Environmentalist
Environmentalists refers to people who profess concern about protecting the environment and believe that legal limitations should be put on human use of the Earth's natural environment and resources. However, many environmental organizations and movements have been used for political purposes with other objectives than direct concern for the environment or environmentalism. [1]
Save the trees
American Pop Star Sheryl Crow, while touring the United States to raise consciousness about global warming and forest conservation made international headlines by calling for regulation of how much toilet paper an individual may use. [2] [3] Crow told ABC's Good Morning America,
| “ | I propose a limitation be put on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting. | ” |
Good Morning America in May 2007 interviewed Colin Beaven, [4] is a liberal New Yorker and environmentalist so concerned he has sworn off the use toilet paper. Beaven has extended his crusade against despoiling the planet by refusing to buy anything in packaging, will not use any form of transportation including elevators, and insists that all his food be grown within 250 miles. Interviewer Diane Sawyer responded, "It really makes sense to me." [5]
Worship of Gaia
Michael Crichton argues that the environmentalist movement has taken on a new age religious philosophy, and that this belief system is considered to be the religion of choice for urban atheists and is one of the most powerful religions in the Western World: [6]
- 'The religion of environmentalism is a perfect 21st century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and myths. There's an initial Eden, a paradise, a state of grace and unity with nature, there's a fall from grace into a state of pollution as a result of eating from the tree of knowledge, and as a result of our actions there is a judgment day coming for us all. We are all energy sinners, doomed to die, unless we seek salvation, which is now called sustainability. Sustainability is salvation in the church of the environment. Just as organic food is its communion, that pesticide-free wafer that the right people with the right beliefs, imbibe.
- Eden, the fall of man, the loss of grace, the coming doomsday---these are deeply held mythic structures. They are profoundly conservative religious beliefs. These are not facts that can be argued. These are issues of faith. Facts aren't necessary, because the tenets of environmentalism are all about belief. It's about whether you are going to be a sinner, or saved. Whether you are going to be one of the people on the side of salvation, or on the side of doom. Whether you are going to be one of us, or one of them.'
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore sees a "spiritual crisis" in global warming. [7] British biologist James Lovelock [8] first publicly explained the Gaia theory - that the earth as a whole is a living, conscious organism. [9] Rep. Helen Chenoweth (R-Idaho) has described this phenomenon as "environmental religion" and says that it has "profound constitutional implications" because of the First Amendment prohibition on government establishment of religion. [10]
References
- ↑ ATTAC Terror Report
- ↑ Washington Post, Saving the Earth: The Biodiesel Bus Blog, April 22, 2007.
- ↑ BBC News, Crow calls for limit on loo paper, 23 April 2007.
- ↑ A little on political action, a little on TP, NO Impact Man, 11 may 2007.
- ↑ Good Morning America, Family Goes Extreme Green for a Year, May. 10, 2007.
- ↑ Michael Crichton, Environmentalism as Religion," Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, CA, September 15, 2003.
- ↑ Gore sees 'spiritual crisis' in warming, Anton Caputo, San Antonio Express News, 05/05/2007.
- ↑ *James Lovelock, Revenge of Gaia, Publisher: Allen Lane, 02/02/2006. ISBN13: 9780713999143
- ↑ Eco-spirituality, eco-feminism, global spirituality, ecological theology, creation spirituality, the new cosmology
- ↑ Cliff Kincaid, Al Gore, the United Nations, and the Cult of Gaia, (1999).