Eco-nuts, al Qaeda Hate Civilization Equally

Around the globe, environmental protesters tried “a synchronized burst of more than 4,300 demonstrations, from the Himalayas to the Great Barrier Reef,” according to The New York Times.

The sweeping Oct. 24 protest was to bully developed nations like the United States into a climate change agreement when they meet in Copenhagen this December.

The 350.org protesters, who want to drop CO2 in the atmosphere to that level, were especially critical of the U.S. “You have destroyed nature with your industrial waste and gases more than any other nation in history. Despite this, you refuse to sign the Kyoto agreement so that you can secure the profit of your greedy companies and industries.”

Oops, that’s wasn’t the eco-nuts, that’s a direct quote from Osama bin Laden in 2002. While al Qaeda and eco-nuts use different tactics, they share a similar enemy.

Civilization.

At least al Qaeda is clear about what it wants – an end to Western civilization and establishment of global Sharia law –the Islamic version of cave men times with better architecture.

The eco-nuts have a patchwork of things they hate and want banned or destroyed. The week of the 350 protests, the Times wrote glowingly about the Swedes now including carbon footprint labeling on all food. The Times’ Elisabeth Rosenthal was quick to point out “changing one’s diet can be as effective in reducing emissions of climate-changing gases as changing the car one drives or doing away with the clothes dryer, scientific experts say.” I love it when people who have a huge subway system bemoan the automobile.

The new labeling guidelines were a predictable attempt to manipulate what people eat. “[T]hey are advised to substitute beans or chicken for red meat,” the Oct. 22 article proclaimed. The left hasn’t bestowed human rights on beans … yet.

Two days later, London’s Daily Express complained that Fido was a global threat as well. “A medium-sized dog has the same carbon impact as a Toyota Land Cruiser driven 6,000 miles a year, a new book claims,” wrote the paper. It went on to blast pets – from cats to hamsters – because they use energy. Now I guess lefties can blame previous warming cycles on buffalo (or their SUVs).

We should be used to this theme. The left is on a global campaign to wipe out the trappings of civilization and the media pretend it’s for our good. In a headlong rush to stop something many scientists dispute, the left wants to ban human invention, accomplishment and enjoyment. The media, which reluctantly admit al Qaeda is somehow bad, can’t muster the same honesty about the eco-movement.

Enviro wackos in the nuclear free zone of Takoma Park, Md., are trying to ban leaf blowers. Styrofoam and plastic bags are doomed to a similar end under the all-seeing, lidless eye of the morals police. California is on the verge of banning big screen TVs because they also use too much energy. (Take that sports bars.) The Golden state is also banning a ship used in the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean” because it has a diesel engine.

The European Union has already begun its ban on traditional light bulbs and the U.S. Congress has passed that little bit of environmental insanity as well. Forget actual light, the world is being forced to rely on mercury-laden bulbs that will, in turn, become a future eco-disaster. The film “No Impact Man” highlighted lefties who tried to live as backward as possible to save Mother Nature. The news media have celebrated that and even dwelled on the no-diaper movement. (Ewwwww!)

Of course it doesn’t stop there. It’s one thing to limit our packaging, our technology and underwear. Goveg.com, a pro-vegetarian Web site, enlisted rock stars Paul McCartney and Chrissie Hynde to go after the meat industry – “one of the leading sources of the greenhouse gases that lead to global warming.”

Why ban food when you can get rid of people? A researcher from the World Health Organization came out and complained about the “lack of access to family planning.” The left wants to limit human population via birth control.

That’s reminiscent of Paul Watson, founder and president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, who wants to “re-wild the planet.” In the process, this star of Animal Planet’s “Whale Wars” prefers humans die off and wants the populations to drop below 1 billion. That’s 5.5 billion expendable, though I doubt they’d agree.

That is the natural culmination the left is working toward. Just like communist China, they will move to limit births. When that isn’t enough, who knows how far they will go in their orthodoxy.

To hear Al Gore tell it, the battle against global warming is reminiscent of World War II. In July, he told an English audience, “Winston Churchill aroused this nation in heroic fashion to save civilization in World War II.”

Yes, but Britain was on the side of civilization. The eco-nuts are not.

Dan Gainor is The Boone Pickens Fellow and the MediaResearchCenter’s Vice President for Business and Culture. His column appears each week on The Fox Forum and he can be seen on Foxnews.com’s “Strategy Room.” He can also be contacted on FaceBook and Twitter as dangainor.

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