George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 301

The Great America of George W. Bush – Episode 300

< Episode 300 >

“To re-pollute the place that nature has cleaned! This is outrageous!”

On the outskirts of the city, heavy equipment such as road rollers used for road reconstruction were emitting flames and acrid smoke into the sky, and the workers who should have been operating them had already fled.

Police officers were mobilized to stop them, but following the governor’s request not to suppress them rashly before they entered the city, they set up checkpoints at the city’s entrances and stood guard.

“Let’s go out! Let’s fight! Warriors of nature! The number of factories polluting the atmosphere has doubled! We can’t stand it anymore!”

It was true that the number of light and heavy industrial factories had rapidly increased or been newly established under the Bush administration, but it wasn’t quite double. However, isn’t Greenpeace’s greatest specialty today the instigation and creation of fear through exaggeration?

So, did this tactic work? Of course, it worked well – that’s why 80,000 people gathered, right? The people gathered here believed the propaganda without question. To be precise, they attributed the cause of the hurricane to air pollution and other environmental factors.

“Are you going to bring another hurricane!”

Not all the people belonging to Greenpeace were united by ignorance and arrogance. It wouldn’t be persuasive now that they were rampaging and destroying everything in the name of protest, but not everyone was so misguided.

So, what was the reality of the situation? Did that mean they weren’t really part of Greenpeace? That couldn’t be the case. The flags they were carrying proudly displayed the Greenpeace logo.

“As you can see, they claim to be Greenpeace, but the official Greenpeace organization is completely denying any connection to them.”

Of course, all of this was being reported by the media. They smashed and burned all the heavy equipment they encountered along the way, but that was the extent of their actions. They didn’t assault people or loot stores that were still intact. It was truly order within chaos.

That’s why reporters were able to get close and capture this scene with their cameras, and interviews could proceed smoothly. In response to the questions of those who were carefully observing this situation, their answer was this:

“How can we call those who only talk but don’t act Greenpeace? We are the real Greenpeace!”

According to the interviews, there were many complaints about Greenpeace abandoning its more radical actions, and that frustration had finally exploded today. Originally, these individuals, who would have been scattered among various groups, had remained within Greenpeace due to the government’s conciliatory approach to environmental policies.

They were both the result and the consequence of Greenpeace prioritizing nature over people at some point in its history.

Greenpeace was originally an anti-nuclear protest group. The name represented both nature (Green) and human (peace). Like any other organization, its intentions were undoubtedly noble at first. In any case, their protest was partially successful, and the United States halted hydrogen bomb testing.

Thus, they gradually expanded their power and agenda to include issues like genetic engineering, toxic waste disposal, air pollution, anti-whaling efforts, and anti-nuclear energy movements. The problem is that as time went on, whether due to a lack of proper scientific knowledge or because scientists who possessed it left due to disagreements, their actions gradually leaned towards the idea that ‘true environmentalism requires the end of humanity’.

It’s not just Greenpeace; people are inherently creatures who tend to see only what they want to see. So, regardless of the truth, they often end up focusing only on the information that confirms their existing beliefs.

However, since Greenpeace is a group of people who have been fixated on nature from the beginning, it was only a matter of time before they accepted only sensational and selectively edited information that supported their views. The result is the situation unfolding today.

In other words, it’s not that the core principles or ideology of Greenpeace are inherently wrong, but that the current Greenpeace is composed of people with these biases. It seems like a difficult problem, similar to the chicken-or-the-egg paradox, but unlike chickens and eggs, organizations can be corrected through education and the establishment of order.

Anyway, the leadership intuitively understood this to some extent, so the argument that they should be more restrained became the mainstream within the organization. However, this was ultimately a self-defeating move that only increased internal dissatisfaction.

Since the 2000s, Greenpeace’s activities have largely been reduced to condemning immoral entrepreneurs and countries, and the use of direct action has been limited to a very small number of fringe elements. Compared to the time when they fearlessly invaded nuclear power plants, voiced their criticisms, and acted with unwavering conviction, they have become truly weak.

In fact, they have become more docile than weakened, but at least those who are marching towards New Orleans now felt that way.

– ‘We are the spokespersons of nature, another incarnation of nature, and its anger! Since the government doesn’t listen, we will show them with action!’ Meanwhile, the governor has declared this a riot, and stated that if they enter the city, they will be suppressed strongly –.

“As you can see, the situation is as follows.”

Bush commented on the situation indifferently in one word.

