Eco-Imperialism in North America and the World

Guest opinion: Dr. Tim Ball

A few years ago, I was invited to appear before Congress on the global warming issue. It was at the height of the anthropogenic global warming (AGW) hysteria and the political games were hitting their stride. While in Washington, I was invited to make a couple of presentations, one at the famous off campus restaurant, The Monocle. Besides the honor, it allowed me to meet people in the US and especially Washington who were maintaining calm amidst the hysteria.

The lunch was arranged by the late Amy Ridenour, then President of the National Center for Public Policy Research. There were many I met for the first time, who became very powerful advocates against the AGW deception. Marc Morano was deep into research for Senator James Inhofe, one of the few politicians who did not get swept up. Since leaving Inhofe’s employ, he established the very successful Climate Depot website. Another person, Paul Driessen, introduced himself and gave me a copy of his then new book Eco-Imperialism.

The hypocrisy that the developed nations used fossil fuels to improve the length and quality of life and are now denying that opportunity to other nations is egregious. What makes it worse is that we know that the development the environmentalists oppose is the best way to reduce population and the pressures it brings. I wrote about what is called the demographic transition here. This hypocrisy is throughout all the environmentalist’s actions as they live the good life while telling others to live in poverty or at best reduced opportunity.

It was central to the ban on CFCs. We have reduced our food losses through refrigeration, now you cannot have CFCs because we decided it is harming the environment. India and China both raised this hypocrisy in opposition to the Montreal Protocol, a forerunner to the Kyoto Protocol and its replacement the Paris Climate Accord. Prime Minister Modi was one of the first world leaders to retake some of the moral high ground usurped by the environmentalists. He pointed out that he had people starving to death that would be saved by development. The truth is that coal saved billions from starvation and malnutrition while improving the quality of their lives in almost every way. In every country people are living longer and in better health than ever before. As it is cryptically said, when Mozart was my age he had been dead for 44 years.

All of this, and the purpose for this article, was triggered by an article that appeared in Canada about a complaint from some aboriginal people (At their request we call them First Nations people). They said they were subjected to environmental and ecological policies without consultation about what they thought and what was appropriate for their cultural views. Many wanted to develop resources on their land but most First Nations land is effectively under the control of the Federal government of Canada. They were victims of eco-imperialism, just like the nations Driessen identified. Of course, this is not surprising because they were ‘losers’ to imperialism. In fact, they were worse off because they remained under colonial imperialism after other countries were set free.

A complaint was made by First Nations People in Manitoba, Canada, with Manitoba Hydro, an arms-length from government organization controls all power production and distribution in the Province. Almost all the power is produced from hydroelectric dams particularly across the central part of the Province. This exploits the head of energy created by drainage north into Hudson Bay. The claim was that their traditional culture was destroyed by the development of Hydroelectric power across the Province. Much of their anger was triggered by the book As Long as The Rivers Run that identified what it called “Hydro Communities.” The book noted that in these communities there was wife abuse, alcoholism, drug addiction, glue snuffing, high crime rates, and failure of the school system. Hydro agreed to an inquiry and First Nations asked me to Chair the Inquiry.

I formed a committee including a historian, economist, and lawyer. I agreed to do the work if the terms were changed from investigating the impact on their traditional lifestyle to how their historical lifestyle changed over time. Tradition can be what you did yesterday, what we need to know is how First Nations people adapted and coped with all changes.

The first thing I did was reconstruct climate and environmental change from 900 A.D. to the present. That date was chosen because it marks the onset of the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) and the in-migration of most First Nations people (Cree, Ojibway, and Chipewyan) into the region. We then identified and measured the impact of major cultural changes such as the appearance of Europeans, the Fur Trade, political, and legal changes. They coped with and accommodated every change with varying degrees of success, except one.

In 1870 Canada was created and the British North America (BNA) Act superseded all previous situations including the vast holdings and control of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). Part of the BNA was The Indian Act and it alone was the one thing that turned First Nations into colonial territories within Canada. They put all First Nations people onto Reservations. The government of the day agreed to provide all basic services including education and healthcare. If you want to see the effects of 148 years of government welfare visit a First Nations reserve.

In our studies, we were not able to find any standard anthropological terms that fit the pattern of behavior of these people. Central to their survival was the ability to move. It was not a regular migration in any way. They stayed in an area as long as the food supply lasted, then they would move to another location based on information and knowledge. It was not predetermined, except by the sequence created by natural cycles. While they ostensibly retained their traditional lifestyle, in fact, by forcing them to surrender the right to move was a psychological blow they couldn’t survive.

