Eco Nuts

Dear overzealous environmentalists,

I really don’t enjoy writing an angry letter directed at you – I’m supposed to be on your side.

I’ve always cared a lot about the environment, both for the sake of the defenseless animal species that we insist on driving extinct and for our own sake. Since we all live in the environment I’ve always thought that it is just the most basic common sense to avoid destroying it.

But I’ve noticed that this attitude doesn’t always go over so well with people. When I’ve expressed any concern about the environment, there have usually been at least some people reacting negatively to it. I’ve been called a “polar bear worshiper”, “damn hippie tree-hugger”, “green meanie”, etcetera. And this all just because of some rather innocuous things I’ve said.

For instance, I’ve been told things like that if I give some polite suggestion about how someone might save gas. Sure, a suggestion like that might, if expressed without care, be seen as condescending, but is that a reason to get such strong negative reactions?

I’ve usually just said something that will benefit them in the short run (e.g. save money by using less gas or less electricity) and the planet in the long run (help reduce pollution/the depletion of our natural resources etcetera). Not something to get very worked up about – I don’t think it sounds like a nefarious plot from a cult of evil hippie polar bear worshiping meanies. So I never understood their reaction.

                 

But then it dawned on me. It’s because of you. It’s because of the people who take it too far.

For instance, I recently saw an article about an environmentally friendly, solar-powered automatic lawnmower. One of the comments spewed bile about how this is stupid and that we shouldn’t waste resources on anything like that. Instead we should give up our gardens to grow crops there.

People who say things like that are totally disconnected from reality. Instead of taking the small win of people switching from horribly inefficient two-stroke gas powered lawnmowers to electric, solar-powered ones, he wanted a complete revolution of society. Every person growing crops in their garden is not feasible in the modern economy and anyone the least bit at home in the real world would know that.

But some environmentalists get riled up and say stupid crap like that. This leads to people thinking that all the things that people who care about the environment say are totally unfeasible and stupid. So instead of even considering the gentle suggestions that will benefit both them and their fellow man, they discard it as bullshit from some damn tree-hugging hippie.

If you are the kind of environmentalist who wants humanity to make extremely impossible changes overnight, please keep those opinions for yourself in the future. It only makes it harder for those with sensible opinions about how to make things better for all of us to be heard.

Love, flowers and tree-hugs,

Marcus