Following on from Exeposé Features’ interview with Natalie Bennett, President of Freedom Society Liam Taylor blows the whistle with four reasons why he thinks the Green Party need to come under closer scrutiny.
“Anti-science, anti-business, and downright antihuman.” These were the words used to describe Greenpeace by one of its founders and key members upon explaining why he left the organisation that he had helped build from the ground up. Harsh accusations, the latter two of which in particular would perhaps take most people by surprise, given that most people seem to view them as merely well -meaning if a bit naïve. Here are four reasons why the same description could be given to the political wing of the environmental movement, whose leader recently graced our campus with her presence:
1) They’re scared of progress.
Nearly all technological progress throughout human history has been opposed by one group or another; sometimes out of genuine moral concern but other times out of fear and ignorance. In the past when these groups found themselves unable to win the argument they would resort to violence and unfortunately that is sometimes still true today. Take the knee-jerk and violent opposition to GM Crops. The Green Party’s London Mayoral candidate Jenny Jones supported the vandalism of a non-profit research lab and the irony of an environmental group vandalising the efforts of scientists trying to discover a more environmentally friendly way of feeding an ever growing human population was apparently lost on her.
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We wouldn’t tolerate roving bands of rednecks tearing down wind turbines so why should we tolerate this kind of vandalism when it’s done by glorified hippies? Because of some kind of technophobia they are opposing the only shot humanity may have at producing enough food to feed itself. Of course they’re perfectly within their rights to oppose technological progress and corporate agriculture if they wish, but perhaps it might be appropriate to at least offer an alternative that won’t result in Malthusian collapse and mass starvation in third world countries.
2) They hate science.
We’ve already seen that on issues apart from climate change, the Green Party are not exactly on the best of terms with science. I could talk about their ludicrous demands of providing homeopathy, essentially extortionately priced water, on the NHS but I trust my fellow students at Exeter to be smart enough to realise why it’s a terrible idea. However, perhaps it is worth mentioning their opposition to nuclear power on the grounds that it is “elitist and undemocratic”. The perceptive among you may notice that this makes absolutely no sense. How can a method of energy technology be undemocratic, or elitist for that matter?
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Of course they can’t, it’s just that a large chunk of the Green Party believe those words are just another way of saying, “bad”. Now, there are legitimate concerns to be had about nuclear power but it is considerably safer than popular imagination gives it credit for. Even when an outdated 40 year old reactor in Japan got hit by an earthquake and tsunami there wasn’t a single casualty from the radiation. Nonetheless, every form of generating energy has its good and bad points but at the end of the day we need to keep the lights on and injecting this kind of nonsense about nuclear power being “elitist and undemocratic” into the debate does nothing to help us find the best ways of doing that.
3) They are at war with economics.
It’s quite common among politicians of all stripes to think that they can manipulate the laws of economics at will but the Greens are perhaps one of the worst when it comes to believing that they can simply ignore economic reality. In truth, you cannot ignore the laws of economics or overcome them with sheer political will any more than you can ignore the laws of gravity. It is a common trope that we consume too much and their manifesto openly states that limitless economic growth is bad. Let’s just consider the implications of that. When the economy crashed in 2008 we consumed less, inequality was slightly reduced and carbon emissions fell. In one stroke we took a significant step closer to achieving some of their key goals but it hardly felt like the first steps towards some kind of green utopia.
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4) They don’t care about you
We have a situation where a party is pretty openly advocating policies to increase energy prices and reduce economic growth in the name of sustainability. What’s perhaps not obvious at first glance is that these policies are incredibly regressive; they disproportionately hurt the poor more than anyone else. Existing green energy policies have already significantly increased energy prices and are set to be responsible for a further increase by close to 50% in coming years, and that’s with massive subsidies for renewable energy. It’s not going to be the well-off who suffer the most but the people who are already struggling to heat their homes, keep the lights on and fuel their cars to be able to get to work. But it’s not just the poor in this country who would suffer.
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Consider the human costs of applying this logic to the poorest parts of the world. The reason an earthquake that hits the US kills far fewer than one in Indonesia is that economic growth and development allow for better emergency services and the building of earthquake-proof buildings. Poorer countries’ chances of developing and escaping poverty are sacrificed upon the altar of the greater good because the focus on a utopian ideal often blinds people from the true human cost of their ideas. Isn’t that ultimately the problem with all utopian ideas, however good the motivations that fuel them are? As the old adage goes, the road to hell is paved with those same good intentions.
Liam Taylor
If you want to give a defence of the Green Party, get in touch via comment@exepose.com. Is this an accurate representation of the Green party? Are they in fact the only party prepared to seriously tackle climate change and other environmental issues? Leave a comment below or write to the Comment team at the Exeposé Comment Facebook Group or on Twitter@CommentExepose.
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