My beef with the anti-environmentalist argument that “environmentalism hurts the poor” is that it is not only false but extremely US-centric. Anyone who’s spent time in a really polluted country knows that pollution hits the poor first and hardest. They’re the ones who have to deal with lung cancer, birth defects and water-born illnesses while the rich hole up in their global green zones with bottled water and air purifiers. I lived for a year in a factory district in Cairo, and believe you me, environmental pollution was nothing abstract to the people who’d grown up there. Babies were born underweight because the air was so polluted it was like their mothers were smoking 2 packs a day. Childhood lukemia was sky-high. I knew two people who dropped dead of heart failure in their mid-thirties. It was so bad that the workers in the factory, many of whom suffered from serious lung and heart conditions, went on strike last year to demand healthcare and cleaner working conditions.

If people like you keep scoffing at conservation efforts and insist environmentalism is all about Priuses and lattes (my first car was a 1.3 cc Hyundai, which achieves the same thing for 1/4 the money), it won’t be long before the working classes in this country are facing similar environmentally-driven health and welfare issues.

BTW, I have never owned an SUV, have lived most of my adult life in urban areas without a car, do not own a vehicle now ( I lease a taxi),and probably have not eaten a steak in a year ( but eat beef on the regular). I grew up wearing hand me downs, as the kids in my house do, and I accumulate very little by choice other than books so, in all actuality, I live a lifestyle probably greener than most of these jet-setting Prius driving Greens.

It may help you feel good about yourself to paint me as a tofu eating, latte drinking, sandal wearer, but you are simply relying on a personal prejudice against “greens” dressed up in the language of religion or populism (as you do above). That is why I called your post ‘ignorant’.

As Willow says, you have created a false dichotomy. I think you’re right to criticise the ‘environmental movement’ as elitist and hypocritical, and usually only interested in self-promotion, but that doesn’t mean the issues raised are false.

The funny thing about your response is that it is Muslim peoples in places like Bangladesh, SE Asia, or sub-Saharan Africa that face the problems of rising sea water levels, desertification, depletion of resources, etc — all so you can eat your beef steak and drive your 4 litre SUV in keeping with your “Muslim lifestyle” (which is an interesting choice of terminology).

(Btw, I hate tofu, do not drink coffee and eat meat. Though I do confess to owning a pair of sandals.)

You’re using stereotype and ridicule instead of an argument based on the sunnah. Show me where the Prophet negligently wasted natural resources, and then we can have a debate.

Furthermore, on a practical level it should be evident to anyone that oil wealth and the political struggle for oil are helping to destroy the Muslim Middle East. You’ve spoken recently about Gaza–imagine how the political geography would be different if Saudi Arabia was not in the US’s pocket.

“Be merciful to the earth, so the One above the heaven will be merciful to you.” -ahadith of al Tabarani and al Hakim

Willow we should preserve the creation of Allah and use it for our benefit; but not worship it as many do. Animals are to be used for the benefit of humanity and eaten and not gawked at and to be called “mans best friend” or what not.

As for gas guzzlers well they may not be the best but I can think of many other things that people on the left are normally silent about that are much worse and kill a lot more humans a lot faster ( such as alcohol, drugs, pornography, and deviant sexual behaviors). There is also the fact that if you are a large Muslim family what are you supposed to drive around in? A mini cooper?

Thabet you are taking the tone of the condescending arrogant left who believes that anyone who disagrees with them is ignorant and that is part of the reason so many Americans vote against their own economic interests.Because, like me, they see the artificiality and shallowness of the Woody Allen, latte, tofu, and gentrification set who are all worked up over green issues but could care less about the poor people they displace in their own communities.

Oh well.