Environmentalist Contradiction

Stian Westlake at the Works in Progress newsletter had a 2023 piece Degrowth and the Monkey's Paw. He is a statistician by trade, and those folks often notice things, if you take my meaning.  He starts by noticing that the degrowth that was so earnestly desired by environmentalists has in fact been occurring in Britain for a few years now and wonders why no one seems to be happy about it, despite all the articles about how much better the acceptance of such an economy is going to usher in an era of people placing emphasis on more important things, like happiness.

It's Cowslip's Warren all over again, that rabbits will be happier if they learn to accept their fate.  Hmm.  You go first, let me know how that works out. Further into the article, Westlake touches on a longstanding complaint of mine:  many environmentalists don't seem to care as much about realities as they do appearances.

The backbone of these groups is largely comfortably-off people who have no desperate need for economic growth, and who sincerely believe they are protecting nature and the environment. For many people, “the environment” is less about ppm of atmospheric carbon and more about the view when they walk their dog; this is after all, a venerable environmental tradition stretching back to William Morris and beyond. They are pursuing what they see as a just environmental cause, and they don’t mind if it reduces growth—it just so happens that this particular flavour of environmentalism increases rather than reduces carbon emissions. (Italics mine)

In America, they want things to look like summer camp when they were young. They have a religious attitude to some aspects of nature, like forest cathedrals, or the sacrificial offering of recycling despite its lack of evidence for good effect. They interpret the destructiveness of nature in terms of the earth or Gaia being angry at us and punishing us. I recommend that those of you who are virgins not hang around any volcanoes. You never know.  

The oppose new housing of nearly all sorts in NIMBY fashion and then shudder at the unattractiveness of homeless camps; they approve of immigration but don't like shopping at Wal-Mart or downtown, where the immigrants are.