I wonder if the Hitchcock estate and/or the current copyright holder might want a piece of this action? The whole green movement has gone occupy crazy lately, which I suppose is a reflection of the failure of the movement as they write “Modern environmentalism has failed”. So it seems the strategy now is “if you can’t beat ’em, sit on them until they are annoyed enough to do something about it”.
This was on local über green activist Dr. Mark Stemen’s Facebook page.
Yeah, that looks attractive, that’ll pack ’em in. Color optional I suppose.
But it does give a view on the mindset. Like the last dark poster with the mask for the parking garage protest, these misguided kids think these sorts of images are attractive advertising. Maybe for Goths and Alfred Hitchcock fans, though I doubt the Hitchcock fans would stay long.
They have a website: http://deepgreenresistance.org/ where they claim the goal is to basically shut down modern industrial society:
The strategy of Deep Green Resistance starts by acknowledging the dire circumstances that industrial civilization has created for life on this planet. And that these circumstances should be met with solutions that match the scale of the problems.
This is a vast undertaking but it needs to be said: it can be done. Industrial civilization can be stopped.
And as I read more, I find their view on climate:
Furthermore, as intense climate change takes over, ecological remediation through perennial polycultures and forest replanting will become impossible. The heat and drought will turn forests into net carbon emitters, as northern forests die from heat, pests, and disease, and then burn in continent-wide fires that will make early twenty-first century conflagrations look minor.5 Even intact pastures won’t survive the temperature extremes as carbon is literally baked out of remaining agricultural soils.
Resource wars between nuclear states will break out. War between the US and Russia is less likely than it was in the Cold War, but ascending superpowers like China will want their piece of the global resource pie. Nuclear powers such as India and Pakistan will be densely populated and ecologically precarious; climate change will dry up major rivers previously fed by melting glaciers, and hundreds of millions of people in South Asia will live bare meters above sea level. With few resources to equip and field a mechanized army or air force, nuclear strikes will seem an increasingly effective action for desperate states.
…
But if a runaway greenhouse effect could be avoided, many areas could be able to recover rapidly. A return to perennial polycultures, implemented by autonomous communities, could help reverse the greenhouse effect. The oceans would look better quickly, aided by a reduction in industrial fishing and the end of the synthetic fertilizer runoff that creates so many dead zones now.
I think they’ve been occupying a bong too long.
Goals
The ultimate goal of the primary resistance movement in this scenario is simply a living planet—a planet not just living, but in recovery, growing more alive and more diverse year after year. A planet on which humans live in equitable and sustainable communities without exploiting the planet or each other.
Given our current state of emergency, this translates into a more immediate goal, which is at the heart of this movement’s grand strategy:
Goal 1: To disrupt and dismantle industrial civilization; to thereby remove the ability of the powerful to exploit the marginalized and destroy the planet.
This movement’s second goal both depends on and assists the first:
Goal 2: To defend and rebuild just, sustainable, and autonomous human communities, and, as part of that, to assist in the recovery of the land.
To accomplish these goals requires several broad strategies involving large numbers of people in many different organizations, both aboveground and underground. The primary strategies needed in this theoretical scenario include the following:
Strategy A: Engage in direct militant actions against industrial infrastructure, especially energy infrastructure.
Strategy B: Aid and participate in ongoing social and ecological justice struggles; promote equality and undermine exploitation by those in power.
Strategy C: Defend the land and prevent the expansion of industrial logging, mining, construction, and so on, such that more intact land and species will remain when civilization does collapse.
Strategy D: Build and mobilize resistance organizations that will support the above activities, including decentralized training, recruitment, logistical support, and so on.
Strategy E: Rebuild a sustainable subsistence base for human societies (including perennial polycultures for food) and localized, democratic communities that uphold human rights.
It is sad these folks have become so brainwashed that they think the planet is dying and the only choice left is some sort of organized resistance. They have apparently just dismissed all of the good things that the ecological movement has produced, such as improving our air and water since the 60’s as if it never happened.
