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They have no incentive to do actions that damage the environment:

Ecology activist organizations are funded by donations, which would dry up completely at the instant they are proven to be involved in such a disastrous leak.




What makes you think that ecoterrorist organizations would be the sort of organizations that are registered 501(c)(3) charities and run TV commercials of cute pandas?


Because funds.


My point is that "organizations that conduct ecoterrorism" and "organizations that get funding through public donations" don't overlap. Al-Qaeda isn't running financed through charitable donations from the public, they're financed by shady benefactors. The same is true for ecoterrorist groups.


No. Because there (currently) is no such thing as an "eco-terrorist organisation" that is not just an eco-activist organisation (funded by donations and governmental subsidies) being disparaged by an opponent.

Or do you have examples of what you call "eco-terrorist" organisations?


> No. Because there (currently) is no such thing as an "eco-terrorist organisation" that is not just an eco-activist organisation (funded by donations and governmental subsidies) being disparaged by an opponent.

A quick skim of the wikipedia article on eco-terrorism shows this is false.

"Arson is a tactic most associated with recent activity in the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). The ELF has been attributed with arsons of sites such as housing developments, SUV dealerships, and chain stores."

Looking at the the wikipedia page for ELF, it doesn't look like they're the type of organization that's a registered charity and runs donation drives

Further down the article also mentions

"Organizations accused of eco-terrorism are generally grassroots organizations, do not have a hierarchal structure, and typically favor direct action approaches to their goals"

which seems consistent with the characterization that they're not the types of organizations that are registered charities and rely on their national reputation to get funding.


Yeah car dealer arson, allrighty. Did you notice that two deep sea major pipelines have been blown up recently? Do you think that compares?

A car dealer can be set on fire by a single individual, and even one in a situation of extreme poverty.

> A quick skim of the wikipedia article on eco-terrorism shows this is false.

False yourself. Have you skipped the word CURRENTLY?

Moreover, about

> grassroots organisations

Do you intend to mean that such grassroots orgs would not need PR nor donations?

Then no because grassroots organisations that would not raise donations do not have enough funds to blow a deepsea pipeline.

> The ELF has been attributed with arsons of sites such as housing developments, SUV dealerships, and chain stores.

Yeah right, you see the difference between chain store arson and blowing a deep-sea pipeline now that I'm pointing it to you?


> Yeah car dealer arson, allrighty. Did you notice that two deep sea major pipelines have been blown up recently? Do you think that compares?

>Yeah right, you see the difference between chain store arson and blowing a deep-sea pipeline now that I'm pointing it to you?

The reasonable conclusion to draw from that would be "this pipeline explosion wasn't caused by eco-terrorists because eco-terrorists aren't radical enough to bomb gas pipelines", not "it wasn't caused by eco-terrorists can only be funded by public donations and they don't want to piss off their donor base".

>Do you intend to mean that such grassroots orgs would not need PR nor donations?

1. Al-Qaeda has PR (think grainy videos, not slick NY PR firm) and received donations[1], but I wouldn't characterize them as the same type of organization as greenpeace or whatever.

2. during ELF's existence, do you think they operated like a regular charity?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda#Financing

>Then no because grassroots organisations that would not raise donations do not have enough funds to blow a deepsea pipeline.

The wikipedia article also mentions someone being able to procure a RPG-7 from some sort of terrorist organization to launch at a nuclear power plant. Given that it doesn't seem too implausible that a group can acquire a boat and some depth charges without having to run a nationwide fundraising campaign.


The pipeline operation would require rich individuals, presumably educated, a fortiori if they are so invested in ecology. Do you think they would release millions of tons of CO2-equivalent of methane in the air?

Moreover they would need a large team to prepare and execute the op.

No-one on the team would say like "hu? isn't it a bit destroying that what we are fighting for?". Don't you think at least a dozen of potential whistleblowers would pop up into existence and the whole project aborted?

So, no, my verdict is that all of that is so unlikely. I'm trying very hard to not say ridiculous but... oops.


I think you're misunderstanding the discussion.

We're not saying that this was ecoterrorism. We're just pointing out that "it's bad for the environment" isn't an argument wherever this was done by eco terrorists.

It remains unlikely, mainly for the original point given. Regardless wherever it's bad for the environment or not, they would've claimed responsibility by now.


Nah... see my other comment.

In short, rich people and large team = impossible to sustain such a cognitive dissonance.


hasn't stopped 'green' parties from shutting down nuclear power, so it's all a question of PR


They did that so that it gets replaced by renewables (but it did not go according to the plan...).

And in all honesty, between renewables and nuclear (fission), renewables are clearly a better investment.




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