Green Scare!

How the Left, like the Right, undermines and destroys earth friendly ideas, movements and peoples...

Theoretically, global society could transition towards a renewable and greenhouse gas-free economy. The experts backing this gambit are convinced. They tell us, if we manage to do so, we stand a chance of “minimizing catastrophe”. Energy Justice Network (2019) summarized, “Studies say it can be done by 2030, but with enough political will and a shifting of subsidies from dirty energy and militarism to clean solutions - it can likely be done much sooner”. Famous climate scientist James Hansen (2018) said “decarbonization at this pace, combined with greener agriculture and forestry, could return global temperatures to safe levels this century.” For the moment we will believe these well meaning folks. The keyword for us being “theoretically”. Hansen, like many scientists knew well by 2015, that we were heading for a +1.5 C world. The gap between emerging science and anxiety driven headlines, can be of years, if not decades.

In the mid 1970s, theorist Erich Fromm pondered why a majority of people, especially of his generation, were not opposed to nuclear war? And why those very people were captivated by death and destruction? As an observation Erich Fromm believed that “people are not afraid of total destruction because they do not love life; or even, because many are attracted to death”. A bit shocking, Fromm transposed this “death-desiring orientation” as ‘necrophilia’. According to Fromm, people in modern industrial society lack fulfilling social connections, chances to be creative and attain freedom of thought and action. There are thousands and thousands of no-brain Hollywood movies and television series, to back that observation. “In capitalist societies, where corporate and state bureaucracies treat people as ‘numbers’, and captivating screens endlessly project slaughter and sterility, the spectacle of death and destruction becomes a very powerful tool to capture and subvert public opinion…” (Dan Fischer 2019). Would Enrich Fromm offer the same explanation today, as to why we fail to respond and to create widespread effective responses to ecological breakdown, pollution, climate change, global warming - the polycrisis fast engulfing the world. Maybe Fromm (in the mid-1970s) understood that ‘ecological threats’ and or the dangers of nuclear war, either of which may spell out the end of modern civilization and possibly of all life (for the extreme doomers). Has that fear decapitated radical imagination and intervention?

Those who think climate change is not real symbolize denial, and the Right which wants to pump more fossil fuels, add more GHGs into the atmosphere, should check into a mental asylum! My argument against the ongoing global ‘Green Scare’ is about the Left and it’s ‘double speak’. Climate change is also opportunity politics. Every top-down environmental organization, green political party, large non-profits (Greenpeace, 350.org, Earth Justice, Nature Friends International, Extinction Rebellion etc etc) are in essence proffering new energy transitions, while injecting ‘Green Scare’ into public around the world, all be it still an outcome of late Capitalism. Dare I say, that the ‘official Left’ ultimately protects Capitalism. I think at it’s foundations, mainstream environmental movements are operating on Erich Fromm’s “death-desiring orientation”. The official Left and many not-so-great leaders have systematically destroyed many local environmental movements around the world. Is but obvious, there is little difference between the Left and the Right, global south or north, when we come to serve one god, and that is energy.

During the last 100 years, from allover the world Grassroots Movements, Indigenous Groups, Eco-philosophers, Anarchists, Syndicalists, Communalists and Eco-socialists have not only envisioned, but lead distinct attacks “against capitalism’s ‘grow-or-die’ imperative” (Bookchin 1988). Manifesting these radical visions’ of mass potential and of mostly non-violent nature, lead to “direct democratic assemblies” (Dan Fischer 2021). Setting up small syndicates, dotted allover the world, who for example have planted hundreds of community gardens or built thousands of medical clinics. These direct assemblies, have also installed renewable power and clean water solutions. Further, they have provided non-consumerist solutions, for lifestyles compatible (in harmony) with the philosophy of “buen vivir”. The Spanish term for well being.

