The Colonialism of First World Environmentalism
Contemporary environmentalism about exporting the “dirty stuff” to a place called “somewhere else”. Most of the time that “somewhere else” is a third world country.
We all know how any right-thinking neoliberal worth his responsibly sourced pink Himalayan glacial salt feels about colonialism – its bad, right?
Worst thing ever.
Subjugating and enslaving entire races/populations is literally and figuratively the mostest evilest thing in the world.
Damn those white Europeans and their colonialist western cultural desires.
White is shite.
No.
Not so much.
As much as Marxism has shifted to the culture instead of economics, colonialism has shifted as well.
Today’s First World environmentalism is little different from colonialism.
Virtue signaling of the elite class is all tied up in hating fossil fuels, internal combustion engines, industry in general. I’m not ready to give them credit for seeing all these things as little more than avatars for Western civilization, but I guess it is possible. It is more likely, they just go where the trends within their desired circles go.
If the Pareto Principle is to be believed, 80% of the “environmentalists” are followers wanting to prove their bone fides to the other 20% who are really the true believers.
It is interesting that these are the same vapid class of people who will go to gaudy galas that promote one charity or cause but don’t care about the cradle to grave environmental costs of making lithium batteries – which often include the employment of child labor in hazardous conditions, making windmills out of non-biodegradable materials, or that the carbon cost of the materials used in the windmill are greater than the amount of electricity the windmill will generate over its lifetime.
One of the states publicized as putting the environment is undoubtedly California and yet, it is an example of how they “export” their “dirty work” so they can virtue signal to hell and back – at no real cost to them. California is one of the largest importers of electrical power in the US – a lot of it comes from places like Utah, Arizona, and Nevada where the power for all those Tesla cars is generated by coal, natural gas, and nuclear facilities. Rather than pursuing their own natural resources, they are part of a group of states that drain the Colorado River before it reaches the Pacific.
Most of this is about exporting the “dirty stuff” to a place called “somewhere else”. Most of the time that “somewhere else” is a third world country, but sometimes it is just to the next state, as with California.
For too many environmental zealots, it is less about environmental protection and more out of sight, out of mind.
Isn’t exporting the dirty stuff to another country and culture just another form of colonialism – more specifically, environmental colonialism? It seems they are more than willing to sacrifice a small black African child in a rare earth open pit mine at the altar of their electric dreams.
But they don’t want to hear about such things, much less think about them.
The carbon cost of the materials used in the windmill are greater than the amount of electricity the windmill will generate over its lifetime. That is an eye-opening sentence. For some reason, I immediately believe it. Those idealistic fools who imagine that the electricity that powers their Teslas does not ultimately come from fossil-fueled or nuclear plants never consider the environmental costs of their fantasies.
Some years back I got into an absurd discussion with a lefty. This was a bit before every conversation with a lefty was over the top absurd. He decried how terrible colonialism was for Africa. How it ruined Africa. I said ‘have you read about pre colonial Africa? It wasn’t paradise.’ He went on and on. I was sort of listening. Then he said he had a solution. I like problem solving. I listened. He said each established Western country should adopt a country or two. They could form partnerships between their corporations and the backward wrecked country’s corporations. Each country could build their adopted country and help it move into the 21st Century. It was brilliant! According to him. I said ‘You do realize what you described is....COLONIALISM!’ He had somehow failed to grasp that.