Guest essay by Eric Worrall
[UPDATE: Edited from Penn State to University of Pennsylvania 8:43 am Pacific Time ~ ctm]
h/t Nick – If there was one Israeli initiative you would think radical greens would support, that would be Israeli efforts to restore ancient forests and improve national CO2 sequestration with a massive tree planting programme.
But no – according to Penn State University of Pennsylvania Student organisation “Fossil Free Penn”, the tree planting initiative is environmental racism.
Penn Students Hold Presentation on Environmental Racism
The student group Fossil Free Penn held a discussion on environmental racism as part of its weeklong engagement project called “Divestfest” Wednesday afternoon.
…
In discussing environmental racism, the speakers highlighted the Israel-Palestine conflict. The Jewish National Fund, an organization that plants trees in Israel, was a major subject of discussion. After asserting that the organization acted unjustly by purchasing land from Palestinians in the early 1900s in deals from which the Palestinians did not profit, the presenters looked into the symbolism of “making the desert bloom,” a phrase the students argued connected the forest environment to whiteness, evoked the notion of “a vacuum that the European savior can come nourish,” and ultimately incentivized “artificially making these areas look more like Europe.”
The students found a particular problem in the planting of pine trees in Israel and the West Bank, drawing a “connection between pine trees, forestation, and the way they further the colonialist agenda through capitalistic (sic) means of timber production.”
While pine trees are an invasive species and can be bad for certain environments, the solution is not merely to plant native trees like the olive tree.
“If we are talking about environmental justice, we have to consider intersectionality,” one of the presenters said. “We have to consider the way that different environmental agendas are being used in order to romanticize and support things that may be in violation of human rights and ancestry rights.” Additionally, the students urged the audience to “look for the complexity in the way that issues are whitewashed.”
…
Read more: https://statesmanonline.org/2017/11/03/students-hold-presentation-on-environmental-racism/
Penn State University of Pennsylvania , the place where your kids can learn from greens that planting trees is wrong, unless they are planted by people with a politically acceptable pedigree.
If they bought land from the Palestinians, then the person selling the land profited. This is the kind of nonsense that defies logic. Paying someone for their land is not exploitation. Making the area green is not “making it look more like Europe” it is making it look like it used to before people stripped all the vegetation. It used to be “the land of milk and honey” rather than a wasteland.
People see racism in everything today. I was playing a game with my (adult) children the other day and the name “Niggurath” came up. They would not even say it because it sounded like a racial epitaph. I said it out loud several times while they cringed. Then I informed them that it was a proper name and there was nothing wrong with it. “Words only have power over you if you give them power.” It was not a particularly proud moment for me as a parent. I raised them to think for themselves and not be swayed by emotional appeals when making such judgements. A “dad lecture” ensued. They had it coming.
Their education has obviously been somewhat niggardly in this respect.
Nothing wrong with it? You fool! Shub-Niggurath is one of the Great Old Ones, the Goat with a Thousand Young! I suppose that next you’ll tell us that you plan on going around next month singing Cthulhu carols.
😉
How does a goddess get to be “Lord of the Wood”? Is she not a Lady?
I suppose that they pronounce “Niger” à la française.
Recent news stories re US combat casualties certainly do.
Yes, I guess to the broadcast powers that be, “Neezhayer” sounds less offensive than “Neyejer”.
Oh do come on, Gabro.
You know the answer to that.
Fluidity x Gender = gender fluidity.
Green math. Simple!
That was in response to Gabro’s post:
“How does a goddess get to be “Lord of the Wood”? Is she not a Lady?”
Down-under, OK? Like the post.
I spent many days of hard work planting trees in the Negev. I seem to recall working with Palestinian labourers doing the same work. We all felt that this was one thing that could not be politicised.
Everything can be politicized, and some are masters at it.
Intersectionality at the intersection of Green and Batty.
The poor Penn State greenies don’t realize that Jews have lived continuously in the area of modern Israel and the occupied territories for over three thousand years along with their Arab neighbors. They are no more colonialists than the Palestinians. A huge influx of European Jews after World War II emigrated to the Middle East to join the Jews already living there. Together they formed the state of Israel. #lessonsfromhistory
Jews and Arabs are one people separated by religion.
Oddly enough, it’s the only country in the region where all religions can practice, without harassment from the Government. Just don’t try to marry across religions, though!
I saw a photo from the space shuttle once. Israel was perfectly defined by small cumulus clouds (the effect of all the vegetation), the rest of the region was devoid of clouds.
I have a friend that worked at UPenn. I wonder if I should post this on my Facebook page?