These indigenous, anarchist and ecosocialist movements were many times ahead of scientific research and forecast. However, these movements were (and still are) local in nature, mostly built from ground up (democratic) to dismantle invasive human projects, which were (and still are) killing ecosystems, destroying biodiversity and robbing from future generations, all in the name of growth and prosperity. A recent study concludes no less than 11000 uprisings, of non-violent and violent nature, that occurred during the last 40 years of grassroots environmental movements.

Not fostered by the Left nor by the Right, these short lived uprisings make for inspiring stories of mutual aid and a ‘planet first ideology’. Spirited movements based in Chile, Brazil, Peru, Columbia, Mexico, India, Indonesia, including many parts of Africa, Oceania and North America, together symbolize a sense of Biophilia (love of life) instead of the above mentioned Necrophilia (of organized systems of power).

Digging deeper into Erich Fromm’s measure of modern society, might help us understand the visceral ways which connect the Left and the Right. While on the surface we get the impression that two opposing forces are at it, in reality, behind the populism both sides exist to maintain the status quo. Both sides want to consume as much energy at the cheapest possible price. Electric Vehicles or Dirty Combustion Engines, this sh*t show called “modern civilization” must carry on! “Those who are attracted to the non-alive are the people who prefer “law and order” - to living structure, bureaucratic systems to spontaneous methods, gadgets to living beings, repetition to originality”(CounterPunch 2013).

The ongoing “Green Scare” orchestrated simultaneously on many fronts by an enormous league made of scientists, academics, green energy pundits, green political parties, Hollywood stars, teenage climate activists and the “woke” mainstream media is heckling global consciousness. More because of the ‘injected’ fear and less for the ‘supposed’ outcome. But people knew about this decades ago, for example Murray Bookchin, warned with peculiar foresight. “Increasing inability of common people to protect their land, rivers, forests.. this extreme mechanization of the human spirit threatens our identity itself, violates our rights to livelihood, shelter and kinship… poisoned by mass industrialization, global policies based on infinite economic growth, trade, technology and cheap energy…” (1988)

Regardless the planet is heating up rapidly. Even if not orchestrated, subconsciously millions of people are being swept into one gambit: Energy transition or civilization collapse! That mortal fear, as motivational as it may seem, leads us further to reckon with the rising violence against indigenous peoples, against land and forest protectors, smear campaigns and lawsuits against independent activists and radical Eco-conservation groups, who are often labelled and punished as “Eco-terrorists”. The Left and the Right both are complicit in this global suppression and violence. The conservative and the woke lashing out at each other, yet just to protect their given lifestyles and not the planet. As temperatures rise in the global north and south, mainstream media (Left or Right leaning) is on the button. Ramping up climate news and regular doses of visual anxiety, teenage angst, fossil fuel bashing, short nuggets of science and lots of Bright Green Lies. The panic brigade is out, with Greenpeace and Greta Inc. on the top, along with a brigade of Hollywood stars, pop singers, green energy gurus and their bestseller books!

Angry teenagers can throw as much ketchup or chicken soup, smearing the worthless replicas of Van Gogh and Monet, however these headline grabbing acts, make no positive impact on reducing CO2 emissions. Write out as many lawsuits against Fossil Fuel companies. These stressed out, young lamb-to-the-slaughter are just one outcome of the ‘Green Scare’. There is a high probability that these very teenagers (future pioneers) will be working for private green energy interests in the near future. Climate justice sounds great, however most of the action and noise is about energy. Check out the influencer teenager with a microphone ranting about “Nuclear energy is old fashioned.. down with it”. Aptly pimped by The Guardian, which is advocating green colored energy solutions within most climate based headlines.

Mid 1990s, the Republican Party of America hijacked the ‘Wise Use’ Movement (1988), which was inspired by Gifford Pinchot’s idea of sustainable harvesting (circa 1910). Many people consider Gifford Pinchot as the father of modern ecology and conservation in North America. By 2005, the ‘Wise Use’ policies, had been appropriated by big institutions such as Heartland Institute, The Heritage Foundation, Cato, Walton Family Foundation etc, backed by corporations such as Amoco, British Petroleum, Chevron, Exxon/Mobile, American Farm Bureau, Dupont, Microsoft, Yamaha to name a few. The Republicans and Democrats introduced new bills in the Congress, branding land and nature protectors as ‘Eco-terrorists’ and ‘extremists’. Thus another measure to protect business interests, at home or overseas.

