Eco-Extortion

Ecology began as a very positive buzz ward. It's the same as psychology. Then one day we hear that psychology is being used for 'brain washing' and 'torture'.  The same occurred with 'nuclear energy' which suddenly was followed by 'nuclear bombs'.  Everything it appears has the potential for harm. The most recent of these has been the 'eco-extortion' movement. In this case someone tries to build something or change something and some group finds a spotted ant that they say may not be happy with the building or change.  They never say they are themselves self serving but they are usually relatively rich and aiming to be richer.  They say they are the representative of the left fern bilobed red fern frond and suddenly they are asking for a million dollars from a kid who just wanted to build a go cart that just might be going down the road where this ubiquitous, really. fern exists.  The cost of doing business suddenly goes to millions.

In medieval times it was safer to sail from the Mediterranean coast to Ireland than to cut accross country because even 10 miles a thug  would demand money for the poor in the neighbourhood of his castle and wealth and army.

Freedom of movement, freedom to communicate, freedom to do business, these are all freedoms which are now being challenged based on any minority interest who can claim the courts, not the parliament or democratic interests of society, but the lawyers predominantly, and special interests groups, especially, need to be 'paid'. It comes down to money.  It's baksheesh! Institutional baksheesh.

So building doesn't get done. Jobs aren't made. And progress doesn't occur while an ant or fern frond or a vista or something else is 'protected' until the 'price' the 'protector' is holding out for is given. THe 'other guy' is always called ''big business', 'big corporation' etc.  Like the Romans who had to build roads so trade could occur accross Europe and of course they did come into conflict with the local warlords.

So today the local warlords claiming to be eco-saviors are using historical extortion techniques and what was once called piracy and brigandry to become fat cats themselves.

Just suggesting that this is not about spotted ants and fern fronds but about one group wanting the money another group has is 'sacriledge' but really , it's about money. Clearly the trees and flowers and the oceans need friends just like the medieval people needed their local war lords to negotiate with the Roman army. It's just that I don't really want to see the dark ages occurring because everyone with any sense just goes elsewhere and in a global economy we might want to question whether a minority which is already a fat cat should be deciding whether we should collectively be forced to have them in charge or have the Romans with their highway and economies of scale.

Thanks to a very rich and powerful minority a whole lot of poor people are going to be needier because the very rich people don't want to do business with the very greedy less rich people.

Look beyond the 'rhetoric' and ask, do you really want to support 'eco-extortion' , piracy, and brigandry.   Obviously there's a whole other 'ecological' issue that is important but it's not what 'activists' and their 'lawyers' are really on about alot of the time. I'd be an 'activist' but I've got to go to work. So "activism' Is lucrative and lawyers don't work for nothing and beurocrats are spending our money.  So remember watch the money trails and really ask yourself if you want to die for a fern frond because in one of the many equations involved in these complex issues, this is the one I never hear because it challenges the very notion of the 'do gooders' income.

That said Joni Mitchell's song, They paved paradise and put up a parking lot remains one of my all time favourites. Just beware of eco extortion and lets see how much everyone is getting paid because the spotted ant and fern frond are definitely not collecting a pensioned salary. The advantage indeed for a certain type of person who represents quartz and antique bird shit sites is that they don't have to share the take in the end. These 'activists' ride on the tails of the real activists who fought for children and black people and street prostitutes who at the end of the day had to get part of the 'cut' and tended to stay around and ask why the political lawyers and politicians who 'won' the case for them got all the money.  Ferns don't complain. It works both ways. They haven't a voice but they can't complain and they don't need to be paid in the end.

Meanwhile ferns and spotted ants can be costing a lot in human life.