Green Backlash by Andrew Rowell, Routledge,
拢11.99, ISBN 0 415 12828 5
ON the morning Green Backlash arrived, an environmentalist friend
from Kenya rang saying he had something important to say, but would fax it
because 鈥測ou never know who鈥檚 listening鈥�. Reading a single chapter of Andrew
Rowell鈥檚 exhaustive reportage of the increasingly violent ways in which
anti-environmentalists are attacking green activists, made me appreciate that
caution.
That said, this excellent book鈥檚 strength lies in how it lets the actions of
the anti-greens and green groups speak for themselves. Rowell juxtaposes
misinformation and reality, while reminding the reader that the environmental
movement has the potential to beat this backlash.
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The first round saw the environmental activists holding the moral high ground
as they campaigned鈥攁nd sometimes won鈥攁gainst dams and clearcutting
forests. But the opposition鈥攖he political right, big business and the
state鈥攁re winning the second round. And Rowell applies his analytical
powers to the why and how of this.
The pro-business lobby, representing those with most to lose from
environmental cleanups, has turned ecological arguments on their head, and
thrown smears and violence against environmentalists to boot. It now claims to
represent true environmentalism, a practical credo upheld by realists. Rowell
describes the methods this lobby is using to change opinion. They include:
seemingly independent scientific reports, attempts to arouse fears of job
losses, intimidation and espionage.
Rowell points out that right-wing movements, such as Wise Use in the US,
corporate-front user groups like America鈥檚 Coalition for Vehicle Choice or
individual contrarians like Wilfred Beckerman, author of Small is
Stupid, seem to have wound up key environmentalists to the point that they
abandon their mission, diverting their energies to counter the counterclaims.
This orchestration of anti-green fervour leads to action: growing surveillance,
suppression, legal actions and violence. Some anti-green groups even suggest
that their members disrupt environmentalists鈥� activities.
But if truth is on the side of the good greens, why do environmentalists have
such problems coping with green backlash? Possibly because they are now facing
professional publicists putting the opposition鈥檚 viewpoint, but it may be that
it is a hard task to face the fact that they need to re-engage the sympathy and
trust of the public worldwide. For example, Greenpeace鈥檚 stance over the
disposal of the Brent Spar proved environmentalists could be mistaken. It was
widely reported. But Greenpeace did admit it had got its science wrong,
something Union Carbide still has not done after the world鈥檚 worst chemical
accident at Bhopal.
And if in the war of words, the anti-greens manage to label their opponents
as 鈥渢errorists鈥�, then the environmentalists, who typically use non-violent
direct action in support of their aims, are at risk: skinned pets (a favourite
in America), letterbox burning (regular in Australia) or violence (typically by
security guards against anti-road protesters in Britain). There have been
murders too: the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior that killed cameraman Fernando
Pereira; and the killings of Brazilian rubber tapper Chico Mendes and Nigerian
activist Ken Saro-Wiwa.
Throughout Green Backlash, you feel you are in conversation with an
unstoppable eco-activist raging against the state of the world, the type who
doesn鈥檛 pause for breath except to say, 鈥渁nd another thing鈥� before recounting an
even more heinous environmental crime. The style could wear you down鈥攊t
lends the book a tone often adopted by fundamentalists. But do not let his style
distract: Rowell鈥檚 more than two years of research and knowledge of his subject
should weigh against this. Greenpeace, which sponsored the book, is lucky to
have such a painstaking researcher on its side.