The Greenless Greens who support the Urbanization of the Countryside.

This article has been taken from sp11 published july 19th 1999.

Bahro, Rudolf.
"If we want to arrive at ectopia we must not work towards renovating Frankfurt but rather towards clearing and dismantling it."[104]

Banuri, Tariq & Marglin, Frederique Apffel
These authors want the rural people who have left the countryside for urban areas to move back to the countryside. They believe that local people are the best at looking after local ecologies, “It should also be remembered that these forests (in the South) were preserved and protected for centuries by the same local villagers, and were decimated (within decades) only when villagers lost control of the forests to urban and commercial interests.”[105] It has to be suggested, however, that the pressure on Forests has increased because of the increasing birth rates of local people.

Colchester, Marcus
Colchester also wants rural people in urban areas to move back to the countryside. He questions how much economic and financial support they might need for this return, “Land reformers also face the dilemma of how much assistance to provide without creating dependency and undermining peasant initiative. Newly resettled farmers may require the provision of considerable agricultural extension facilities and infrastructure investments( roads, housing, schools, dispensaries) before they become familiar with their new surroundings and able to work the land well.”[106] He too supports the fantasy that Forests have been inhabited by oomans ever since oomans appeared on Earth, “For, despite the prevalence of myths about .. ‘virgin forests’, the forests have been inhabited for thousands of years. Few areas of forest are unused or unclaimed by local communities.”[107] According to this anthropocentric logic even when there were only two oomans on Earth they still owned all the Earth’s Forests.

Dauncey, Guy.
Calls for the, "The repopulation of rural areas in ecologically sustainable ways."[108]

Dobson, Andrew.
"Most manifestations of the Green movement argue for a repopulation of the countryside."[109]

Flavin, Christopher
Flavin believes that solar power will be the main means of enabling people to invade the countryside whether this might be the poor in third world or the rich in the over-industrialized world.

He believes solar power will enable consumers in the over-industrialized world to build second homes in Wilderness areas, “The use of solar electric systems in rural homes is growing in industrial countries as well, spurred by the popularity of vacation cabins and the cost of reaching them with power lines, which in the united states runs between $13,500 and $33,000 per kilometre for even small local distribution lines. In contrast a 500-watt pv system - enough to power an efficient home’s lights, radio, television, and computer - would cost less than $15,000 including batteries for storage. Norway already has 50,000 pv powered country homes, and an additional 8,000 are being “solarized” each year. Among the other leaders in pv home installations are spain, switzerland and the united states. All four nations have extensive forests or mountains and a middle class with the money and leisure time to enjoy them.”[110]

He complains the invasion of the countryside in third world countries is being held up by governments investing too much money in grid electricity rather than solar power .. “solar electrification projects start with a large disadvantage, since most developing country governments heavily subsidize the extension of grid electricity to rural areas, as well as the installation of diesel water pumps.”[111]

This so-called green is encouraging the destruction of the Earth’s life support system. It is just impossible to call such a person a green. He’s an Earth-rapist. If the car helped to open up Wilderness areas for hunters and recreational users who’s respect for Wilderness and Animals was negligible, then photovoltaics is the means for destroying the wildness of Wilderness areas.

Goldsmith, Edward.
Edward goldsmith is another major supporter of the mass invasion of the countryside. What is so surprising about his position is that although he’s one of the founders of the green movement and highly indebted to the ideas of james lovelock, his rationale for encouraging people back into the countryside has nothing to do with geophysiology but with ecological factors. He believes that moving back to the land would solve a range of urban problems, “In fact, if you were to restore your small farms, bring people back to the land, you’d be solving all sorts of urban problems .. from crime and delinquency, of unemployment, to the massive problems of putting up safe housing everywhere; all these problems would be solved, you see, if you were to return more people to the lands and re-establish the small farm.”[112]

Goldsmith is quite right to argue that the capital intensive approach to agricultural production is less efficient than labour intensive production, “To begin with, the bigger farm does increase yield per unit of labour, but not yields per unit of land used. .. even m.s. fuminuthan, the father of the green revolution in india, admits that the right size farm for india is 2.5 acres. It’s small farms that maximize food production not big farms.”[113] This, of course, would help to produce more food to help overcome starvation but it would also boost ooman numbers thereby increasing geophysiological damage. However, the capital intensive approach to livestock farming is far more efficient than the extensive approach approved by greens. The fundamental problem with goldsmith’s approach is that he doesn’t carry out a geophysiological assessment of his policies to determine whether they would ruin or rejuvenate the Earth’s life support system.

