inexcusable level, swallow millions of litres of fresh water every hour and cough out hydrochloric and nitrogen acids in return."
One press account says this: "The extremist group has a record of following up on threats in the US, where it is suspected of torching dozens of homes, car yards and timber yards. A police source said delivering the letter to Mr York's home was a form of intimidation, much more menacing than posting it to his office. 'It's saying: "We know where you live. We know your car. We know you've got a family",' the source said. Details of the letter are posted on the eco-terrorists' website."
Threatening stuff indeed, but as I already mentioned, this sort of activity is not new. Radical groups employing radical tactics and menacing rhetoric have been around for some time now. And even "respectable" voices have come out with some pretty outlandish statements. Consider a few representative quotes from some of these radicals:
Back in 1953 Bertrand Russell said this: "At present the population of the world is increasing at about 58,000 per diem. War, so far, has had no very great effect on this increase, which continued throughout each of the world wars…. War … has hitherto been disappointing in this respect … but perhaps bacteriological war may prove more effective. If a Black Death could spread throughout the world once in every generation, survivors could procreate freely without making the world too full…. The state of affairs might be somewhat unpleasant, but what of it?"
In 1988 Prince Philip made this creepy remark: "If I were reincarnated I would wish to be returned to earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels." And in 1991 the famous environmentalist Jacques Cousteau said, "This is a terrible thing to say. In order to stabilize world populations, we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. It is a horrible thing to say, but it's just as bad not to say it."
Or what about the 1983 words of Carl Amery, founding member of the German Green Party?: "We, in the green movement, aspire to a cultural model in which killing a forest will be considered more contemptible and more criminal than the sale of 6-year-old children to Asian brothels."
Paul Watson, founder of Greenpeace, once said, "I got the impression that instead of going out to shoot birds, I should go out and shoot the kids who shoot birds." Equally gruesome is John Davis, editor of Earth First! Journal: "I suspect that eradicating small pox was wrong. It played an important part in balancing ecosystems."
It is clear from these quotes that mankind is viewed as the enemy by these radical greenies. In case you are not yet convinced, two last quotes. Merton Lambert, former spokesman for the Rockefeller Foundation, put it this way: "The world has cancer, and that cancer is man." And Dr Lamont Cole, Professor of Ecology, Cornell University had this delightful thought: "To feed a starving child is to exacerbate the world population problem."
These guys are simply human-hating humanitarians. They love the planet so much that they think that in order to save it, they must hate humans. And many of these are powerful and influential thinkers, not just fringe nut cakes.
To illustrate where all this is heading, there is a clever and biting article in the current (June) issue of Quadrant by Michael Kile. He suggests that we look to previous cultures in their solutions to environmental degradation. He begins his article with these words:
"Climate modelling of new data from the Aztec Codex Cihuacoatl has identified a relationship with important implications for global warming mitigation. The research suggests a strong causal pathway exists between climate change and Aztec rituals of "nourishing the gods" with blood sacrifice.
"The evidence supports a revival of (humane) human sacrifice (HHS) as a mechanism for retarding environmental degradation and reducing dangerous climate change. HHS also would improve crop yields by allowing more effective control of surface temperature and rainfall; create anthropogenic biochar for soil enhancement and long-term carbon enrichment, especially in tropical environments with low-carbon sequestration capacity and depleted ferrasol and acrisol zones; and reduce population growth rates as the Earth's carrying capacity comes under further pressure this century."
Hmmm, those folks might have been on to something there. Why didn't we think of it? A bit of child sacrifice to save the environment. Of course some already have: many radical greens argue for abortion to keep population levels down, in order to help the planet.
Still, we might have something to learn from the Aztecs. As Kile concludes, "Human sacrifice is clearly a potent forcing agent in climate equilibration. Furthermore, analysis of the climate record suggests its decline has been a key driver of rising global temperatures. The Aztec (and other) priests were right. Only sacrifice will ensure humankind's survival….
"The threat of climate change is real. A long period of dangerous solar irradiance is inevitable without decisive action. Humankind has angered Sol for too long. The precautionary principle justifies reviving (humane) human sacrifice (HHS). It would be a wise exercise in risk management. To be climate-change-ready, national and global mitigation strategies should include HSS commitments, based on national population growth projections.
"In Australia, the government should offer generous grants to HHS dependants; issue free (securitised) sacrificial credits to working families; create a new Order of the Bleeding Heart; and restructure the now redundant carbon emissions trading scheme as the Human Pollution Reduction Scheme. These initiatives would send a strong message to the worldâ€"and to all Cihuacoatl sceptics and Huitzilopochtli deniersâ€"that this country is serious about climate change."
Gee, maybe Earth First!, Earth Liberation Front, and other radical groups are modern day reincarnations of the Aztecs. With such passionate concern for the earth, and such passionate dislike of mankind, such a possibility may not be all that far-fetched.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25635805-661,00.html
http://www.quadrant.org.au/magazine/issue/2009/6/the-aztec-solution