What’s Whale Wars Got To Do With Saving the Planet?
Animal Planet’s reality show, Whale Wars, featuring a ragtag group of activists trying to save the planet by attacking Japanese whalers, has as much credibility with environmentalists as Jon & Kate have with parenting experts. It’s the green community’s version of Jersey Shore if you will; so preposterous it’s hard to look away.
Paul Watson is the doughy captain and star of the show. To most viewers he’s nothing more than an eccentric animal rights activist. Most people probably consider him harmless (unless you’re hunting whales of course). But there’s a lot more lurking under the façade of this wacky eco-activist.
Watson is severely at odds with environmentalists striving for inclusive solutions to environmental problems.
The outlandish tactics exhibited on the show extend to Watson’s involvement in the environmental movement. As the chair of the Sierra Club from 2003-2006 and founder and president of the Sea Sheppard Conservation Society, Watson has wielded tremendous influence as an environmental leader. Read more
Negative Population Growth and the Tanton Network’s Obsession with Population Control
Negative Population Growth, an anti-immigrant group financed by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) recently published its latest forum paper titled “Haiti’s Problems, and their Lessons” by Walter Youngquist. The two page paper essentially argues that the one of the root causes of Haiti’s problems is its population growth.
This is not the first attack on Haiti by the John Tanton Network since the horrific earthquake that ravaged the country earlier this year.
In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, FAIR called the Obama Administration’s plan to give Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian nationals “reckless and overboard.” The John Tanton Network continued its lack of sympathy for the Haitian disaster when Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies stated in his blog on the National Review Online that “My guess is that Haiti’s so screwed up because it wasn’t colonized long enough.” Read more
Anti-immigrant Groups and Environmentalists at Odds
Masked is the word that comes to mind when I think of anti-immigrant organizations that claim to be concerned about the environment. As we move into a new month, year, decade and closer to the 30th anniversary of Earth Day, we must be mindful of environmental issues and especially of who are considered legitimate environmental experts. Conscious and informed environmentalism is imperative to solve dire environmental problems.
However, politically extreme organizations that purport to prioritize environmental preservation/conservation are using this alarming issue to promote their anti-immigrant agendas. They are employing several aggressive tactics, some of which are outright attacks on mainstream environmental organizations for not taking an anti-immigrant stance. Other examples include TV and radio advertisements which falsely connect immigrants to environmental degradation. Fear-mongering and bullying are the anti-immigrant movement’s favored tactics. Read more
Sustainability: Thinking Beyond Borders Part Two
When Americans import goods from foreign regions they are often exporting environmental degradation. In the U.S. we import all of our coffee, mostly from Colombia, Brazil and Guatemala. And we import a lot of it. After oil, coffee is the second largest import in the United States.
Luckily, about two thirds of the world’s coffee beans are still classified as arabica. Arabica beans are grown at higher altitudes, require less watering, and need cooler climates. Which means that almost all arabica beans are shade grown, greatly reducing the number of trees being cut down. Shade-grown coffee also grows slower than other varieties, producing a more flavorful, higher quality product. Read more
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Authors
- Amy Mehta
- Amy Spicer
- Ana Turck
- Andrew Grant-Thomas
- Axel Fuentes
- Carlos Rich
- Charlotte Williams
- Chris Bober
- Cloee Cooper
- Eric Ward
- Garat Ibrahim
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- Glenn Hutchinson
- Guest Blogger
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- James E. Johnson
- Jessica Acee
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- Ken Brown
- MJ Olahafa
- Noah Chandler
- Rebecca Poswolsky
- Rev. David L. Ostendorf
- Sarah Viets
- Stephen Piggott
- Amy Mehta