Goldsmith, Edward; Nicholas Hildyard; Patrick McCully & Peter Bunyard.
“City life is marked by consumption and waste. Cities, however small, have always been parasitic on the countryside around them, not least because the majority of their inhabitants must rely on farmers in the countryside to provide them with food. Where cities are small, and the demands of their citizens limited, the degradation caused need not undermine their viability. But the demands being made by city-dwellers today, particularly in the industrialized countries are global in their reach, and global in their implications. Meeting even the demands of present day cities is placing an intolerable burden on the environment and society as more and more resources are sucked into urban conglomerations.”[114]

Kemp, Penny @ Wall, Derek.
"Greens believe that more people should have access to the land and would end the current stranglehold of large landowners by means of grants and a system of community ground rent designed to split land holdings of many thousands of acres. Greens would like to see more people living in rural areas."[115]

Lanz, Klaus.
“If current forecasts are to be believed, almost half of humanity will be living in cities by the year 2000. This trend should be halted or at least slowed, and incentives provided to persuade people to live in rural areas or in smaller towns.”[116]

Lorimer, Hayden.
“The moneyed classes’ enthusiasm for Deer stalking is keeping vast tracts of scotland as an artificial, empty environment and preventing its productive use by ordinary people. Hayden lorimer, from loughborough university said, “Crofters had been cleared off by enclosures, and were replaced by huge Sheep farms. Deer stalking was only introduced in the 19thc after the Sheep farms went bankrupt. Landowners argued that the estates preserved scotland’s natural heritage. Mr lorimer said that to prevent criticism of their occupation of large estates kept empty just for Deer, the “lairdocracy” managed to propagate a myth of their history and legitimacy.”[117]

Melchett, Peter; Charlie Pye-Smith & Chris Hall
Charlie pye-smith and chris hall were members of an informal group called the ‘1999 committee’ which produced a manifesto to promote the rejuvenation of rural areas, “We need a new vision of what our countryside should be and a manifesto to achieve it. That is what this book provides.”[118]; “The Countryside we want’ is a practical programme of reforms for revitalizing rural britain and halting the many destructive processes which yearly make it a less attractive place to live in and visit. We want a diverse countryside in which a multiplicity of activities can take place.”[119]; “We are concerned with revitalizing the countryside. Something must be done, and done quickly, about the shortage of housing, the decline of public transport and the loss of jobs .. We must also create the opportunities for the less affluent town-dwellers to move into the countryside and to work in it if they wish.”[120]

Meldrum, Andrew
Meldrum paints a very rosy picture of the campfire programme in some third world countries which enables local people to benefit from the slaughter of Animals in safari parks. Whereas in the past local people used to slaughter Wildlife in order to survive, they now fly in rich hunters to do the killing for them and make a good living from blood sport tourism. Whereas in the past the area would never have been able to sustain anything more than tribal lifestyles, the money from tourism is enabling Wilderness areas to become semi-urbanized. If los vegas was built in the middle of nowhere by criminal activities, campfire villages are springing up as a result of the criminal destruction of Wildlife, “The (zimbabwe) government has set aside 10,700 square kilometres in northern zimbabwe to form the zambezi valley wilderness complex, an area which boasts the 2,196 square kilometre mana pools national park. .. the dande safari area - the 520 square kilometres set aside for hunting. “Hunting is the only hope for game to survive in africa,” says harry. “Wildlife must pay its way or humans will take over. We hunt a sustainable quota of 3% per year. And that earns a great deal of money used to preserve the Wilderness needed by the Animals.” Zimbabwe attracts about one million tourists a year and hunting brings in about 2,000 clients, who spend  atotal of $20 million. The Dande area is part of zimbabwe’s Campfire programme, which channels a significant proportion of the money earned from hunting to the rural people who live among the wildlife. (The meat from hunted Wildlife is shared amongst) 210 families registered with the local Campfire programme .. Far more significant to the masoka community is the money earned from hunting. “We have earned Z$500,000 (£31,250) each year for the past three years,” says joseph chisunga, masoka’s wildlife committee treasurer. “We have used that money to develop our community. We have built a new school block and a health clinic, we have purchased a tractor for tillage. We erected a solar-powered electric fence to protect our agricultural land from the Wildlife. Gift Zirota, the wildlife chairperson, explains how the programme has changed the community’s attitude towards wildlife, “Ten years ago, the animals destroyed our crops and attacked us. Now with Campfire, we get meat plus money from hunting. The wildlife is now an asset and we look after them. We do not allow poachers. We welcome hunters because they help us to improve our community. Campfire’s pioneering concept, to balance the needs of africa’s rural people with wildlife, has already spread to zambia, namibia, and south africa. Throughout zimbabwe, Campfire schemes last year earned more than Z$13 million (£812,000) for rural communities. The number of communities participating has grown from 15 in 1989 to more than 100 in 1996.”[121]

