Persistence of Vision

Al Gore's singularly one-sided An Inconvenient Truth is making its way into schools, and in some areas is required viewing for students. To combat the wrong-headedness of teachers and school boards who think Gore's story is the only story to tell about the environment--and to encourage educators to provide students with a more rounded understanding of the issues than a single partisan film can offer--MPI has partnered with Demand Debate, a non-profit that "educates and empowers parents and students about bias in environmental education."

Demand Debate focuses on two aspects of environmentalism: the debate about climate change, and the debate about development, global poverty, and sustainability. And Mine Your Own Business is central to DD's educational project. "While many people are aware that the world’s poor desperately need economic development," the site notes, "few realize that a major obstacle to overcoming global poverty is the anti-development and anti-human environmental movement that camouflages itself under ubiquitous 'Earth-friendly' shades of green":

This lack of awareness is no accident. It's come about through a "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil" syndrome, where 'evil' refers to the many ills of the modern environmental movement. Consider the example of the new documentary, "Mine Your Own Business: The Dark Side of Environmentalism."

--See no evil. Greenpeace and 80 other environmental groups tried to block Mine Your Own Business from being shown in Washington, D.C. and in Romania, where much of the documentary was filmed.

--Hear no evil. Although the World Bank agreed to a limited screening of Mine Your Own Business, the filmmakers had to promise that they would not tell anyone that the bank showed the film, the bank reneged on an agreement to distribute the film to local schools, and bank employees were not allowed to discuss the film.

--Speak no evil. While consumer products giant Procter & Gamble agreed to a limited distribution of Mine Your Own business to its employees, the company refused to make a public statement to the effect that the it is important to hear alternative viewpoints on environmental topics.

The combination of intimidating environmentalists and intimidated organizations has resulted in a tragic absence of debate about the environmental monkey on the backs of the world’s poor.

Until we can at least talk about what environmental policies may be doing to developing nations — let alone debate these policies — we will have little hope of changing the lamentable state of affairs that has blocked life-saving economic development.