Once wades through the hate-speech of the anti-semite bigots, all one can really see is that once again haters project their motives and intentions onto others.
In as obscure and wordy way possible.
What then of the Ottoman Turks CUTTING DOWN most of the trees in Israel to feed their wood fired steam engine driven trains? Was that NOT environmental racism? See the Jafa – Jerusalem Railway
You need to use your nu-aged racism flow chart.
1) is the alleged racist perpetrator caucasian? No — continue to 2. Yes — it’s racist.
2) is the alleged racist perpetrator an Israeli Jew? No — not racism. Yess — it’s racist
Super-capitalistic-expialidocious – noun – American English, 2017
Atoning for the stupidity of ‘greens’ with hard work through capitalism.
Just being a bit pedantic but we’re told ‘plant native trees like the olive’
But but but, its botanical name is Olea europaea and strictly, isn’t Israel in Asia – not Europe?
Olive trees are adapted to live in deserts – lets thank the Romans for their sterling efforts in making Southern Europe into one. (and North Africa although of course, should they still be around, would be blaming Climate Change’ for the environmental wreckage they caused
And further, we hear that ‘pine trees are not native’ and are invasive?
Surely the native tree for that part of the world is Cedrus libani
… an evergreen and and as close as you’ll get a pine tree without actually buying a Pine Tree such as Pinus sylvestris – they even look alike.
Does *anybody* on this planet actually *know* what they’re talking about these days?
Despite its name, Olea europaea is native to the Mediterranean region, Africa, southwest Asia, and the Himalayas. Its native distribution range is quite extensive.
Children of Abraham. Grow up, kids.
Conifers. All one family, like the semites…..
Funny how the biggest bigots, always provide the loudest lip-service.
There is nothing the Progressive Left cannot politicize and exploit in order to sow seeds of hatred. That’s why independents have abandoned them – if you can’t see it, you’re one of them.
What would these anti-imperialist ecowarriors make of this scene? An oppressed Arab goat herder exploits the bounty provided in a pine forest planted not by Israel colonists, but the British during their Mandate and named in honor of former UK Foreign Secretary A. J. Balfour, of eponymous Declaration infamy.
Perhaps these sad warriors would prefer this scene, from Biria Forest in the Galilee:
http://c8.alamy.com/comp/AN8FEP/israel-galilee-biria-forest-foresters-working-in-a-pine-forest-cutting-AN8FEP.jpg
Would they prefer barren rock and no cyclamen blooming in the spring?
There’s a small island that has been routinely loaded with invasive species in a river near me. Goats are being brought in by a nearby dairy farm, starting early in the spring and through the fall, to kill off the invasive species and clean up the place for native wildflowers.
I think it’s a good idea, because the goats will eat anything, the dairy owner gets goat milk for various cheeses, and the island gets a cleanup which costs the forest preserve committee nothing. It’s far less expensive than hiring someone with a bush-hog to go in and cut the weeds, which would also be much more damaging.
So far, no one has jumped up and down and screamed epithets about it. But I can just imagine the squawking it the Greenbeanies found out about it.
Just out of curiosity, is there a genetic relationship between the Lebanon cedar and the Siberian ‘ringing’ cedar? How many different species of cedar are there (as opposed to just pines in general)? How can restoring a species native to the area be racist?
The Middle East was once green and fertile. That’s why it was called the Fertile Crescent. (Remember that one from grade school?) Now, it’s mostly desert, which it shouldn’t be.
When I said (up above) that we have to know just how far these people intend to take this utter insanity, I meant it. I think some of them are certifiable, but that’s just my opinion, nothing else. I don’t want them as neighbors.
Virtue signaling run amok, since without consequences.
The “Ringing Cedar” is actually Pinus sibirica, the Siberian Pine, a member of genus Pinus. The Lebanon Cedar belongs to genus Cedrus. Both genera however are members of Family Pinaceae.
Thank you. I wondered about that.
You’re welcome.
The order Pinales comprises all the extant conifers. Its distinguishing characteristic is the reproductive structure called a cone. Families within this order are the Araucariaceae (see above), Podocarpaceae (also mainly SH), Cupressaceae (cypress), Pinaceae (cedar, fir, hemlock, larch, pine and spruce), Sciadopityaceae (unique to Japan), Taxaceae (yew) and the closely-related Cephalotaxaceae,
Over the years, we have seen a lot of strange ideas and people come out of (Penn State) University of Pennsylvania, some of them have even been seen to be waving hockey sticks.