In the meantime, our own local “Occupy Chico” is having a “huge” impact.
This whole “occupy” thing is just a blip, and because it has no focus, nobody really pays much attention to it. When the next scheduled event comes up in city plaza, they’ll be asked to move, and they probably won’t, and then we’ll have the usual downward spiral for these sorts of things where the end game is “occupy jail”.
I wrote this on the “Sustainable Mirth” thread but it fits better here.
Someone needs to plant the seed in their heads that they should “Occupy The Artic” :o)
That said, I think Doug UK, October 12, 2011 at 11:42 pm, has it nailed. I’d only add that as soon as funds are cut off and one has to fend for oneself in the world, attitudes have a strong tendancy to change.
Socialist revolution – usually undertaken by a bunch of people who wring their hands at the plight of the poor bugger walking behind a water-buffalo, ploughing a paddy field.
They bring about their revolution, like as not, taking up priviliged postions in the new regime, and feel all so much better about themselves.
And the rice farmer? Well, he’s still there, watching his buffalo defacate in front of him. Nothing has changed, except the people at the top. And why would it? The rice still needs to be produced.
The warmists, greenists, anti-capitalists etc all have so much to rant about, but I guarantee you they won’t do the one thing that’s necessary to bring about their agendas. Stop breeding. All their woes (increased CO2, ravaged wildernesses, growth of wealth of the super rich etc) – if indeed they are real problems – have a root cause of increasing population. Will they stop squeezing out more little greeno-warming-socialist-revolutionaries? You bet your butt they won’t.
and localized, democratic communities that uphold human rights.
I suspect for most of the readers here, we do live in democratic communities that do uphold human rights. These people are deciding that their idea of ‘democratic’ is more important/correct than the majority of their fellow countrypersons. Nothing democratic in that, but they do not understand that, do they?
The fool that calls them drongos is no idiot.
PS – until yesterday, I thought I lived in the democratic country of Australia but the current Labor/Green/Independent coalition has proven that to be wrong. Can’t wait until the next election and hope that someone can use their democratic right to sue these future ex-politicians for screwing the country.
Adam says:
October 12, 2011 at 10:46 pm
I am completely fascinated by this whole occupy thing. Clearly there are enough people who want to protest to sustain the longest protest in recent memory in multiple cities across the entire nation. However since they have no specified goal nobody could possibly yield to their demands. It seems that this protesters not only want someone else to solve their problems, but for someone else to tell them what their problems are in the first place.
Its amazing how many people you can attract when you provide free food and drink and pay the organizers. This is the reason for no consistent message apart from ‘occupy’.
The slogan “We are the 99%” is a little over the top, surely? Even climate alarmists claim no more than 97%.
Its just the kids taking part in humanities never ending doom cult. The end of the world is nigh and its our fault. At least they are not advocating mass human sacrifice to the gods…yet.
They missed the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse riding down Normal Street (*) and the Beast with the number 666 on it rising up and devouring everything. Otherwise a straight lift from any doomsday cult anywhere and anytime over the last 2K years. First written practitioner..st John the divine in his Book of Revelations.
(*) Please please please tell me that Chico has an Abnormal Street as well? It will make me giggle for the rest of the day.
@Roy
Nope. Windmills are sacred to the Green religion. While masquerading as useful ways of generating electricity they are in fact Temples to Mother Gaia. Erected in the hope that this entirely futile gesture will appease her wrath and make the winters really cold again.
The ‘tell’ is that windmills are almost completely useless at what they are supposed to be doing. Like James Bond’s pistol in a fountain pen…the pistol was fine but it was useless to write with. Windmills are great for collective unwashed worship but b..r all use at making juice.
jim says:
October 12, 2011 at 10:58 pm
Please forgive me for being blunt in this posting.
Well said… I would only add that we do not have to speculate too much about the consequences. Pol Pot already ran an experiment that was close to what these folks are advocating — de-industrialization, de-urbanization, a return to a more primitive economy and society — and the result was indeed death on a huge scale.
