Sunday, February 15, 2009

QOTD

From The Catholic Herald, February 6th:
A Catholic charity has launched a scathing attack on the Green movement, describing the excesses of environmentalism as an ideology every bit as dangerous as Communism.

While global warming should be a "crucial issue" for the Church, worshipers must be deeply sceptical about many of the claims made by the environmentalist lobby, a new booklet published by the bishops of England and Wales has said.

Written by Russell Sparkes, an expert in ethical investments, it argues that there is a proven tendency among some "Deep Green" activists to exaggerate the threat of global warming to vindicate their calls for government measures to "forcibly" move the world toward a "sustainable path".

It says such tactics are comparable to those of 20th century Marxist ideologues who were determined to impose their views on the world. "Just as Marxism advocated Communism as the only solution to the world's ills, so Deep Greens warn us of major catastrophe to come if we do not adopt their calls for 'radical change'," said Mr Sparkes in the book, Global Warming: How Should we Respond?. Mr Sparkes acknowledges that even ideological neo-conservative opponents of environmentalism have begun to accept scientific evidence to support theories of global warming.

But he is relentless in his criticism of the type of environmentalists "who argue that mankind is just one species among many, sometimes suggesting that it has lower rights than those of other animals because of the alleged damage it has done to the planet". This was evidence, he said, that Green ideology was so incompatible with Christian beliefs that calls from many bishops and priests for the "greening of the Church" were "misguided".

He said: "The reason I do not think the Catholic Church can go 'Green' is that as an ideology, Deep Green thinking runs counter to the Church's teaching. The example of liberation theology illustrates the point. In the 1960s and 1970s people called for the Church to learn from Marxism under the banner of 'liberation theology' in response to the gross social injustices of the time, particularly in Latin America.
(via CCNet, email only)

1 comment:

OBloodyHell said...

In the Green ideology, Man occupies the same niche of species as Amrica does as a nation in the Democrat ideology.

. . . "There are hidden contradictions in the minds of people who 'love Nature' while deploring the 'artificialities' with which 'Man has despoiled Nature'. The obvious contradiction lies in their choice of words, which imply that Man and his artifacts are NOT part of 'Nature'--but beavers and their dams ARE. But the contradictions go deeper than this prima-facie absurdity. In declaring his love for a beaver dam (erected by beavers for beavers' purposes) and his hatred for dams erected by men (for the purposes of men) the 'Naturist' reveals his hatred for his own race--i.e., his own self-hatred.
. . . In the case of 'Naturists' such self-hatred is understandable; they are such a sorry lot. But hatred is too strong an emotion to feel toward them; pity and contempt are the most they rate.
. . . As for me, willy-nilly I am a man, not a beaver, and H. sapiens is the only race I have or can have. Fortunately for me, I LIKE being part of a race made up of men and women--it strikes me as a fine arrangement and perfectly 'natural'."

- Lazarus Long(R. A. Heinlein) -