Green Lament

I’m not sure how much you can read into one particular comment thread. But there has been a discernible anti-immigration zealotry expressed by Grist readers over the last week, in response to this post.

On the thread, Randy Cunningham pleaded with his fellow greens to be more compassionate. He finally gave up, despairing:

Most of the comments posted on this article have depressed the hell out of me. I love the environmental movement, and what I have been hearing here reminds me of when I used to hear my beloved grandparents use the N word. It embarrassed me. This conversation embarrasses me. It is a parade of our dirty laundry. If I were introducing someone to our movement, this is the last place I would want them to look. It feels mean. It feels selfish. It feels xeonphobic. It feels frankly racist. I want to take a shower after reading the latest entries.

This underlying sentiment of many population ideologues–what I call “green bigotry”– is what I discussed here in reference to the Grist post. I’m guessing it’s a hold-over from the Abbey–Brower–Foreman wing of the environmental movement, and that the hardcore sentiments on population are felt strongest by greens who came of age in the 70s and 80s.

Steve Bloom, a a long-time activist with the Sierra Club, who is also a frequent blog commenter (and a frequent critic of mine), tries to downplay this prevailing enviro mindset, in a comment at my site:

Grist threads in general have been infested by wingnuts for some years now, so I don’t think there’s much special going on with this one.

In other words, nothing to see here, just a bunch of crazies foaming at the mouth. If only that were the case.