Environmentalist slams 'lunatic fringe'

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Friday, July 12, 2002 | By J. Zane Walley

[JohnHuang2]

Jan Michael Jacobson, an environmentalist and Everglades expert who is part of a battle against the government's habitat policies in South Florida, claims the leadership of the environmental movement has betrayed both its core constituency and the U.S. Constitution.

In an exclusive interview with WND, Jacobson, the founder and director of the Everglades Institute, described himself as "something of a constitutionalist."

He was asked his views on the environmentalist movement and its impact on America and the Constitution.

"The Greeks dreamed of creating a society their philosophers called 'the shining city on a hill,'" he explained. "Our Founding Fathers believed in ownership and protection of private property, and that sovereignty by grace of God resides in the individual. From those beliefs the framers of our Constitution created a system of government which far exceeded the Greek dream of 'the shining city on a hill.' Unfortunately, the environmental leaders are what could be described as hard-core socialist psychotics. They are the lunatic fringes of socialism, and they are killing the American dream.

"Enviros play a very dirty game. Theirs is the politics of personal destruction on a major scale. Do I think the members of most 'environmental' groups support this? No. I think that if the average citizens who belong to one of these organizations understood the group's true agenda, they would be outraged. But they haven't watched their leaders. Where you don't have checks and balances you have abuses. There is no question that the environmental movement has discredited itself and in so doing has done a grave disservice to the country."

Jacobson sees no contradiction between environmentalism and private-property rights.

"There should never have been an argument between the environmental movement and the private landowner," he said. "The Enviros' agenda is to destroy private land ownership. If America is to survive and prosper as intended by the Founding Fathers, her individual citizens must be allowed to own property.

"The media compete for readers or viewers and a crisis brings in readers and viewers. Therefore, they keep looking for a crisis. However, in the natural world, things proceed at the speed of mammalian evolution. There are no great instant crises in the biological world, but if the media require one and someone is willing to pay, there will be one."

The Everglades expert demonstrated his point with an example from the Antarctic.

"People used to bleep hideously that if you wipe out any single species, even impact the population, the whole world would be destroyed because the whole world is linked together.

"Do you know it's possible that the fluttering of a butterfly in Africa could start a wind circulation that could build into a hurricane? Well, it's possible. It's also possible pigs will fly and the price of bacon will be sky-high. But do you really want to count on it?

"Consider this scenario: The population of great whales in the Antarctic is reduced to somewhere between slim and none. The single biggest appetite for krill (mini-shrimp) that ever existed was gone. The krill are now swarming the oceans. Nothing happened in the Antarctic – the sky didn't fall, the ice cap didn't melt, and no population crashed except the whales. There was not the slightest detectable change except the whales were not around. In due course, when we quit sticking sharp explosive charges into them, they came back, too. So the ecology turns out to be profoundly resilient."

Jacobson sees the original environmentalism movement as a worthy cause that went bad due to its leaders' desire for power.

"Environmentalism was hijacked," he said. "The original people in the movement could arguably claim to be the largest grass-roots movement in America, and one of the greatest. People joined together to do good. Then they made a crucial and critical mistake: They gave power – unchecked power – to their leaders.

"We allow the Enviros to write critical legislation. We elected many to the House and Senate who just blindly accepted that what the Enviros were doing was good. Now we're unwilling to examine what the Enviros say and do to see if it is flawed.

"It is one thing for the Enviros to say, 'We are going to do good,' but if what they do creates profoundly negative impacts on the habitat and turns out to be unconstitutional, it is proof that the power handed to their leaders has corrupted them.

"Right now, taxpayers are paying for 'Green Bureau-babble,' which equates to power. The people who come up with these ideas are power perverts. They don't want to stand for election. They want the power without the responsibility. These people are a perversion of the republic."

[Billthedrill]

The movement was hijacked. I have noted for some time how distasteful its original description "conservationism" is to those for whom even the text string "conserve" is too right-wing.

More amusing still are those enviros who seem to think that the movement is a chance to smash capitalism. These are folks who piously cite The Tragedy of the Commons and conclude from it the precise opposite of its real message: that public ownership is to be preferred to private. They haven't actually read their source material.

[madfly]

ping

[RWG]

Do I think the members of most 'environmental' groups support this?...from what I have seen of the rank and rank they do!

[BOBTHENAILER]

They are the lunatic fringes of socialism, and they are killing the American dream.

Nice quote. Nice to see the movement starting to eat its young.

[Blood of Tyrants]

I think that if the average citizens who belong to one of these organizations understood the group's true agenda, they would be outraged. But they haven't watched their leaders.

What organizations? The RNC, DNC, labor unions?

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!

[Grampa Dave]

John thanks for finding this great article! I have bookmarked it.

These comments describe where the green enviral nazis movement is now and what they are about:

Jacobson sees the original environmentalism movement as a worthy cause that went bad due to its leaders' desire for power.