“So, to put it simply, Greenpeace has split in two.”

He massaged and swept his face several times, trying to alleviate the unexpected headache. It felt like he had been struck hard in the back of the head from an unexpected direction.

“Objectively speaking, a faction has broken away. Moreover, it’s limited to the United States.”

Greenpeace was an international environmental protection organization. And at the same time, it was the most famous and largest organization of its kind. This meant that it had grown to such a size that 80,000 people could be considered just a part of it.

“It’s all the same. All the active members are in New Orleans right now. In the future, Greenpeace will be reborn as a completely different kind of organization. But why did they flock to New Orleans in Louisiana, and not to a city in Florida, which suffered the most damage?”

This was a valid question. In fact, the damage in New Orleans was primarily limited to the complete destruction of the northeastern animal protection area and the fact that the eye of the typhoon passed directly through the slums, resulting in their complete devastation.

Aside from the casualties, Highway 10, which ran adjacent to the protected area, was flooded, and the remnants of the typhoon scraped across the road, rendering some sections completely impassable. Further out, the road along the Mississippi River was also in disarray. So, considering that the hurricane passed directly through it, the overall damage wasn’t as extensive as one might expect. However, the shock of an entire residential area being swept away was unmatched by any other city.

“It seems to be because the President visited there himself. Perhaps they interpret your declaration that ‘everything is my responsibility from now on’ as a declaration of war.”

“These damn guys. If you’re an environmental protection organization, you should be protecting things, so why are you destroying them?”

Even if they tried to start a public opinion war by criticizing Bush now, public opinion had already turned against them from the start. If they had simply marched quietly, Bush might have been in trouble. It was undeniable that the environment was gradually being polluted as he expanded oil drilling and other businesses, creating jobs.

That’s why Bush was making compromises in many ways. For example, shale gas was being extracted using gas fracturing, not hydraulic fracturing [a less environmentally damaging method]. His administration was putting a lot of effort into environmental restoration and protection, especially after the Great Fire.

And this would be the decisive reason why the factions split within Greenpeace. It was because his administration was not completely impervious to reason.

Recently, they have proudly stated in the first paragraph of their activities listed on their website that they are ‘non-violent’ and solve global environmental problems through creative confrontation, so they are now painfully aware that radical actions are detrimental to the organization.

“Damn it. It would be a waste to put them all in jail.”

Jail also costs money in the end. In particular, prisons in the United States are partially privatized, and in the case of private prisons, the court consigns criminals, and the federal or local government supports the budget as much as it consigns.

Well, in fact, whether it’s privatization or anything else, the act of feeding criminals itself was a burden.

“We should set bail. There will be almost no one who will show up regularly anyway. The judiciary will decide on the bail anyway.”

More than half of the judiciary was made up of people who suited Bush’s taste, but this side was filled with rebellious figures who did not listen to Bush, so it was difficult to interfere. Still, it was not impossible to exert influence through the police, but he didn’t want to go that far.

“It is said that there is about an hour left until the potential clash at the New Orleans checkpoint. We have to wait and see if they will actually clash, but they probably will.”

‘Damn it. What kind of protest is that? It’s a riot.’

A protest is usually about demanding something from the government. It is one of the legitimate political participation rights of citizens, and anyone can do it. The problem is that their demands are also their goals. In other words, the means are the goals.

Their ultimate goal is, after all, ‘Greenpeace is not dead yet!’ and they were expressing it with their whole bodies.

‘China is already a pain in the ass, and those guys are scratching my nerves.’

To be honest, it was annoying. If it was a normal protest, I would analyze it and make improvements, but isn’t that just reckless violence and a lump of arrogance? It was just harmful. Even so, they are still citizens. Yes, they are citizens. No matter how violent they are, a government cannot point a gun at its citizens, so it is annoying.

No matter how violent they may be, a government that points a gun at its citizens does not even deserve to be called a government. Unless what comes out of that gun is a rubber bullet.

“To put it bluntly, can that be suppressed?”

It was a whopping 80,000 people. The achievements of civilization that humanity has built up can instantly destroy those 80,000, but a way to politely suppress those 80,000 people at once has not been developed.

Bush hoped that it would be worth the budget he had poured into managing it directly and indirectly in various fields. He never dreamed that ‘suppressing radical environmental groups’ would be on the test, and it was a pity, but he couldn’t tell them not to suppress them and open the checkpoint.

“It will be. The police in Louisiana have improved quite a bit.”