The Angst is Palpable

Over at the Guardian, Matthew Engel is having a big sad over the environment. Gee, what could that be about, you ask coyly? Yep - "Matthew Engel reports on how America is ravaging the planet".

Same old sh*t, right? Goofball Euroweenie tours the USA and reports back on the dolorous conditions there. Well sort of, but there's some really satisfying boohooing over the nefarious "Bush Administration", the general American public, and even erstwhile tree huggers and tofu eaters. Here are a few of my faves:

Those of us without a degree in climatology can have no sensible opinion on the truth about climate change, except to sense that the weather does seem to have become a little weird lately. Yet in America the subject has become politicised, with rightwing commentators decrying global warming as "bogus science". They gloated when it snowed unusually hard in Washington last winter (failing to notice the absence of snow in Alaska). When the dissident "good news" scientist Bjorn Lomborg spoke to a conservative Washington thinktank he was applauded not merely rapturously, but fawningly.
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In the meantime, all American consumers have been asked to do is to buy Ben & Jerry's One Sweet Whirled ice cream, ensuring that a portion of Unilever's profits go towards "global warming initiatives". Wow!
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But, in truth, despite the Soviet-style politicisation of science, serious national debate on the issue ceased years ago.
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"We're waging a war on the environment, a very successful one," says Paul Ehrlich, professor of population studies at Stanford University. "This nation is devouring itself," according to Phil Clapp of the National Environmental Trust. These are voices that have almost ceased to be heard in the US.
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Why has the leader of the free world opted out? The first reason lies deep in the national psyche. The old world developed on the basis of a coalition - uneasy but understood - between humanity and its surroundings. The settlement of the US was based on conquest, not just of the indigenous peoples, but also of the terrain.
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This brings us to the third factor: the Bush administration, the first government in modern history which has systematically disavowed the systems of checks and controls that have governed environmental policy since it burst into western political consciousness a generation ago.
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But the Bushies have perfected a technique of announcing regular edicts (often late on a Friday afternoon) rolling back environmental control, usually while pretending to do the opposite.
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What is really alarming is the intellectual atmosphere in Washington. You can attend seminars debunking scientific eco-orthodoxy almost every week.
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Out in the west, words such as enviro-whackos are popularised by rightwing radio hosts such as the ex-Watergate conspirator Gordon Liddy, who passes on to his millions of listeners the message that global warming is a lie. "I commute in a three-quarter-tonne capacity Chevrolet Silverado HD," he swanked in his latest book. "Four-wheel drive, off-road equipped, extended curb pickup truck, powered by a 300hp, overhead valve, turbo supercharged diesel engine with 520lb-feet of torque... It has lights all over it so everyone can see me coming and get out of the way. If someone in a little government-mandated car hits me, it is all over - for him."
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In this country, green-minded people can't even trust the good guys. The Nature Conservancy, the US's largest environmental group with a million members - with a role not unlike Britain's National Trust - was the subject of an exhaustive exposé in the Washington Post in May, accusing it of sanctioning deals to build "opulent houses on fragile grasslands" and drilling for gas under the last breeding ground of the Attwater's Prairie Chicken, whose numbers have dwindled to just dozens.
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Americans still have a presumption of infinite space. But I have made a curious and mildly embarrassing discovery. In states such as Maryland and Ohio, the pattern of settlement in supposedly rural areas is such that it can actually be quite difficult to find a discreet spot away from housing to stop the car and have a pee.

I better stop before I wet myself too. I guess if you don't want a high pitched whine, you don't give a Guardian writer an expense account and send him to the USA.

Beyond satisfaction at Matthew's discomfort, I was amazed at his "second reason":

There is a second reason: the staggering population growth of the US. It is approaching 300 million, having gone up from 200 million in 1970, which was around the time President Nixon set up a commission to consider the issue, the last time any US administration has dared think about it. A million new legal migrants are coming in every year (never mind illegals), and the US Census Bureau projections for 2050, merely half a lifetime away, is 420 million. This is a rate of increase far beyond anything else in the developed world, and not far behind Brazil, India, or indeed Mexico.

Careful Matthew, this is dangerous ground for a lefty. The talking point on this issue is that uncontrolled immigration is swell, because they are just seeking a better life than they had in Elbonia and we Americans should be big-hearted enough to help out.

Yet extra Americans are not just a problem for the US: they are, in the eyes of many environmentalists, a problem for the world because migrants, in a short span of time, take on American consumption patterns. "Not only don't we have a population policy," says Ehrlich, "we don't have a consumption policy either. We are the most overpopulated country in the world. It's not the number of people. It's their consumption." Ehrlich may be wrong. It is, though. somewhat surprising that the federal government's four million employees do not appear to include anyone charged with even thinking about this issue.

Say what? It's not a problem that our borders are completely porous. The problem is that once the 3rd world people get across the border, they want a better life than they had in Elbonia?

Hey, maybe the boy has really clever plan for stopping illegal immigration! I'll tell you what, Matthew. You explain to the Mexican peasant farmers that once they get across the border to the USA, they should continue to live like Mexican peasant farmers! But environmentally correct peasant farmers of course. I'll bring the tofu and granola.

As for the federal government hiring someone to "think" about the problem. Why should we bother when we get free help from geniuses like you?