Review of John Berlau’s Eco-Freaks
If true, I could support Eco-Freaks author John Berlau’s claims against anti-dam construction protesters, as he wrote about them in National Review online back in 2005. A few environmentalist groups seemingly contributed to the catastrophic loss of New Orleans and other cities during hurricanes Katrina and Rita by opposing the necessary building of levees and other flood control projects.
But the folks at Levees.org came to a different conclusion.
Responsibility for the levee failures on August 29, 2005 in New Orleans rests squarely on the US Army Corps of Engineers and on Congress.
Whatever you believe on that dam point, Berlau’s book, from a Nashville publisher, must, of course, deal with a certain former Tennessee Senator and Vice President.
Al Gore and his evil twin “Clinton-Gore” stand accused of wanting to abolish the automobile engine completely, and by tenuous guilt-by-association are connected to the Unabomber and various eco-related domestic terrorist groups. According to Eco-Freaks, the environmental movement is populated by violent Earth First! fanatics, fellow-traveling trespassers and monkey-wrenching saboteurs.
But for all the footnotes in this recently published Nov, 2006 tome, I’m fascinated by what’s missing. The term “permaculture” is not in the index. There are no “forest gardens” or “seedballs.” David Holmgren and Bill Mollison are not to be found. 2002’s Cradle To Cradle does not appear.
I guess permaculture’s productive and sustainable design systems work against the thesis that all greens are chaotic primitives.
