by Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n
FrontPage Magazine<\/em><\/p>\n The global warming apocalypse and its Elmer Gantry, Al Gore, may have faded from public view lately, but that old-time green religion is still making mischief. President Obama has just delayed until after November\u2019s election a decision on the Canadian Keystone XL pipeline. This truly shovel-ready project would create thousands of blue-collar jobs, help hold down the price of gasoline, and lessen our dependence on oil imported from thugs like Venezuela\u2019s Hugo Chavez.<\/p>\n The administration\u2019s excuses for this move are preposterous. The State Department sniffed that it needs more time \u201cto determine whether the Keystone XL pipeline is in the national interest\u201d and, as Obama said in his announcement, can \u201cprotect the American people.\u201d But three years, nine public meetings, and reams of reports have already shown that the pipeline\u2019s alleged dangers to the Ogallala aquifer, or the malign effects of \u201cdirty\u201d crude oil, or the threat to endangered species, are specious pretexts. Like his slow-down of oil drilling permits and reduction of oil production on federal lands \u2014 down 40% compared to ten years ago \u2014 Obama\u2019s decision is in fact both political and ideological, a mollifying bone tossed to the bicoastal progressive elites on whom Obama depends for campaign contributions and political support.<\/p>\n For these affluent urban-dwellers, the cult of environmentalism is a cheap way to indulge a vaguely leftist dislike of industrial capitalism while enjoying all the benefits that a high-tech, oil-fueled, free-market economy confers on them. Like the \u201ctelescopic philanthropy,\u201d to use Charles Dickens\u2019 label, directed at distant ghetto-dwellers or the Third World poor, the urban nature-lover conspicuously displays his concern over a natural world under assault by capitalism\u2019s depravities. But he does so only from within a cocoon of technology that assures him a reliable, safe supply of food, freeing him from the drudgery of wresting sustenance from a hostile natural world; and that protects him from the disease, drought, famine, predators, malnutrition, and the other natural evils afflicting our ancestors and those living in the Third World today.<\/p>\n Equally hypocritical is the Marxist agenda lurking in environmentalism, which blames the degradation of the environment on the same free market capitalism and economic globalization that have created blue-state wealth. Given communism\u2019s abject failure as an economic and social system, contemporary Marxism has insinuated itself into environmentalism as a way of wielding influence and recruiting adherents from among those dissatisfied with modern life and the trade-offs required by a free economy and its creative destruction. Issues such as pollution or species extinction are thus explained as the consequences of an evil capitalist empire that oppresses the international proletariat and the natural world alike. That\u2019s why at most protests against the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank or Wall Street, the hammer and sickle can be seen flying beside the banners of Greenpeace. Forgotten, of course, is the fact that communist regimes like the old Soviet Union and today\u2019s China are some of history\u2019s worst polluters.<\/p>\n What gives this strange Marxist nature-love wider political traction, however, is the patina of science that disguises its mythic origins. Sentimental idealizations of nature as our true home, a superior realm of peace, harmony, freedom and simplicity destroyed by civilization and technology, are as old as the Greeks and their myths of the Golden Age and the Noble Savage. But today\u2019s modern environmentalist cloaks these ancient myths in the robes of science. Overpopulation, pesticide pollution, resource depletion, extermination of species, and of course global warming have all over the years been presented as scientifically established facts that show the destructive consequences of modern capitalism. But in each case, the apocalyptic predictions have all ended in a whimper, and the science supposedly supporting them exposed as partial, incomplete, politically motivated, and riddled with unexamined assumptions and at times outright fakery. Nonetheless, politicized nature-love camouflaged with \u201cscience\u201d permeates popular culture and our public schools, where kids are taught lies about drowning polar bears and melting ice caps, the quasi-pagan cult celebration Earth Day is solemnly celebrated, carbon-based fuels are demonized, and driving a Prius is a sacrament.<\/p>\n Of course, more grubby concerns lie behind progressive environmentalism. As Al Gore demonstrates, thundering against the \u201cdysfunctional\u201d modern world and its \u201ctechnological hubris,\u201d \u201cincreasingly aggressive encroachment into the natural world,\u201d and \u201cfroth and frenzy of industrial civilization,\u201d as he wrote inEarth in the Balance<\/em>, can make one rich \u2014 Gore\u2019s net worth increased from between $1 and $2 million in 2000, to around $100 million today. The sermons condemning our destruction of the natural world can provide the political rationale for taxpayer-funded subsidies for \u201cgreen energy.\u201d Indeed, Gore\u2019s investments in companies that benefit from green crony capitalism may make him the world\u2019s first \u201ccarbon billionaire,\u201d as the New York Times\u2019s\u00a0John Broder<\/a>\u00a0put it. More recently, the collapse of firms like Solyndra, beneficiary of half a billion dollars worth of now-vanished taxpayer money, has illustrated just how lucrative apocalyptic environmentalism can be. As\u00a0Investor\u2019s Business Daily<\/em>\u00a0described<\/a>\u00a0Gore\u2019s unholy alliance of federal subsidies and environmental catastrophism, \u201cThe American consumer and taxpayer are on the wrong end of his green Ponzi scheme.