Don’t underestimate rightwing desperation in media attacks on greens

The Times, the Telegraph and the Financial Times have run articles blaming the community for our current woes

The gloves are off. In recent days, a sustained attack on environmentalism has been mounted in the UK media. The Times, the Telegraph and the Financial Times have all run articles by influential journalists blaming the environment community for our current woes.

In the Financial Times, John Kay blamed environmentalist’s malign influence on procrastinating politicians for the risk that the lights will go out.

In the Telegraph a fawning interview of Nigel Lawson by Cristina Odone saw him accusing the green reds under the bed of making us slaves to Russia and the middle east.

In the Times, Tim Montgomerie used a blunderbuss of bilious invective to blame environmentalists for world poverty and domestic unemployment.

The most striking feature of this wave of antagonism is not the lack of evidence for its wild exaggerations but the deep hostility of its tone. Something is getting profoundly under the skin of the authors.

Tim Montgomerie was certainly right about one thing: current climate policies are failing. What is bizarre is his conclusion that we should therefore do less not more about it.

The week, when the European investment bank, the EBRD and the World Bank all announced measures to constrain investment in fossil fuels, was an odd moment to accuse environmentalists of defying economic gravity. It is doubtful that Montgomerie’s words will move more dollars than the words of the banks.

Those greens aggravating Lawson’s memories of communism are exactly the people doing most to support the energy efficiency and renewables that will eliminate the risk of the slavery he so fears. Re-fighting the last war is a bad habit of old generals.

So what is going on? What dire anxieties are driving otherwise rational people into such glaring contradictions?

Read the rest here:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jul/26/rightwing-desperation-media-attacks-greens