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November 28, 2012 8:55 AM

One hundred and six environmental activists were murdered in 2011 (pdf, some cases).
posted by jeffburdges (4 comments total)

Well, I for one would like to say that this is shocking, but not surprising. The popular press does an excellent job at ignoring environmental issues, especially when it comes to "radicals." It's as if any serious environmental activism, like anarchism, has been branded as unimportant, or even worse dangerous, and unworthy of news coverage.
posted by nowhere man at 1:40 PM on November 28, 2012 [2 favorites]

It really depresses me to be one of only two comments here so far, but then I feel so incredibly helpless to stop this. Thank you for the post though; these brave people deserve o be remembered.
posted by emjaybee at 3:43 PM on November 28, 2012 [3 favorites]

The only proper response to environmental problems are as follows:

1) denial
2) ignorage
3) hand-wringing
4) telling people why their ideas for amelioration aren't silver bullets

Anything more active is evil and deserves death.
posted by DU at 6:29 PM on November 28, 2012 [2 favorites]

When a hydroelectric dam flooded thousands of acres in Venezuela.. the water created thousands of islands - a fragmentation akin to the virtual islands created around the world as humans cut down trees, build shopping malls, and sprawl from urban centers. The islands in Venezuela were too small to support the creatures at the top of the food chain - predators such as jaguars, pumas, and eagles. Their disappearance sparked a chain of reactions. Animals such as monkeys, leafcutter ants, and other herbivores, whose population was no longer kept in check by predation, thrived and subsequently destroyed vegetation; the ecosystem collapsed.

We are the monkeys. The predators are gone. The ecosystem.
posted by stbalbach at 7:27 PM on November 28, 2012 [1 favorite]