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The Daily News article below was written specially for the Daily News. It
represents quite a threatening editorial bias made blatant. This is
important news when we consider what news we get about the environment or
about social activism.
The blatant betrayal by the NS Liberal government (and by Halifax staff
and counselors) of the groups trying to control exposures from cosmetic
uses of pesticides is cut from the same mold. As well as many more
instances.
This article, and government actions, are not about eco-terrorism. Rather
they about giving free rein to corporate and government terrorism against
protection and conservation of our ecological and social heritage.
It is time we wake up and stop being complacent. The longer we wait to
stop this, the harder it will be to stop. And the more tragic damage will
have been done.
David Wimberly
ag487@chebucto.ns.ca
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/6847/
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Friday, October 30, 1998
Terrorists by any other name
Environmentalists should be charged when they destroy property
By Glenn Woiceshyn -- Special to The Daily News
An underground environmental group called the Earth Liberation
Front claimed responsibility for recently incinerating four ski
lifts and three buildings worth $12 million US at Vail, Colorado.
Vail's plans to expand its ski area apparently clashed with
environmentalists' plans to re-populate the "endangered" lynx in
Colorado. The liberation front destroyed the property "on behalf
of the lynx," and warned skiers to ski elsewhere this winter.
While mainstream environmental groups might try to distance
themselves from the liberation front and its eco-terrorist
methods, the truth is, the front did directly what mainstream
environmentalists have been doing indirectly for years via the
U.S. government's Endangered Spec-ies Act.
Since becoming law in 1973, the act has been used in countless
ways to inflict harm on people in the name of protecting
endangered species and their habitats. The Northern Spotted Owl
became famous when timber production was virtually halted in the
Pacific Northwest to protect the species. In Oregon in 1992, the
water regularly supplied to several farmers from the Klamath
Irrigation Project near the Oregon-California border was cut off
by government to protect the short-nose sucker and the Lost River
sucker, causing severe damages to crops and livestock.
Farmer arrested for ploughing
In California, construction was halted on the San Bernardino
Medical Centre and, later, on a neighbouring subdivision to
protect the Delhi Sands flower-loving fly. Near Bakersfield,
Calif., a farmer was arrested in 1994 by fish and wildlife
officers for inadvertently killing five Tipton kangaroo rats while
plowing his own soil. His tractor and plow were seized as murder
weapons. Under the act, he faced heavy fines and three years in
prison.
What motivates environmentalists to protect endangered species
with so much zeal they are oblivious to the harm inflicted on
people?
The real motive behind environmentalism is stated by David Graber,
a biologist with the U.S. National Park Service: "We are not
interested in the utility of a particular species, or free-flowing
river, or ecosystem to mankind. They have intrinsic value ...."
This intrinsic-value philosophy means man must value nature - not
for any benefit to man, but because nature is somehow a value in
and of itself. Hence, nature must be kept pristine despite any
harm caused to humans. We must halt activities beneficial to us,
such as farming, forestry, cancer treatment, in order to safeguard
fish, birds, trees and rats.
Throughout history, people were told they must sacrifice their
lives to God, the king, the proletariat, the nation, or the Fuhrer
- all with deadly consequences. And environmental legislation
provides government with massive powers to enforce such
sacrifices.
What disasters could such power lead to? Because governments are
supposed to protect individual rights, not violate them, we should
stop handing government the power to sacrifice people to nature,
and demand it relinquish any such power it wields. (This is
especially urgent given federal Environment Minister Christine
Stewart - facing intense lobbying from environmentalists -
recently announced plans to introduce endangered species
legislation next spring.)
Governments lack will
As for the eco-terrorists who destroy property and (in the case of
the Unabomber) even harm or kill people, they would not be so
brazen in committing terrorism were it not for the moral sanction
they currently derive from the anti-human philosophy underlying
environmentalism.
Furthermore, governments stripped of its power to sacrifice people
to nature would have more resources and resolve to track these
criminals down and bring them to justice.
Glenn Woiceshyn is a freelance writer, who lives in Calgary.
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