By Mike Moore
Published: December 3 2009 20:21 | Last updated: December 3 2009 20:21
It has finally happened. Green politics is officially a religion and deserves the rights of other faiths. A British judge has determined that employees can take their employers to court on the grounds of discrimination because of their views on climate change.
The judge ruled that an employee’s green views should be protected under legislation that makes it unlawful to discriminate against someone’s religious beliefs. The employee was concerned that his employer did not show sufficient regard for the environment and claimed his employer once flew a staff member to Ireland to deliver a BlackBerry he had left in London. This worthy soul said he no longer travels in aeroplanes, has renovated his home to be more eco-friendly and fears for the human race.
A member of the United Nations panel on climate change said of its findings: “There can no longer be dissent.” The next step will be to make opposition to the green religion an offence under hate crime laws.
I feel obliged to point out that I am not a climate denier, to save true believers from sharpening their carbon-neutral pencils and writing to the editor. It is good that young people are aware of the issues; but there are schools that command kids to apostolate on the environment, telling their parents not to eat meat or fly.
If you believe the end of the world is nigh, you can rationalise embellishing facts and snuffing out others’ rights and opinions in your modern crusade. The spinning by some scientists recently in the “climategate” e-mail disclosures, to advance their just cause, would be justified by the importance of the ends.
If you question über-environmentalists, you are a denier. End of story. This loaded charge links scepticism of their righteous belief to denial of the Holocaust.
A religion normally springs from a divine message. Believers have a common set of symbols and practices, reinforced through group rituals. Many religions have an apocalyptic view of the world and strict rules on diet. Fasting, no fish on Friday or no pork. It reinforces group behaviour. The impressionable young are the most vulnerable to this preaching, mirrored in the unquestioning support of environmentalists.
In Berlin, I inadvertently almost reduced a young green to tears of anger when I questioned a green commandment: to buy local food and use “food miles” to determine energy use. She did not think it right that flowers were flown into Europe from Africa. Pointing out that European flowers received unhealthy energy and fertiliser subsidies and Kenyan flowers used less energy, plus that her approach would cost Kenyan workers some of the best jobs in their country, was dismissed. “Why have flowers off-season anyway?” she wailed.
Trade is bad for the environment, she and many greens argue. But all human activity has an environmental impact. There is no evidence that trade between countries causes more environmental damage than trade within countries; why should people in Naples be forced to buy stuff grown in Sicily and not nearby France? Trade based on unsubsidised competition is about efficiency, and efficiency is another word for conservation. If their brave new world is to be a world without borders, a new sisterhood of man, why bring back tribal boundaries just for trade?
What was silly is becoming sinister. Green ideology is becoming a theology. This new religion has many apostles, especially in the non-profit sector and the soft media. It is right and proper that politicians and businesspeople face a sceptical media who scrutinise them, hold them to account, and expose their flaws and contradictions. The same should apply to the green agenda, which is all too often accepted at face value because it claims to have the planet’s interests at heart, unlike grubby politicians and greedy businesspeople.
There needs to be scepticism, everywhere, and much more of it. After a long life in public affairs I have a rule of measurement: the sacred law of humour. If someone cannot laugh at the absurdities of life, I get nervous. The enemies of reason throughout history, convinced their way is the only way, usually end up burning books or killing sparrows. Even worse, they do not laugh or blush. Serious environmentalists need to be ready to laugh at their mistakes.
The writer is author of “Saving Globalisation”, former prime minister of New Zealand and former director-general of the World Trade Organisation
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