The Green Follies

It has been suggested that radical environmentalism is a religion because its believers act more on an unshakable set of beliefs than on skeptical scientific analysis.  If this story out of the UK is part of a larger trend, some followers of that religion are adopting a position similar to that of the celibate Shakers, but perhaps without all of that vanished sect's appreciation for genuine simplicity as opposed to pseudo-intellectual fashion.  It seems that young women in the UK who are deeply concerned about the future of the planet are seeking to have themselves sterilized.  One of the women interviewed for this story talks about how she and her like minded husband often go away for the weekend and how they just returned from a vacation in South Africa.

"We feel we can have one long-haul flight a year, as we are vegan and childless, thereby greatly reducing our carbon footprint and combating over-population."
Along those same lines comes this release out of Bali that the airport there is expecting so many private jets for the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference that local officials will be making most attendees ferry their planes to four other airports in the region for parking as the local airport can only accommodate 15 planes.  The closest airport to provide parking space for such jets is about 60 miles away, the furthest about 600.  

I wonder how the projected future carbon footprint of the infant one of the women in the Daily Mail article aborted in order to "protect the planet" compares to that of deadheading a fleet of jets from Bali to Jakarta and back again?   While the young women in the article seem to be sincere in their beliefs that they can save the world by refusing to procreate, I think they have been ill served by their teachers and the media. 

The environmentalist movement has been given an aura of glamour that is not supported by the record.  It is a movement where political posturing counts more than accomplishment and where horror stories about environmental cataclysm has replaced genuine analysis of the problems facing the West because of its dependence on oil from a politically unstable region with a burgeoning population.  
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