How many people are actually involved in this nonsense? 10,000 nationwide? More or less? Totally insignificant. I’ve seen much bigger crowds at college football games.
Call me when there are 100,000,000 involved.
“But if a runaway greenhouse effect could be avoided, many areas could be able to recover rapidly.”
Really? For instance? All the “could be”s confuse me.
I suggest a walkabout for advocates of the destruction of civilization. How long would these pampered children last own their own?
Nicolas Roeg portrayed it best in his 1971 classic “Walkabout.”
I love the guy with the “We are the 99%” sign while protesting with four other people.
Hopefully there aren’t too many people interested in returning to the Utopian paradise of the Dark Ages. Although I guess you’d have to admit that 9th century Europe had a pretty damn small “carbon footprint”.
Of course it had a pretty short life expectancy as well.
Personally I am thrilled to bits that some students have finally got off their asses and gone out in to the fresh air for any reason. There could be a few future climatologists among them who will notice that the world does not start and finish at a computer key board. They might even see a thermometer for sale in a shop and realise that it is possible to get actual temperatures instead of getting fudged “datasets” from someone else. A whole new era could be upon us. The time of the physical scientist who steps away from his key board and does actual research!!. Go to it kids. I loved being on demo’s in the 60’s. Great way to meet girls, Fresh air, no lectures. Fabulous. Didn’t do me any harm and did not change a damn thing. Que sera sera.
Wow. Just wow. They use the Internet to get the word out about wanting to bring down industrial civilization…which they wouldn’t be able to do if not for industrial infrastructure, plastics manufacture, mining for metals, electricity mostly generated by coal and nuclear, etc. Do you think they even give this hypocrisy a second thought? Incidentally, what are they planning to use for their “militant” actions – sticks and stones they find lying around? I suppose their argument would be that they are using the weapons of the military-industrial complex just long enough to bring it down. That passes for logic in these circles.
Has the utopia they describe ever occurred in the entire course of human history? It’s the Eden myth again. Concepts like democracy and justice are not possible in a subsistence lifestyle.
I echo Gail Combs above. If these people are so against capitalism, industry, etc., they should go form communes in some empty spaces in western states and see how it goes. If they want to make it even easier, they could join Amish communities. They don’t seem to be much into capitalism, either.
Oh, bollocks, that should read …bottom 50% of Americans own 1% of American wealth…
Um … that’s precisely why it is called “the bottom half.”
If they owned 99% of the American wealth, they would be called “the top half”.
Well one could imagine that those who belong to “the bottom half” would prefer to be in “the top half.”
There is surely no God given law that says that “the bottom half” must own X% of American wealth where X is some arbitrary number different from 1.
But then, clearly, to achieve that goal to go from one half in the other, there is only one way – have some skills like those who are in “the top half”, learn, work hard, spend wisely and invest with intelligence.
A confused illiterate standing on a street corner with a cardboard and yelling “Wanna, wanna, wanna !” is on the sure road to stay where he belongs, e.g “the bottom half”.
The “Wanna, wanna” strategy only works untill the age of 5 years provided you have parents ready to spoil you silly.
Thinking that it still works after 5 years is a severe case of mental disorder.
I hope that this dude does not get seriously ill, needing medical assistance on an EVIL energy slurping intensive care unit…..that would suck for him, slowly dying in his wooden shack in the woods…
That sounds like a communist manifesto to me. Well, if that is your goal, I suggest you take a trip to California. A man named Al Gore is insanely wealthy, having just bought an expensive beachfront house. He steals from the poor because he advocates things that benefit his wallet. He also is bad for the planet because he flies all over the country to advocate policy that makes him rich and some of his policies have been responsible for the slaughter of thousands of birds. Al Gore’s policies affect the poor the most because they will be forced to choose between food or warmth.
Please tell me when you would like to deprive this rich man of his ability to steal from the poor. You are not hypocrites are you? (Oh wait, you are.)
I think David Faulkner has it right.