\u201d<\/p>\n Crony capitalism aside, the Keystone decision reflects Obama\u2019s larger progressive ideology that sees America\u2019s free-market economy as inherently unjust, and our reliance on fossil fuel as the enabler of this oppressive system, as well as being a danger to the environment. Indulging Disneyfied fantasies about nature is merely the honey that helps this anti-capitalist, redistributionist poison go down more easily. Thus delaying the Keystone pipeline fits in with the class-warfare rhetoric that for now is the central narrative of Obama\u2019s reelection campaign. Just as attacks on \u201cincome inequality\u201d and the \u201cgreed\u201d of the \u201c1%,\u201d along with debt-financed, multi-trillion-dollar increases in social-welfare transfers, serves his aim to redistribute income and increase government power, so too weaning us off oil is part of Obama\u2019s promise to \u201cfundamentally transform America\u201d by attacking the engine of American prosperity, power, and national self-reliance. In this way he can move us closer to an America more like Europe: just one unexceptional pole in a multi-polar world.<\/p>\n \u00a92012 Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine The global warming apocalypse and its Elmer Gantry, Al Gore, may have faded from public view lately, but that old-time green religion is still making mischief. President Obama has just delayed until after November\u2019s election a decision on the Canadian Keystone XL pipeline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[208,22],"tags":[56,12,1063,258,289,291,429,475,479,213,320,426,242],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-gX","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":932,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/nature-fakery\/","url_meta":{"origin":1051,"position":0},"title":"“Nature Fakery”","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Defining Ideas At the turn of the twentieth century, President Theodore Roosevelt became embroiled in a public controversy over how some writers and naturalists described the natural world in overly anthropomorphic and sentimental terms. In a 1907 article attacking Jack London, among other writers, Roosevelt popularized\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Energy"","block_context":{"text":"Energy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/energy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7090,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-anti-empirical-left\/","url_meta":{"origin":1051,"position":1},"title":"The Anti-Empirical Left","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Science is ignored when it doesn't support politically correct policy. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online President Obama entered office promising to restore the sanctity of science. Instead, a fresh war against science, statistics, and reason is being waged on behalf of politically\u00a0correct politics. After the Sandy Hook tragedy,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Global Warming"","block_context":{"text":"Global Warming","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/global-warming-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/599px-Aristotelesarp-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7002,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-costs-of-the-environmentalism-cult\/","url_meta":{"origin":1051,"position":2},"title":"The Costs of the Environmentalism Cult","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine California is in the third year of a drought, but the problem isn\u2019t a lack of water. The snowfall in the Sierra provides enough to help us ride out the years of drought. All we need to do is store it. But California hasn\u2019t\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1045,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-perils-of-obamas-foreign-policy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1051,"position":3},"title":"The Perils of Obama’s Foreign Policy","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online The mystery remaining about the Obama administration\u2019s foreign policy is not whether it has worked, but whether its failures will matter all that much. That is no rhetorical question, given that it is hard to permanently damage, in just three years, the position\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Foreign Policy"","block_context":{"text":"Foreign Policy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/foreign-policy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1188,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/2012-crisis-and-opportunity-await\/","url_meta":{"origin":1051,"position":4},"title":"2012: Crisis and Opportunity Await","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine This year will be a time of crisis and opportunity. The incompetence of President Obama is now manifest to all but his most devoted followers, who remain trapped in their progressive Jonestown, chanting the bankrupt mantra of \u201chope and change\u201d as they stir the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6055,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/americas-vast-margin-of-error\/","url_meta":{"origin":1051,"position":5},"title":"America’s Vast Margin of Error","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The Obama administration is facing scandals everywhere -- using the\u00a0IRS\u00a0to punish political enemies, seizing the phone records of\u00a0Associated Press\u00a0and Fox News\u00a0reporters, monitoring phone and email accounts of millions, and making up stories about what happened in Benghazi. In other words, the sort of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Political Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Political Culture","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/political-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1051"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1052,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051\/revisions\/1052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}