Environmentalism is on a collision course with climate change activism

As climate change activism is becoming radical, many of the proposed remedies infringe upon the principles of environmentalism.

Climate change activism is concerned with the long-term changes in average weather patterns, and carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Environmentalism on the other hand is concerned with the degradation of the environment, including physical, biological, topographical, and cultural changes brought about by natural and human activities.

Of late, climate activists have proclaimed that global warming is an existential threat to the very survival of humankind on this planet. The climate change movement logic argues that carbon emissions must be drastically reduced to the point where lifestyles as we know them today, will have to be drastically curtailed and changed.

This has led to a ‘war’ on fossil fuels and their replacement with renewable energy production, such as solar, hydro, and wind power.

This is where climate change activism turns onto a collision course with environmentalism.

Renewable energy options all require massive changes to local habitats.

Massive solar farms take up hundreds of hectares of prime land to be within strategic distances of power consuming centres, such as dense urban environments. Solar farms create ecological impacts, including the loss of habitats for indigenous wildlife and flora. Solar farms also alter local rainfall and temperatures, and change the micro-environment. This potentially leads to land erosion, and adds to flooding. As solar farms provide little or no local employment opportunities, and potentially take away land that could be available for other purposes, such as crop production and livestock grazing.

Dams, reservoirs, and the operation of hydro-electric generators, can have permanent effects upon the environment for long distances along river systems. Dams severely disrupt or totally destroy fish migration, thus destroying river fishing industries. The construction of dams can displace whole communities, and destroy ancestral lands. Habitats for miles each side of hydro-electric projects can permanently change destroying eco-systems that could be thousands of years old. The availability of water for farming may be severely affected downstream from hydro-electricity projects, affecting the livelihood of traditional farmers.

Wind-turbines have been shown to drastically affect fauna, especially birdlife in the areas they are constructed. Thousands of birds and bats are killed each year, which can drastically alter the population of bird species in affected areas.

This is not to mention that electricity is only intermittently produced by each form of renewable energy mentioned above.

Thus, the issue of renewable energy creation is a quandary for environmentalists, as it drastically alters local environments and eco-systems. This is where future conflict is likely to develop between different factions of the environment and climate change movements. The ‘doomsday prophecies’ of the climate change movement lacks any empathy towards the environment. This may be counterproductive to preventing the rise of temperatures in regions where renewable energy becomes part of the environment. Government focusing upon ‘net zero’ carbon emission objectives may destroy their own local environments.

Thus, actions taken in the name of easing the ‘identified causes’ of human created climate change may led to a serious degradation of environments.