Norberg-Hodge, Helena
Norberg-hodge defends the urbanization of the countryside, “An equally common myth that clouds thinking about more human scale rural economies is that “there are too many people to go back to the land”. It is noteworthy that a similar scepticism does not accompany the notion of urbanizing the world’s population. It is considered ‘utopian’ to suggest a ruralization of america’s or europe’s population; but china’s plans to move 440 million people into the cities during the next few decades hardly raises eyebrows.”[122]

North, Richard.
"Let the purists rage: some of the rainforest may even be more useful as reservoirs for dams."[123]

Pearce, Fred.
Botswana’s government and scientists oppose .. “the traditional cattle herders and hunter-gatherer bushmen operating within the central kalahari game reserve. The arid reserve, which is about the size of switzerland, was set up in 1961, five years before botswana’s independence. In the mid-1980s, a system of zoning was created under which two central areas will be kept “pristine” - that is devoid of people.”[124] What this seems to suggest is that fred pearce finds it revolting that oomans are not in occupation of every single acre of the Earth.[125]

Pilarski, Michael.
“In the 1970s ‘community forestry’ was the watchword for development agencies. But all too often the phrase was used as a cover for industrial wood production projects which did little good for local people, especially the rural poor. In the 1980s, a new phrase is being heard more and more ‘social forestry’ i.e. forestry projects which benefit the local community .. .”[126]

Porritt, Jonathon.
In his early days, porritt was a revolutionary who demanded that people be allowed to invade the countryside because, "The present system denies people their natural birthright of access to the land."[127] He was so radical he opposed the expropriation of land because .. "it should not be possible to own land."[128] He called for ... “a massive programme of rural resettlement."[129]

Pye-Smith, Charlie & Hall, Chris.
These authors protest about the decline of village life. They have written a manifesto calling for the mass movement of people back to the countryside, “Our message is a simple one: let us create a many jobs as we can in the countryside .. The prospects for some further creation of jobs in manufacturing industries in rural areas are reasonable .. The service sector offers better prospects for economic growth in the countryside. It is already the largest source of employment in most rural areas ..”[130]; “The Countryside we want’ is a practical programme of reforms for revitalizing rural britain and halting the many destructive processes which yearly make it a less attractive place to live in and visit. We want a diverse countryside in which a multiplicity of activities can take place.”[131]

They oppose town and country planning since the second world war since it has been based on the premise of segregating the town from the countryside, “Its commitment was to contain the spread of urban sprawl across the countryside .. Industrial development was directed away from the countryside. The planners’ notion that towns had industry and the countryside did not, became more and more firmly established.”[132] But segregation has also been reinforced by the rich who moved into rustic retreats and prevented housing developments in the countryside and, in addition, opposed increases in local taxes to pay for more rural services.

Once people move back into the countryside they will require a range of infrastructure. It is likely that most of the money to pay for this infrastructure will have to come from urban people who are yet again having to fund the antics of rural people. However, these authors attempt to find some of the resources from rural areas, “Where will the money come from to pay for better public transport .. house-building and improvement in other public services like education? .. there is a strong argument in favour of central government being more generous in its allocation of subsidy for these purposes. However, if we search for a new source of revenue we need look no further than the countryside itself. At present farmland is exempted from rates.”[133]; “The rating of agricultural land provides us with a tremendous opportunity to finance and improve public services.”[134] The authors aren’t demanding an increase in local rates, primarily because this would hit the poor driving them out of the countryside.

However, the authors can’t resist providing farmers with even more subsidies. They propose a land management payment to help in the conservation of the countryside. It .. “would provide a new source of income for landowners who were prepared to sign simple agreement about conservation with the county/regional councils.”[135]

Once again it is transparent that as soon as oomans move back into the countryside they’ll start slaughtering Animals they define as pests, “We believe that the presumption in law should be that all species of mammal and bird be protected, with certain exceptions. The exceptions should include three ‘pests’ which can cause economic damage and which are common: the brown rat, the house mouse and the rabbit. However, farmers and landowners should be able to apply for permission to kill other species .. There are some animals which, both for their own sake and that of others, must periodically be culled.”[136] It is tempting to include oomans in this list especially landowners, farmers and greens - in no particular order of merit.