"Environmentalism was hijacked," he said. "The original people in the movement could arguably claim to be the largest grass-roots movement in America, and one of the greatest. People joined together to do good. Then they made a crucial and critical mistake: They gave power – unchecked power – to their leaders.


"We allow the Enviros to write critical legislation. We elected many to the House and Senate who just blindly accepted that what the Enviros were doing was good. Now we're unwilling to examine what the Enviros say and do to see if it is flawed.


"It is one thing for the Enviros to say, 'We are going to do good,' but if what they do creates profoundly negative impacts on the habitat and turns out to be unconstitutional, it is proof that the power handed to their leaders has corrupted them.


"Right now, taxpayers are paying for 'Green Bureau-babble,' which equates to power. The people who come up with these ideas are power perverts. They don't want to stand for election. They want the power without the responsibility. These people are a perversion of the republic."

[Carry_Okie]

I need to contact this guy. He is ready. One of the few.

[Grampa Dave]

That was one of the reasons I pinged you. He sees these green rats as power perverts and what they do as unconstitutional. That makes about 3 of us.

As I posted yesterday in my rants, they have political power without ever being elected. It is time to close the books on them.

Your post re Club Sierra's forestry tactics/agenda was great. As the fires increase this summer, watch all of this stuff disappear from their web sites.

[Carry_Okie]

I just sent Mr. Jacobson an email.

[RightWhale]

He is ready. One of the few.

Said the right words, did he? Actually I thought of your work as I was reading his comments.

[Black Agnes]

You are correct re: the real estate scam part of the environmental movement. Do a search on 'rural fringe' and find the article I posted a month or so ago re: Florida. Tell me if *that* nifty little piece of legislation doesn't have 'land grab for benefit of wealthy developers at the expense of local peasants' written all over it!

[Carry_Okie]

Confronting the hard work of habitat restoration will do it to you. There you are, doing your best, spending your last available dime, and the main thing in the way is the blasted government doing the bidding of a bunch of destructive idiots! It hangs over your head while you restore an eroding gulley, "What if I do need a 1603 Permit... Gosh, I'll be the fine would be $25 grand." Then you realize that the permit and engineering might be $50K with no guarantees, or they might just red-tag your property and ruin you.

When you find out what the RICOnut lawyers are all about is nothing but money, well, I can't tell you how deep that anger really is, though I do feel compassion for their selfish and destructive dupes. After all, I was one of those too.

[Grampa Dave]

I saw your article, and that scam has been done here for decades.

In the wine country of Kali, Napa and Sonoma valleys, the elite of the enviral rats have watched their homes triple and quadruple in price as they have stopped and delayed most new building of homes in this area..

It is a simple game. Either block any new construction of homes in the name of enviralism or make any new construction of a new home so complicated and expensive that only the super rich can afford it. This drives up property value in areas where demand by newcomers is still high.

Carry can tell you about the property value in his county thanks to the elite envirals playing this game. A simple two bedroom home will have some outrageous price in Santa Cruz county.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Black Agnes]

What would be really cool is a group of dedicated individuals with detailed knowledge of the natural flora and fauna of individual eco systems (nothing too fine grained here, you could go crazy that way, I'm talking general areas...mmmmaybe the size of 3-4 counties east of the MS) that could put together an ongoing discussion with local property owners re: best species to plant for their respective properties, how to efficiently remove pest species with greatest sensitivity/etc. Kind of like the old 'Home Extension Offices' rural farming areas have only this one would help owners with environmental questions/issues. I know you have such knowledge for your particular piece of property but that knowledge might not be as useful to someone in the Southern Pine Forest belt.

[Carry_Okie]

Privatize it. Really. The reason there is no market is that the Federal, State, and local bureaucrats have a lock on the business.

Private businesses have trade associations, publications, adveritsing, and conventions to share information. Markets organize that information like nothing else can. All we have to do is to set ourselves up and take it from the government. The law is in our favor.

Really. It doesn't have to be this way.

[Black Agnes]

Agreed absolutely. I for one, would *pay* some enterprising environmentally aware person to help me do habitat restoration on about 40 acres I have. I'd like to return it to as close as possible the state it was when my GGGGrandfather first got it. Never see that in my lifetime but maybe the Grandkids or their kids would. GGGGrandfather didn't have a choice but to cut the trees and plant crops, he had 20 kids. I have the choice and the money.

[KateUTWS]

Psssst, Dan, break those wallboard scraps into pieces small enough to fit in a trashbag and put them in with your regular garbage. Shhhh, don't tell anyone, OK

[Freedom4US]

You're right. I discovered at University how they feel. They honestly equate Private Property with Slavery. I'm not kidding. If you own something, but cannot do what you want with it, or need a permit, or are taxed on it, or can have it confiscated because of an "endangered" rat, then you do not own it.