For the last half of this century the environmental movement has been telling the American public that we must stop producing our natural resources because such activities destroy the environment. The federal government, especially under the Clinton administration, seems to agree, as does the fawning popular media. Together these forces have conspired not only to take the work of rural Americans away, but also make it politically incorrect. Surely it understands that natural resource production is vital to our economic health and national security. That's a difficult question.
Evidence abounds that big business is the favorite whipping boy of the environmental movement.
The howling mobs at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle give recent testimony to this fact. But it's not that simple. Every popular movement needs its demons, and nothing sells better in our culture than the concept that you are representing the powerless and downtrodden against overwhelming forces. This is precisely the scenario the Greens project when they rail about evil, greedy, polluting, etc., corporate giants. However, like their notoriously unreliable forecasts of environmental disaster, the Greens' noble defense of the little guys is mostly bunk.