Recent Letters Unpublished: Environmentalism 4

Vincent J. Curtis

3 Dec 2013

 

From the Hamilton Spectator:

RE: These arteries are at the forefront of a two-way street debate

RE: ’Airshed’ model could help city fight air pollution

RE: Cash for poor: Mock trial finds Wynne guilty

RE:  Ontario electricity rates to rise 33 % in 3 years

 

What do all these headlines have in common?  What could a debate on one-way streets, a model for air pollution control, a mock trial of Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, and a story on Ontario electricity rates have in common?

 

What these stories all have in common is that the underlying issue is driven by an ideology.

 

With an ideology, facts come second or are irrelevant altogether to the Idea.  The ideologue has conceived an ideal world and is driven to obtain it regardless of empirical facts.  Generally, ideologies are non-falsifiable, and so it is impossible to employ reason against an ideologue.  It is impossible to demonstrate an ideology to be false on its own terms.  The committed ideologue cannot be changed in opinion by empirical evidence or reason.  Look to the Soviet Union and East Germany at the time of their collapse for examples of an Ideology consumed to its utter dregs.

 

Environmentalism is distinct from concern for the environment.  Environmentalism is an ideology, while concern for the environment is simply a thought anybody can hold.  You don’t have to be a committed ideologue to be concerned about the environment.  An ideologue can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.  An ordinary person is open to the thought that concern for the environment may need to be balanced against other concerns, such as jobs for his neighbors.

 

The two way street debate is concerned with the war between the science of traffic engineering and some soft-soap idea about a livable, sustainable city, livable at least for some people who live downtown but perhaps not sustainable if it suffocates on traffic.

 

The Airshed debate is about picking and choosing facts to believe, others to ignore, and failing to be rigorous in the presence of junk science.

 

What is the mock trial story about except people who feel both victimized and entitled?  There is no convincing them otherwise.  From what can be read in the story, they did not follow trial procedures that are supposed to account for the rights of the accused.

 

The news about the rise of electricity rates is a consequence of the ideologically driven energy agenda of the McGuinty Liberal government.  The chickens are coming home to roost, and what we get from the government is a non-falsifiable warning about how much worse things could have been.  Actually, things could have been much better than they are, had the government followed an energy policy recommended at the time by writers who shall go nameless.  We would not be losing manufacturing jobs in Ontario, like those in Leamington, because electricity rates are so high.  It is because the McGuinty Liberals so mismanaged the Ontario economy that the Federal government is failing to close its budget deficit despite booming oil prices.

 

It is uncommon that so many ideologically driven stories appear in the paper at the same time, but today was one of those black days.

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