Progressive Environmentalism As Religion

This is only a small portion of a larger article from Michael Crichton on the insanity of environmentalism and the people that sit in the front pew drinking the cool aide on a regular basis.
But without much difficulty, one can see there is little difference between the environmentalist and the progressive socialist liberal, and in many ways, they are the same.

Their intent is the same. Extract as much control from the population as they can on a sustaining basis using misinformation or out right lies to persuade an unsuspecting and poorly informed public into believing they are the problem that is destroying the planet. And the only way to solve this catastrophic problem is to give up all of their individual rights and freedoms to the control of those that know how to fix the problem.

Of course there is no problem to start with but no matter, believe there is one and all will be well as this will result in a solution. See how easy it is to make charges that are false and then have solutions that work but will take decades and billions of tax dollars. 

The problem is the same with progressive socialist politics that is in control of our country. Serious charges are made as to why we have so many problems that go unsolved, but upon a closer look, most of the on going problems are made by the same people asserting the charges. So the only way to solve the problem is to transfer power to the government, i.e. income redistribution. Simple enough, right? Who knew it could be so easy.

Environmentalism as Religion
Michael Crichton
Commonwealth Club
San Francisco, CA
September 15, 2003

This was not the first discussion of environmentalism as a religion, but
it caught on and was widely quoted. Michael explains why religious
approaches to the environment are inappropriate and cause damage to the
natural world they intent to protect.

I have been asked to talk about what I consider the most important
challenge facing mankind, and I have a fundamental answer. The greatest
challenge facing mankind is the challenge of distinguishing reality from
fantasy, truth from propaganda. Perceiving the truth has always been a
challenge to mankind, but in the information age (or as I think of it,
the disinformation age) it takes on a special urgency and importance.

We must daily decide whether the threats we face are real, whether the
solutions we are offered will do any good, whether the problems we're
told exist are in fact real problems, or non-problems. Every one of us
has a sense of the world, and we all know that this sense is in part
given to us by what other people and society tell us; in part generated
by our emotional state, which we project outward; and in part by our
genuine perceptions of reality. In short, our struggle to determine what
is true is the struggle to decide which of our perceptions are genuine,
and which are false because they are handed down, or sold to us, or
generated by our own hopes and fears.

As an example of this challenge, I want to talk today about
environmentalism. And in order not to be misunderstood, I want it
perfectly clear that I believe it is incumbent on us to conduct our
lives in a way that takes into account all the consequences of our
actions, including the consequences to other people, and the
consequences to the environment. I believe it is important to act in
ways that are sympathetic to the environment, and I believe this will
always be a need, carrying into the future. I believe the world has
genuine problems and I believe it can and should be improved. But I also
think that deciding what constitutes responsible action is immensely
difficult, and the consequences of our actions are often difficult to
know in advance. I think our past record of environmental action is
discouraging, to put it mildly, because even our best intended efforts
often go awry. But I think we do not recognize our past failures, and
face them squarely. And I think I know why.

I studied anthropology in college, and one of the things I learned was
that certain human social structures always reappear. They can't be
eliminated from society. One of those structures is religion. Today it
is said we live in a secular society in which many people---the best
people, the most enlightened people---do not believe in any religion.
But I think that you cannot eliminate religion from the psyche of
mankind. If you suppress it in one form, it merely re-emerges in another
form. You can not believe in God, but you still have to believe in
something that gives meaning to your life, and shapes your sense of the
world. Such a belief is religious.
Today, one of the most powerful religions in the Western World is
environmentalism. Environmentalism seems to be the religion of choice
for urban atheists. Why do I say it's a religion? Well, just look at the
beliefs. If you look carefully, you see that environmentalism is in fact
a perfect 21st century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs
and myths.

There's an initial Eden, a paradise, a state of grace and unity with
nature, there's a fall from grace into a state of pollution as a result
of eating from the tree of knowledge, and as a result of our actions
there is a judgment day coming for us all. We are all energy sinners,
doomed to die, unless we seek salvation, which is now called
sustainability. Sustainability is salvation in the church of the
environment. Just as organic food is its communion, that pesticide-free
wafer that the right people with the right beliefs, imbibe.