I wanted to take some time away from reporting about the activities of individual groups but write about a disturbing trend that is taking place among environmentalist groups. January 27th was the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The symbolism of the existence of that concentration camp isn’t just to remember the deaths of millions of Jews and remind people that it was part of the machinery of an evil regime, but (like the Berlin Wall) the concentration camp is also a testament to the power of terrible ideas. What leads to the creation of places like Auschwitz isn’t just the need to blame someone for a country or society’s misfortunes, it was also a collective (albeit perverted) vision for people hungry to make a better world than the one they had.

Like Nazism, communism, and religion, environmentalism also is a utopian movement that is based on the morality of altruism (i.e. self-sacrifice). Economist Richard Tol posted a thought-provoking essay at this blog pointing out that discussions with environmentalists involve not only polarization but also a fair amount of intolerance to boot.

Religion brings with it unbelievers, apostates, and radicals. The debate on climate policy has long been polarized. Asking an utterly sensible question – which of the many options is the best course of action – is met with howls of derision from both sides. Some protest the idea of taking climate change at all serious. Others are convinced that the maximum action is not enough.

An excellent example of this is an article blogged about a WattsUpWithThat? that attempts to morally equate climate skepticism with third degree murder. A group of scientists signed off on a letter urging the media to replace the term skeptic used classify doubters of human-induced climate change with denier. This as part of an effort to equate doubt of the so-called consensus that climate change is caused by human activity as an act as vile as denying the Holocaust. Environmentalist groups aren’t just trying to grab control of the narrative they initially lost but are also resorting to violence as well.

Just this past week, a British hunt master was beaten unconscious with iron bars and then kicked and spat upon by a group of animal rights activists. Around that same time in Britain, an environmentalist was convicted for attempting to sabotage police cars possibly as part of a campaign by a violent anarchist cell she was associated with. Also in late January, a Greenpeace activist called for the beheading of scientist, author and UK British House of Lords member Matt Ridley for doubting science linking climate science to human activity. During March of last year, Science Insider reported about a study published by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. The manuscript pointed out that animal rights terrorists are changing tactics from vandalizing laboratories that use animals in their scientific experiments to conducing acts of vandalism against and threatening individual researchers and their families.

Civilizations and civilized people do not clash but compete. And these recent examples (as early as 2009) demonstrate not only the barbarism that the environmentalist movement is all about but they are also acts of desperation. It is obvious Gang Green pinned their hopes on human-caused global warming and they are losing the battle. As a result, rather than accept defeat, they instead turn to violence. However, once the dust has settled I am sure there are other causes they will pick in hopes of achieving their goal of ridding Earth of humans.

The environmentalist fundraising mechanisms have been exposed, their attempts to link vaccines with autism and lie about their contents have failed, their wholehearted support of human induced climate change has backfired and the deaths resulting from starvations due to Greenpeace and other green group’s opposition to GMOs have been correlated exposing them for the true murderers they are. Let’s not forget a European environmentalist group was implicated in a scandal where a group of scientists connected to the green group had plotted to publish a false study in order to convince the EU to ban neonicotinoid pesticides. Let’s not forget the millions of dollars groups like the Sierra Club received from natural gas companies, countries like Russia and United Arab Emirates in order to halt the extraction of oil by fracking or stop coal production and shut down coal-fired power plants.

With all of this in mind and for the public to see, in a way I don’t see how environmentalists will be able to lick their wounds and try again. It is my hope that groups like the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the like are on the verge of collapse and that the aggression emanating from the environmentalist movement is a sign that the campaign itself is on its last legs. What is of concern is that if green activists know their efforts are lost and have realized their time invested was wasted, they may feel they have nothing to lose and have decided to leave this life by going out with a bang. Killing or conducting acts of violence against people because green groups are no longer taken seriously resulting in their mass movement collapsing makes me wonder how this is any different than what happened at Auschwitz.