Saturday, November 06, 2004

Apocalypse Now

The dire predictions of many environmentalists fit neatly with the apocalyptic visions of right-wing evangelical Christians turning them against environmental protection, according to Grist Magazine. Why worry about the future of the ecosphere when Jesus is due back any day? Doing so apparently stands in the way of the Second Coming.

James Watt, Ronald Reagan's Secretary of the Interior and a devout evangelical Christian, once told a congressional committee: "God gave us these things to use. After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back." You can't get any clearer than that.

The ascendency of the Christian right to political power has ominous implications for environmental policy. The Grist article has all the particulars. Must be read to be believed.

(Comments are open to all. After clicking on "Comments," click on "Or Post Anonymously" if you don't have an account.)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

we have more trees now than in anytime in our nations history. why? improved firefighting techniques and more public lands ( thank you teddy roosevelt, a republican). source u.s. dept. of the interior. besides, they grow back!

number one contributor to global warming - the sun is getting hotter, and will until it eventually explodes. the primary proponent of the global warming THEORY recently changed his mind and said only the southern hemishpere is currently warming. the northern hemisphere is cooling, and therefore it is a push. if you bothered to check news stories from the 70's, the original scare was global cooling. they will probably try that one again soon! we have only been keeping weather data since the late 1800's, and those are surface temps at that. let's not jump to any conclusions based 150 years out of 15 billion.

environmentalists won't let new oil refineries get built here in the u.s. where they are highly regulated, they prefer that they are built in venezuela et. al. where there is no regulation. thank you for your help!