"Villagers, coal miners and peasants beware! Western environmental activists 'intolerantly devoted' to misguided views that stymie progress are opposing improvements to your standard of living and greater economic vitality." So writes Kevin Mooney, the Cybercast News Service reporter who saw Mine Your Own Business when it premiered last Wednesday night at the National Geographic Auditorium in Washington, D.C. Created by Irish journalists Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, the film questions the environmental movement's ethical conduct when it denies third-world communities the employment, prosperity, and dignity that new mining projects would bring. Mooney discusses the controversies the film explores, and then examines environmentalists' reaction to the D.C. screening:
Wednesday night's screening took place amid protests by Greenpeace activists, who gathered outside the National Geographic Auditorium and described the film as "propaganda."Opponents also tried to get the venue to cancel the event.
"It is sad and outrageous that such a renowned center of environmental research has agreed to screen this anti-environmental film. It aims to manipulate the public and does not reflect the values of the National Geographic Society," said [environmentalist leader Stephanie Roth] in a statement.
MPI founder Thor Halvorssen said Greenpeace Executive Director John Passacantando had been invited as a "special guest" to attend the screening and to take part in a discussion about the film's content.
"We extended the green carpet to him," he said. Cybercast News Service also tried to get a comment from Greenpeace and to engage the protesters outside the screening to no success.
In her efforts to shame the National Geographic Society into cancelling the screening ("It is sad and outrageous that such a renowned center of environmental research has agreed to screen this anti-environmental film") Roth deliberately confuses "environmental research" with "environmental advocacy." The society was acting contra to its conservationist values, she suggests, by opening its theater to a documentary that portrays the green movement in a negative light. But how would one of the world's premier educational and scientific organizations have acted if it had helped enviromentalists suppress ugly truths about their activities in developing nations? In allowing the film to be shown in its theater, the society commendably upheld the liberal values of disinterested inquiry and freedom of the press, and thus showed that it supports "environmental research" from a variety of perspectives. In calling for its cancellation, the greens merely resorted to illiberal, censorious bullying.
Prominent environmentalists such as Roth and Passacantando should have been eager to address the criticisms the film levels. But the greens did not respond with reasoned refutation; instead, Greenpeace's executive director ducked the post-screening debate while his supporters turned up to brand the film "pornography."
To his credit, Phelim McAleer did attempt to engage the protesters in debate, as can be seen in the footage published by Townhall.com. Angry and vehemently assured of their position, the protesters nevertheless display remarkable ignorance about the Irish couple's documentary. "There are plenty of other jobs!" one woman yells, denying that Romania, Madagascar, and Chile need investment from mining companies. But anyone who has seen Mine Your Own Business knows that the villages in question are destitute and dilapidated, their people unemployed and hopeless, their children uneducated and malnourished. Another woman denies that she can be considered wealthy in comparison to people in Romania, Madagascar, and Chile. "I work for a small NGO," she objects. Did the activists even know what they were protesting?
Anyone who wishes to see Phelim McAleer in a less impromptu environmental debate should view his November 2, 2006 appearance on Prime Time, Ireland's preeminent investigative television program. There, McAleer has it out with Eamon Ryan, a T.D. from the Irish Green Party. Judge for yourself who relies on research and who relies on advocacy.