Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Sun Mar 3, 2013, 09:19 AM Mar 2013

10 Stunning Things You Should Know About the Environmental Movement -- 'A Fierce Green Fire' Film

http://www.alternet.org/environment/10-stunning-things-you-should-know-about-environmental-movement-fierce-green-fire-film

10 Stunning Things You Should Know About the Environmental Movement -- 'A Fierce Green Fire' Film Inspires



***SNIP

1. IRS Stands For Irrational Resource Sellouts

Founded in 1892 by John Muir, the Sierra Club, which commands A Fierce Green Fire's first act, is the oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization in history. By the '60s, however, it had become a pernicious disseminator of "propaganda," according to the IRS, which revoked the Sierra Club's charitable status as pathetic payback for a series of popular protests against dams that would flood the Grand Canyon. It's but one birth pang of many that A Fierce Green Fire uncovers in the Sierra Club's outstanding history.

***SNIP

2. Make Way For Earth National Park (Again)

Much of A Fierce Green Fire's act on Sierra Club focuses on its controversial former leader David Brower, who served as its first executive director from 1952-1969, before being ousted in a dispute over nuclear power, which he opposed. But despite many militant opinions, it is perhaps his polarizing conception of Earth National Park -- in which "all nations...unite against the one real common enemy: rampant technology" -- that may prove most prescient.

***SNIP

3. Martin Litton, Badass

He may be 87, but the pioneering environmentalist, who teamed up with Brower to fight dam-building, is no fragile flower -- and he doesn't want the environmental movement to be either. Environmentalists should "be unreasonable," he argues in A Fierce Green Fire. They should have "hatred in [their] heart[s]" for polluters and ravagers, and they should tell a society that befouls the environment to "drop dead."

4. Spaceship Earth, Cleared For Takeoff

Despite Brower's aforementioned hatred of technology, one of the environmental movement's most notable evolutionary moments came in the '60s and '70s, when it embraced science and tools to effect local and global change. From Stewart Brand's countercultural DIY manual Whole Earth Catalog to the organic pioneer New Alchemy Instituteand beyond, hacking Earth became a hippie ideal that has evolved well into our still-new millennium.
3 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
10 Stunning Things You Should Know About the Environmental Movement -- 'A Fierce Green Fire' Film (Original Post) xchrom Mar 2013 OP
WHAT IF chervilant Mar 2013 #1
I want to see this nt octoberlib Mar 2013 #2
Looks awesome limpyhobbler Mar 2013 #3

chervilant

(8,267 posts)
1. WHAT IF
Sun Mar 3, 2013, 10:41 AM
Mar 2013

we change our goals, as a species ?!

What if we, as a collective, decided that the many fruits of our massive brains would be used to insure that everyone participates, everyone is fed, everyone has shelter, and everyone has health care?!?

Oh, wait...that's communism. Or socialism. Or one of those pejorative isms the hedonistic CMs invented to justify their self-destructive greed.

For a moment there, I thought I was on to something ...

Latest Discussions»Issue Forums»Environment & Energy»10 Stunning Things You Sh...