One of the reasons for the stripping of vegetation from the Middle East, North Africa and the ‘Fertile Crescent’ has been the goat which eats more and closer than any other grazer. The goats came with the Arabs. The Israelis are now trying to put things back where they were in areas where they can do so.
Goats are browsers. Sheep are grazers.
As long as you keep in mind that while all goats are browsers, not all browsers are goats. For example… Chrome…
I’ll bear that in mind. No one has yet named a browser after an actual browser, AFAIK.
As in, Goat, Deer, Moose, Elk or Black Rhino.
However there is a browser called Gazelle, but gazelles are grazers. Go figure.
Dunno who introduced goats to the Holy Land, but in the Bible, they’re already there as early as Proverbs and Ezekiel.
Ezekiel 43:22-27 (ESV)
22 And on the second day you shall offer a male goat without blemish for a sin offering; and the altar shall be purified, as it was purified with the bull. 23 When you have finished purifying it, you shall offer a bull from the herd without blemish and a ram from the flock without blemish. 24 You shall present them before the Lord, and the priests shall sprinkle salt on them and offer them up as a burnt offering to the Lord. 25 For seven days you shall provide daily a male goat for a sin offering; also, a bull from the herd and a ram from the flock, without blemish, shall be provided. 26 Seven days shall they make atonement for the altar and cleanse it, and so consecrate it.[a] 27 And when they have completed these days, then from the eighth day onward the priests shall offer on the altar your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, and I will accept you, declares the Lord God.”
A lot of the damage was done by the Turks who used the woods to run their steam trains.
Deuteronomy
7:1 When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;
7:2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:
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“An Israeli army officer who fired the entire magazine of his automatic rifle into a 13-year-old Palestinian girl and then said he would have done the same even if she had been three years old was acquitted on all charges by a military court yesterday.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/nov/16/israel2
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7:3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
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Marriages in Israel can be performed only under the auspices of the religious community to which couples belong, and no religious intermarriages can be performed legally in Israel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_in_Israel
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7:4 For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.
7:5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.
7:6 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
* * * * * *
Does anyone remember the Kitos war – or is that subject taboo?
I have no personal recollection of it, aged though I be.
Not too surprising however that Jews of the Diaspora took revenge on Roman soldiers during the latter part of the Jewish-Roman wars, in which the Temple was destroyed, Jews massacred, enslaved and dispersed throughout the empire.
Go away you bloody monster.
The Palestinians are the luckiest mofos in the world to have Jews as enemies because if they pulled that terrorism/suicide bombing/schoolkid rocketing crap on anyone else they would have been ground into dust like Carthage a long time ago.
Not really. And unless you are immortal neither do you. And anyway what does that have to do with anything?
The world is old. Every group has done something bad to others sometime in the past. We are only responsible for what WE do, not what our ancestors did.
Never realized how oppressing I was.
Sorry for all this green! So glad you guys try to burn it all the time.
/SARC
BTW – they are a bit ill informed: In the last few years (decades) the forests are planted with local species as oak, Cupressus, Syringa and the like. The pines are just too easily torched by the oppressed minorities
here.
Destroyed Palestinian village outfitted with 1,000 JNF trees memorializing Denver couple’s dead dogs
http://19453-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/jnf.dead_.dogs_.jpg
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/05/destroyed-palestinian-memorializing/
I am the DepLorax, and I speak for the trees. Please describe the Israeli and Palestinian races. I went to school when you had to have brains to get into school. This new groupthink for retards is confusing.
The DepLorax should speak for baskets made out of trees.
The Progressive agenda knows no bounds and the MSM is more than happy to accommodate them being their mouthpiece. By design the goal is to divide and conquer and they are succeeding if you believe the MSM. CAGW is only one area of their propaganda/misinformation.
Never forget, ladies and gentlemen—my apologies for unintentional sexism, I meant—
Never forget persons, the only way to end racism is to institutionalize racism.
George Orwell expounded on the power of rationalization to twist lies into plausible truths when he described ‘Newspeak”.
Once one wades through the hate-speech of the anti-semite bigots, all one can really see is that once again haters project their motives and intentions onto others.
In as obscure and wordy way possible.
They must be trying to catch up with Yale and Penn State in reputation all slide rate. But it’s going to take a lot more sleeve.
OK, this garbage is from Penn rather than Penn State, but please permit me to note that the Nittany Lions just can’t stay away from negative publicity. It isn’t all Mickey Mann.
https://www.yahoo.com/gma/charges-penn-state-fraternity-hazing-death-192306435–abc-news-topstories.html