Riddle me this. Why the extreme hatred of environmentalists in some quarters? Where does that come from? It doesn't happen in discussions about say health or education or the economy. On Huff Post alone, the streams of personal abuse that are directed at any items by or about Laurie David or Al Gore are almost unique in their intensity (the only comparable case I can think of is Cindy Sheehan). This is abuse of people who are simply trying to save the world we all live in. Abusing environmentalists makes as little sense as would abusing nurses or teachers.
Part of the reason for the virulence I think is that those doing the abusing are, or see themselves as, extreme individualists. Any hint that some, or indeed any, of their activities will need to be limited in any way for the good of their country and their world, brings forth a spew of anti-'Socialist' nonsense, and indeed environmentalists are often described as 'communists' (which is ironic given that communism is just as bad at protecting the world we live in as is capitalism). These are the kind of people who will give up nothing, reduce nothing, for the good of the community. Just as well people with this attitude weren't around in the 1940s - hard to see any of them making the kind of sacrifices that were necessary to win the war against Japan and Germany.
But that level of reaction is almost rational. Misguided and dangerous, but rational if you have a certain selfish mindset. It doesn't, I think, quite explain the level of hatred that is seen on HuffPo and from the 'Lords of Loud' (™Steve Young?).
It is like the hatred you feel for a friend who tells you that you have drunk too much to drive, are overweight, are suffering from depression, should give up smoking, have an unsuitable girlfriend. Or, rather, a friend who tells you all those things, and they are true, and you know that they are true. If they were not true you wouldn't care, would laugh off suggestions of being overweight, and have another Big Mac. The problem is that you know they are true, and that is unforgivable. Friendships are lost over such words, hatreds forged. It may be said that a good friend tells you you are too drunk to drive, and that may be true, but the person you tell won't stay a friend for long.
So all of us on the side of the angels need to develop, if we haven't already, super thick skins. We have got to keep warning, got to keep trying, and wear the abuse. Otherwise it would be like failing to say anything to an unsteady friend leaving a bar and finding the next morning that they had crashed into a tree and been killed.
Couldn't live with myself - could you?