Environmentalism as Religion

How we discern right and wrong seems to be an inborn instinct, but some of our perceptions seem to be influenced by surrounding people and society. Michael Crichton expresses in his speech that we struggle to determine "which of our perceptions are genuine, and which are false because they are handed down." Crichton believes that the greatest challenge facing mankind is distinguishing fact from fiction and whether the threats we face today are real.

Crichton illustrates his point in the idea of environmentalism. One of his claims is that humans act "sympathetically" towards the environment because it seems to be a constant need now and in the future. Crichton says that we have a past history of not taking care of environment and that even our best efforts go awry.

In our secular society, Crichton says that religion cannot be oppressed. Religion will re-appear in a less traditional sense, and Crichton believes that environmentalism has become one of the most powerful religions in the Western world today. He says that environmentalism is a "21st century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and myths." The world is the "Eden" which humans have destroyed with pollution, which represents falling from grace and eating from the Tree of Knowledge, and, as a result, judgment day is coming.

The audience must accept this religious comparison and believe that today's society is secular and finding comfort in repairing "a paradise, a state of grace ad unity with nature." The audience must also accept that they are "energy sinners" that must seek salvation in sustainability. They must take responsibility to provide the best outcome for humankind and the environment now and in the future.

Crichton claims that environmentalism is a belief that cannot be talked out of people because it is an issue of faith. "Increasingly, it seems facts aren't necessary, because the tents of environmentalism are all about belief." Crichton says it choice of being saved or being a sinners and whose side you're going to choose. The audience must accept that this is not an exaggeration. As evidence, Crichton says that the Earth was never an "Eden," but people still side with "salvation" instead of facing the facts.

Crichton gives examples of when the infant mortality was 80%, one woman in six died in childbirth, the average lifespan was 40 years old, and plagues swept across the planet. He says that humans never lived in a state of harmony with an "Eden-like environment." In North America, he said newly arrived people, who crossed the land bridge, started "wiping out hundreds of species of large animals" and "the early peoples of the New World lived in a state of constant warfare." Crichton says only the people who know nothing about the environment have a romantic view of the world as a blissful Eden, and "people who live in nature are not romantic about it at all."

Crichton claims that no one wants to experience real nature, and the idea of returning to nature is nothing more than urban talk and fantasy. Crichton says that people killed by forces of nature are a way to "measure the prevalence of fantasy." In a television generation, people expect nature to act the way they want, and the "notion that the natural world obeys its own rules" is a shock to urban westerners that have never experienced true nature. To support this claim, Crichton spoke of a hiking trip he took in the Karakorum Mountains and how his guide spoke about the extreme caution needed when crossing at 3 foot river. If the audience accepts the guide to be a reliable source, the example that the smallest force of nature can have serious consequences shows how urbanized communities underestimate nature's true capabilities.

Crichton returns to the idea of environmentalism as religion and explains that the expected "doomsday" is not really a threat. He says that the preachers of environmentalism have made prediction after prediction just to be proven wrong. Crichton gives examples of population predictions and how fertility rates are falling when they were predicted to sky rocket. As they decline, the preachers change their tune to say that the world now faces an "impending crisis of an aging population." Crichton says even though with past failures, environmental predictions are not becoming more cautious because it is a religion. "One of the defining features of religion is that your beliefs are not trouble by facts, because they have nothing to do with facts."

Crichton gives evidence through the pesticide DDT. He expects his audience to accept his claim that experts knew that DDT was not a carcinogen, did not cause birds to die, and should not have been banned. Because of this ban, many people died in third world countries of disease carried by mosquitoes, and it "is one of the most disgraceful episodes in the twentieth century history of America." He goes on to give examples of global warming, second hand smoke, urbanization, and greenhouse gases. Crichton expects the audience to accept these ideas in order to promote his main idea of shifting environmentalism away from its religious state.

The people supporting environmentalism are compared to religious fundamentalists. Crichton says the problem with fundamentalists is that they refuse to accept that their way of thinking is just one of many. Fundamentalists believe that they are right and everyone else is wrong. "In our modern complex world, fundamentalism is dangerous because of its rigidity and its imperviousness to other ideas." Crichton argues that it is time to shift our thinking from the environment and "get environmentalism out of the sphere of religion."

Crichton argues that the focus needs to be shifted to hard science instead of "doomsday predictions" and "mythic fantasies." He wants to get rid of the religion of environmentalism. Crichton believes that there sound is an environmental movement but that it would be more effective if it is not conducted like a religion. "Environmentalism needs to be absolutely based in objective and verifiable science, it needs to be rational, and it needs to be flexible." He also stresses

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