A FRIGHTENING VIEW...

of environmentalism by Nichloas D. Kristof in the New York Times of March 12, 2005.

In his opinion the "environmental groups are too often alarmists." "Some do great work, but others can be the left's equivalents of neocons: brimming with moral clarity and ideological zeal, but empty of nuance."

My view is that the environmentalists are in trouble because they have been brimming with nuance for decades and have led our society down the wrong path in too many instances. The neocons have no nuance for a good reason!

The most shocking throw away paragraph in the column:

"This record should teach environmentalists some humility. The problems are real, but so is the uncertainty. Environmentalists were right about DDT's threat to bald eagles, for example, but blocking all spraying in the third world has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths." (my emphasis)

Gee, only hundreds of thousands of deaths! I'm glad it was not a big mistake! Aren't we trying Saddam for about the equivalent?

I believe environmentalists should get a life and not cause any more disasters!

WORD FOR THE DAY: nuance

HINT: n. a subtle difference in or shade of meaning, feeling, color, etc. (The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus, 1996). This reminds of the adjective "shady" when I read it!