David Falkner says: October 13, 2011 at 12:15 am
Totally agree with the fact that many enviros are totally nuts. I disagree with the disdain for the occupy [X] movement.
I have only been doing any concerted study of CAGW for a few years, but one thing that I have learned is that CAGW is a completely politicized subject about which the mainstream media will lie and spin, regardless of what the truth is. After all, there is a lot of money to made off of Global Warming. Do you really expect that same mainstream media to suddenly become honest and impartial when they report on the Occupy Wall Street movement?
I visited a local OWS protest to see for myself what they were shouting about. Here is what I saw.
There were about 500 people there. I would estimate that about 45% of the people were between 18 and 25 years old, maybe 15% were 25 to 40 years old and about 40% over 40 — including some in their 70s and 80s. The younger people tended to be more radical — the older looked like Tea Party sorts. I saw one Che Guevara tee shirt and one cardboard sign saying “Capitalism is a failed experiment.” On the other hand, I also saw a bunch of American flags and three or four older guys handing out Fair Tax pamphlets. I saw a selection of people with hats indicating that they were veterans. The one thing I saw in common (based mostly on their signs) for both the liberal members and the conservative members was that they believed (and were upset about the fact,) that the most powerful corporations in the US — including the Federal Reserve — have fraudulently crashed the economy while making untold billions in the process, and then bought off politicians so that American taxpayers are forced to pay for the losses. They want CEOs to go to jail for fraud.
That is what I saw. Maybe you will see something different in your area if you go and look for yourself. When you see the mainstream media portraying these folks as simple whack jobs, ask yourself, “Are these the same people who tell me the Earth has a fever? Can I trust them?”
“A planet on which humans live in equitable and sustainable communities without exploiting the planet or each other.”
They might want to take a peak at history. This is hardly descriptive of pre-industrial communities. Most pre-industrial communities were constantly at war with each other. American Indians and settlers deforested approximately 30% of the eastern seaboard. Very green indeed.
Wijnand says:
October 13, 2011 at 5:07 am
“I hope that this dude does not get seriously ill, needing medical assistance on an EVIL energy slurping intensive care unit…..that would suck for him, slowly dying in his wooden shack in the woods…”
In the FAQ on deepgreenresistance they answer the question “Who would die if your policies are enacted” with one of their lengthy question-evading manifestos, but in that enormous body of text they also say “At least one of us, I suffer from Krohn’s disease and will die if I don’t get my medication” so the answer is: They’re pretending to be so saintly that they’ll happily sacrifice themselves for the survival of “the planet”.
I had to scroll a lot to find that. What a bunch of self-righteous loons.
Were the gaps in the flock of birds made by a windmill?
Gail Combs says:
October 12, 2011 at 10:27 pm
They should all go live on a farm with no electric, no tractors, no running water, no metal, no plastic, no man made fibers….. in Wisconsin, North Dakota or Montana for a few years and THEN make their decision on whether or not they really hate “Civilization”
Idiotic super market predators.
—
Bravo, Gail!! This is my suggestion precisely. Unfortunately, these people would go insane the minute their iPad or smart phone went dead…
In addition, I always use these threads to remind our CAGW climate friends to PLEASE STOP USING ALL FOSSIL FUEL PRODUCTS — TODAY!! No gasoline, no coal-derived electricity, no products derived from petroleum, no jet planes, no gas-powered buses, cars, motorcycles…JUST STOP! Find and manufacture (without the use of fossil fuels) your alternatives. Thanks.
Honk if you think hippie chicks are still easy!
Must of done it wrong when I was a student as I partied so hard I’ve become a hermit now I’m a bit older.
Started by running my own music night on a Thursday and if there where 15 – 20 people still round my house Sunday night that was no problem, it was the parties that started on the Thursday and finished on the following Thursday that where the real problems.
The best is I got most of it on video and now all my hedonistic friends beg me not to show them to there wife’s. Which just goes to show anything you do in your 20’s can seem really embarrassing when you’re older.