The authors want people to move back into the countryside and kill Animals, “On welfare grounds alone, the intensive rearing of farm animals must be abolished. In the long term, the mixed farm, where ‘corn and horn’ complement one another, is the most efficient system, and the least damaging to the ecology of the soil. The mixed farmers will return all manure to the land, they will rotate their crops, they will use straw, and they will grow some of the feed required for their stock.”[137] We want .. “a countryside in which both human and wildlife will prosper. Where more people work on the land. Where everyone can wander freely. Where the animals which end up on our plates are decently kept and decently killed.”[138] Many of those who protest about factory pharming aren’t Animal rightists who want to end the exploitation of Animals but greens who support a caring form of slaughter. Organic farming is as dependent on Animal exploitation as intensively reared livestock pharming.

The geophysiological ignorance of these authors can be seen from the fact that they are more interested in conserving the past than rejuvenating the Earth’s life support system. In order to prevent chalk grasslands from reverting back to Forests the authors suggest .. “from a conservation point of view .. we must either burn it regularly, as happens on many nature reserves, or it must be grazed. We favour the latter course.”[139]

The authors call for the opening up of nature reserves in brutland so that people can wander over them destroying what they have come to see ..”conservationists have sometimes been as guilty of selfishness and elitism as the landowners they attack. We must establish not just why we conserve nature, but for whom. Some conservationists, playing on the mystique of science, have invoked ‘scientific’ ideas to keep others off the land. The n.c.c, particularly in its early years, had a habit of acquiring nature reserves and promptly denying public access to them.”[140]

The authors protest about biased conservation arguments which .. “have been used by one section of the community to thwart another. In general it has been the wealthier middle classes seeking to protect their own interests, often to the detriment of less articulate and poorer neighbours. Whatever we do to protect nature, and to ensure that domestic animals are well treated, must be for the sake of not just a few, but for all of us.”[141] Once again the authors reveal their anthropogenic bias. Surely conservation should be carried out for the sake of the Earth and its Wildlife?

Rifkin, Jeremy with Howard, Ted.
"Eventually the proportion of farm to city population will have to reverse itself if human life is to survive. Labour intensive organic farming cannot support the concentrated urban population centres that have built up during the high energy fossil, fuel age. An agricultural way of life will dominate the coming Solar age as it has in every other period of history before our own."[142]

Roszak, Theodore.
Roszak believes that, "Land reform is the undiscovered revolution in American politics."[143] He condemns urban life, "Urban dwellers .. constitute the oldest imperial interest in the world. The empire of cities, incessantly forcing itself upon the traditional, the rural, the wilderness at large. Today, all the decisions that are being made about the future of our planet are being made in the cities by city brains."[144]; "By the very fact that they are locked away from the Earth in an artificial environment, urbanites lose sight of the planet as a living entity with whom they must maintain an organic reciprocity."[145] "The modern city represents our most daring attempt to live 'beyond' nature as its detached observer and master."[146]; Roszak believes people do not want to live in cities but have been forced to move there by circumstance. Thus, given the chance they would go back to the countryside, "There would be little chance of deurbanizing the modern world if the millions that now flock to the cities wanted to be there. Deurbanization is not something that need be made to happen; it need only be allowed to happen, as if by natural gravity."[147]; "The city has never been a way of life that appealed to more than a strict minority."[148]

Rowell, Andrew.
“Northern environmentalists were primarily concerned about the fate of the Forest and were slow to realize that people lived in the amazon who were also an integral part of the eco-system. Around 86% of the protected areas in the region are inhabited. Traditionally it had been up to groups such as Survival International .. to champion the cause of the Forest dweller in the northern hemisphere. Thankfully, some environmentalists have started adopting a more realistic, holistic approach. Rubber tappers, on the other hand, were initially interested in land reform and social justice, and only later recognized the importance of the forest ecology. This said, some of the policies that northern environmentalists have advocated have been totally ignorant of forest dwellers and have done more harm than good. There are, for example, still problems where northern environmentalists have advocated the setting up of northern parks where the traditional forest dwellers have been excluded and expelled from their land. .. the policies have also actually increased deforestation as ranchers and industry have invaded areas previously protected by the evicted inhabitants.”[149]

Sale, Kirkpatrick
"In a bioregional society, the division between urban and rural, industrial and agricultural, population and resources, would be replaced by an equilibrium, a symbiosis. The city need not be of immense size - indeed, no larger than 50,000 or 100,000 people - so that instead of a single metropolis there would be a multiplicity of cities of modest sizes scattered throughout the region."[150]

Shiva, Vandana
"I think one of the things that is becoming so clear is that the development pattern that has assumed that agriculture should be free of people and loaded with machines and chemicals and that people's only habitation should be the city is at the root of the unsustainability of the city as well as agriculture."[151]

Windsor, Charles.
“Charles called for the development of new towns with ....”[152]


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