But what about the Left? Did they not come to protect the people and their cause? Seek justice for those who resisted and were killed? Protect the indigenous? Not at all. On the contrary, Left leaning politicians and parties, in America, Mexico, Venezuela, Columbia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Brazil, ramped up every form of extraction (oil, natural gas, metals and minerals) as well as violence against the indigenous, poor landowners, journalists and nature protectors. Their counterparts on the Right are doing the same in countries like India, Bangladesh, Philippines, Indonesia and Australia to name a few. Close to 1000 tribal people were killed under “extrajudicial conditions” during 2016 - 2022 in India.

200+ land and environmental defenders were killed in 2016 in 24 countries. Forty per cent of the victims were indigenous, and 60 per cent lived in Latin America. (Global Witness 2017). The deadliest countries cited in the list are Brazil, Colombia, Philippines, India, Congo and Honduras. A 2021 study concludes, at least 1,000 land and environmental defenders were killed between 2010 and 2018, peaking at 197 killings in 2017 (Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Congo). Regardless of which type of government, leaning to the Left or the Right, the indigenous, independent and radical environmentalists are being steadily marginalized, disempowered, evicted and when needed assassinated! Sounds so familiar to settler colonialism? Contrary to populism and ‘greenwashed’ news, it is not always and only that fossil fuel giants commission killings in far away nations.

2018, hundreds of imprisoned land protectors and thousands of evicted indigenous people in Venezuela, stood witness as President Nicolas Maduro (Saint of the Bolivarian Pink Revolution) inaugurated new mining zones, military units and highways. Dan Fischer takes a detailed look at South America, where Left powers have carried out several atrocities against their own citizens, especially the indigenous and small landowners. We know well about the showdown at Standing Rock hashtag #NoDAPL because it happened in America, but we know less or close to nothing about the rest of the culling? Yes smiling warmonger Barrack Obama, as left and as woke, was too busy managing the torrid middle-east, protecting American and Saudi oil fields.

The Left much like the Right is predominantly invested in preserving a civilization hooked on energy. Perhaps their view of the living planet is deeply flawed. Power and fear will keep most people in check, but till when? No one knows. While the Bright Greens Gurus insist on top-down solutions, led by technical experts instead of communities and shared visions.

Specifically the ‘Green Scare’ is the precursor to many top-down ‘Techno Fixes’. The Green New Deal, Net Zero Commitments, Paris Deal, Carbon Taxes and all the climate ‘jamborees’ that make the daily headlines. “Is a form of mitigation denial… We all are aware, of the denial…” Kevin Anderson (2022). For example, EDF President Fred Krupp sounds more like a ‘crony capitalist’ than a ‘planet first’ individual, when he declares “what the environmental movement needs is more scientists, engineers and economists”. As of now the official Left enthusiastically supports many policies and technologies which will lead us past safe levels, towards 2 or 3^o Celsius of global warming above pre-industrial levels. Still hanging under 1.5^o C right now, an estimated 380,000 human beings died last year due to climate change impact(s).

Imagine 3^o warming, which will partly or completely submerge many of the world’s coastal cities (Read -Risk Of Megacity Collapse). It’s on record, that both the Left and the Right, hedged by corporate wealth, have miserably failed to take timely action for decades, to avoid the catastrophic global warming of today. The Left’s preferred green colored policies also exacerbate current threats, ensure indigenous people’s dispossession and sign deals of endless extraction. To wrap, no life-loving decently aware person (left, right or center of middle) would promote these false solutions or invest in the ongoing “Woke Green Scare”.

BTW, today was Earth Overshoot Day. The Left or Right is not celebrating it, however lets acknowledge it anyways, even if we are in total ecological debt 😓 👣 😓