Author: Hafiz Noor Shams

It is funny how many people tend to insult the Greens. Some of them do have reasons to hate environmentalism due to their extreme industrialist ideology while others are simply being misinformed about the Green movement. Though the earlier group opposition to the Greens is understandable, the latter hostility towards “tree huggers” is annoying. It is here where it is suitable to echo Prof. Charles Xavier’s saying of they fear what they do not understand.

The second group usually identifies the Greens as a return to the primitive people, hating technology and all the comforts that come with it. Some even associate the Green movement freely to vandalism. No doubt there are splitters of people whom hold the dark Green philosophy, the extremists who commit Green terrorism. An example a dark Green organization is the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). They have committed dozens of arsonist acts and cost both the government and the private sectors million of dollars. However, their size is small when compared to the whole Green idealists. Prominent environmental organizations, Greenpeace to name one do not encourage dark tactics though sometimes, they take their protest to the streets. Action, sometimes speaks louder than words.

The Green movement is more than about preserving and conserving the Earth. It is not an idea that exclusively contains the Gaia Theory which says that the Earth itself is a living being, regulating itself through some sort of homeostasis. In reality, as I understand it and at least where my belief is, environmentalism is an ideology that pursues sustainable growth, though the ideology itself is more than about sustainable growth. As Michael Freeden had put it nicely in his paper entitled Green Ideology: Concept and Structure:

Belonging to the family of green ideology is to a large extent a question of self-description. Self-declared green will enunciate views that can be analysed in terms of themes and priority.

The Green movement as a whole demands a growth that guarantees a greener pasture in the future. We fight for a future where the children will be able to see an elephant in the wild African savanna, a future where our children will be able to visit Amazon jungle, seeing all the floras and faunas that they have read in the geography textbook, a future where we do not have wear a mask so that we could breathe easily.

And to achieve all this, we do not intend to undo everything that was achieved through modernization. In fact, we use these technology as our tools and even as goals in our struggle. For instance, for years the Greens are demanding more efficient vehicles to be used on the road. In this, the goal is to reduce pollution by using better engine. This is why the environmentalists are against General Motors and Ford. We are not against them because we are anarchists or anti-capitalists. If we were, then we should be against Toyota or Honda too. However, both the Japanese and to some extend the European companies produce more efficient (reads better mileage per liter) vehicles and thus, we have little quarrel with these companies.

To further prove our hunger for technology, we are encouraging for the use of hybrid vehicles. Up-to-date, hybrid cars have already hit the US road although the refueling services i.e. gas stations (or more accurately, electric stations) are still limited. Fortunately, the number is increasing.

Our belief even touches the energy issues. Though the power issues present a dilemma to most of us, nevertheless we accept the fact that a few sacrifice need to be made. Therefore, we are fighting to upgrade all power plants and in general factories to install devices that could lower and treat their waste instead of demanding for the plants shutdown. Among the smog, the most heated issue concerns the nuclear power plants. Personally, diverging from mainstream Green, I have nothing against nuclear power plants. In my opinion, it is the cleanest way to generate power. The waste that it produces is little compared to the coal power plants. Of course, the issue of dumping the waste will no doubt haunt us but however, we will only need a small patch of land to dispose a century worth of radioactive elements. In spite of this, I as most other Greens believe the numbers should be controlled and balanced by other alternative energy power generators.

Other than that, we are optimistically observing the development of fuel cells. With its only products are oxygen, hydrogen and heat, pollution problem will be reduced tremendously.

And synonymous to environmentalism, recycling activity. Recycling is the most direct connection to sustainable growth as it is a process that reused things that were used. It is the only way to fight consumerism’s waste effectively. Recycling not only reduce unwanted wastes but it also helps to reduce the cost of eliminating the smelly trash that you throw everyday. Through this, we are fighting consumerism positively.

The only reason we are being portrayed as anti-technology is because our opponents have wrongfully painted us with such paint. Every time we demand the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, the industrialists, in particular their puppet, George W. Bush claims it is a step backward in improving the economy. By far, the economy goes down because it has reaches it end of cycle and will no doubt rise up sooner or later, though no doubt the pact will have some impact on the world economy. Nevertheless, the tigers will no doubt start sprinting again and the bears will start to wake up from its hibernation.

The Kyoto protocol could even bring to birth a new market for the global economy –  carbon trading market. As oppose to the pessimists report, the pact could even help jump start the idle economy.

Gas giants such as Exxon Mobil also tend to accuse the Greens in believing an urban legend, the global warming. Of course the Earth right now is at its end of an “ice age” cycle and an increase in temperature is only natural. The truth is, the Green is fighting against accelerated global warming, not global warming itself. The oil moguls know this but they manipulated the fact before they present it to the public. They even continue on by saying there is no proof connecting the climatic change with the ever increasing carbon volume in the atmosphere. Though it is true the connection is blurred, there are proofs to suggest the climate is changing slowly. The shrinking size of Antarctica, the major flood earlier this year and the current heat wave in Europe and Asia positively are direct effects from this accelerated global warming which in turn brings climatic change. And not to mention, the worsening drought in Africa. The multinational oil organizations are similar to tobacco giants in some respect – RJ Reynolds denies smoking is a hazard to health – Exxon denies global warming is a fact.

The media also frequently belittle Greens’ effort. Nevertheless, their actions come at no surprise as they are being controlled by money. The idea of free press is far from reality.
Environmentalism is not an obtrusion to development as many have labeled us. The environmentalists do want development. Almost none of us want to live in the cave and light a real fire to cook and for heating. Not even the Greens. Rather, the Greens are the people who search for a better way for the betterment of human civilization. What is development when everything is destroyed in its path?