On “Earth Day,” should we celebrate or mourn?
Even though humans have never had life so good, and climate-related deaths have fallen by over 90 percent in the last hundred years, thanks to capitalism and industrialization, the pronouncements of imminent doom continue to intensify.
Over 50 years ago, Ayn Rand identified the nature of the environmental movement, and its motivation. The following is from her brilliant article, “The Anti-Industrial Revolution,” written in 1971.
When the issue [failure of communism] became overwhelmingly clear to the whole world, the collectivists were faced with a choice: either turn to the right, in the name of humanity—or to the left, in the name of dictatorial power. They turned to the left—the New Left.
Instead of their old promises that collectivism would create universal abundance and their denunciations of capitalism for creating poverty, they are now denouncing capitalism for creating abundance.
Instead of promising comfort and security for everyone, they are now denouncing people for being comfortable and secure.
They are still struggling, however, to inculcate guilt and fear; these have always been their psychological tools. Only instead of exhorting you to feel guilty of exploiting the poor, they are now exhorting you to feel guilty of exploiting land, air and water.
Instead of threatening you with a bloody rebellion of the disinherited masses, they are now trying—like witch doctors addressing a tribe of savages—to scare you out of your wits with thunderously vague threats of an unknowable, cosmic cataclysm, threats that cannot be checked, verified or proved.
-Ayn Rand
For an excellent discussion of environmentalism’s philosophy and goals, see Ayn Rand’s talk, The Anti-Industrial Revolution.
References
Lockitch, Keith. Climate Vulnerability and the Indispensable Value of Industrial Capitalism. “Energy & Environment”, Volume 20 No. 5, 2009.
Rand, Ayn. The Return of the Primitive (pp. 281-282). Penguin Publishing Group.
Rand, Ayn. The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution. Signet New American Library.
