What do you call people who engage in massive deforestation and soil poisoning in order to kill beloved trees that are over a century old?
Why, “environmentalists,” of course!
Embattled San Franciscans have come up with a new name for them, though.
“Plant fascists.” *
UCSF wants to cut down an unspecified number – possibly more than half – of the 45,000 limb-dropping Australian trees, also known as Tasmanian blue gums, on Mount Sutro, but homeowners, hikers and other forest visitors are rising up against what they are calling a nefarious scheme.
[…]A parade of locals accused the university of, among other treacheries, planning to destroy an enchanted “cloud forest” in furtherance of “plant fascism.”
“I just wish you would respect the forest as it is,” said an impassioned Kevin King, who said he has been visiting Sutro Forest since he was a boy on a skateboard. “Its density is one of its beauties. We don’t have places like that” in the city.
Others invoked famous naturalists John Muir and Aldo Leopold, who they insisted would disapprove. They also railed against university officials for allegedly contributing to global warming and herbicide pollution. The opponents also aimed a few barbs at local native plant advocates during the hearing, which is part of a 60-day comment period ending March 19.
It is obvious to me whose side the San Francisco Chronicle is on. Angry residents who showed up at the hearing are dismissively called “a parade of locals” who are painted as paranoid kooks trying to protect an enchanted “cloud forest.” Why that is in quotes, I do not know. The term is a legitimate one, and anyone who has lived near the Sutro Forest has likely seen the cloud forest phenomenon, which is explained in detail by the organized tree huggers. Many of the lies advanced by the nativist plant fascists are debunked here.
Environmentalists destroying forests?
Tree huggers versus environmentalists?
Oh the irony!
* Actually, I think a good case can be made that Native Speciesism is more like Nazism than fascism.
Comments
2 responses to “Tree huggers battling plant fascists”
Amusing juxtaposition.
If I was with the tree protectors I’d do something like “Save the Jewish Trees”. And then when some one asks say, “Jews were reviled for being non-native and invasive”.
As a person living in a state (Florida) that has at LEAST as many “invasive” species as California, might I say: “may the best species win”. Evolution in action, folks, and those “invasives” would probably have made it to our shores without human intervention. (And many did – they are now considered native.)
Survival of the fittest (the precursor theory of evolution) in action. Some species disappear, some hang in there, some thrive. And then a new test comes along.
Hmm. Maybe we humans are just a test?