The claim about “Hydro Communities” was what we called a point-of-impact study. They identified them then inferred that the problems were a result of Hydro development. We took a historical approach and discovered that all the problems existed before Hydro appeared. The idea that First Nations people were not open to development and innovation is false, as Olive Dickason explained in her book “Canada’s First Nation.” For the first 100 years of the Fur Trade, they were in control.

A few years ago, I spoke at a Fur Traders conference in Sun Peaks, British Columbia. The keynote speaker was a First Nations person from Manitoba who was appointed Minister of Northern Affairs. He spoke about his recent trip to Europe where he attacked European hypocrisy. He told them they created the fur trade and forestry industries as major sources of income and development for First Nations, now they were shutting it all down because they were bullied by environmentalists who offered no evidence to support their demands. The interesting part of this story is that all this should have been done through and by the federal government, but they were not protecting their people. This means that Canadian First Nations people were subject to eco-imperialism.

Thinking about all this in the context of the recent complaints of eco-imperialism and anti-development by the First Nations people it occurred to me that we have progressed in a negative way. Now, the entire middle class of the world are victims of eco-imperialism because it is the use of environmentalism and climate change to impose power and control of most people’s lives by a power elite minority.

Imperialism and any other form of power and control are built on the belief that we know what is good for you, so we will use that as an excuse to impose our will and way. As H. L. Mencken said decades ago,

The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. Power is what all messiahs really seek: not the chance to serve. This is true even of the pious brethren who carry the gospel to foreign parts.

There is always a false threat used to justify the imposition of power and control. Global warming was a threat that transcends national boundaries making it impossible for any one nation to manage. After five days with Maurice Strong at the UN where he was creating the threat and offering the solution, Elaine Dewar summarized his goal as follows,

Strong was using the U.N. as a platform to sell a global environment crisis and the Global Governance Agenda.

He was so successful that the middle class has been under the yolk of eco-imperialism ever since. In the original European based imperialism, particularly by the British Empire, it was supported by the growth and use of the Press. The only information available to the British Citizen was provided by the newspaper, particularly The Times. Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797) also identified the power of the Press when he said,

There are three estates in Parliament but in the Reporter’s Gallery yonder there sits a Fourth Estate more important far than they all (sic).

At about the same time, English poet William Cowper (1731 – 1800) summarized the situation, “The Progress of Error”. The focus was already sensationalism and exploitation of fear.

How shall I speak of thee or thy power address,

The God of our idolatry, the press?

By thee, religion, liberty and laws

Exert their influence and advance their cause;

By thee worse plagues than Pharaoh’s land befell,

Diffused, make Earth the vestibule of Hell:

Thou fountain, at which drink the good and wise;

Thou ever-bubbling spring of endless lies;

Like Eden’s dead probationary tree,

Knowledge of good and evil is from thee!

This Press fails to report that on those Reservations apparently opposing the pipelines and development the people are organized and paid to protest by the Tides Foundation,

Totaling US$35 million, Tides made more than 400 payments (2009 to 2015) to nearly 100 anti-pipeline groups. Without all that Tides money, pipeline projects would not be facing well-organized opposition.

The Toronto Sun reported that,

A left-wing lobby group in San Francisco wired $55,000 to the bank account of an Indian chief in Northern Alberta, paying him to oppose the oilsands.

The Tides Foundation is the creation of billionaire George Soros who makes money destroying national economies. He is a member of the Club of Rome formed at the Italian estate of David Rockefeller in 1968 and progenitor through another member Maurice Strong of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Consider the irony of these people making their money from capitalism and then using it to promote the deception of global warming to enslave the middle class.

The United Nations Foundation was created by prominent CoR member Ted Turner. He donated one billion dollars to support the environmental activities of the UN. A significant proportion of this money was designated for “programmes specifically addressing climate change” and funding the IPCC.

The UN Foundation created the Global Leadership for Climate Action described as follows;

Global Leadership for Climate Action is a joint initiative of the United Nations Foundation and the Club of Madrid which “aims to design a framework for a new enforceable international agreement on climate change.” The GLCA has editorial input into reports and assessments produced by the IPCC and provides “technical expertise on the implications and communication of climate change science.” By my count more than two-thirds of the GLCA members are also members of the CoR including: George Soros, Ted Turner, Timothy Wirth, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Mary Robinson, Sir Crispin Tickle, Kim Campbell, Wangari Maathai, Petra Roman and Richard Lagos. Now I have to wonder what qualifies George Soros and Ted Turner to provide technical advice on climate change science!

Most of these names are known to the people I met at the Monocle. More people must become aware of them and what they did as they subjected the majority in the middle of every nation to eco-imperialism.