Environmental leader: Criminalize insufficiently "green" homeowners

Scottish environmental activist prepares
to educate a neighboring homeowner on the dangers
of uninsulated cavity walls.

Scotland's proud history of witch hunting, clan wars, and hammer tossing may soon add un-green persecution to its list of accomplishments. (Tip of the hat: The Devil's Kitchen.)

From The Scotsman:

HOMEOWNERS who do not to take action to improve the energy efficiency of their properties should be treated as criminals, one of the country's most influential environmentalists said last night.

Dr Richard Dixon, director of WWF Scotland, believes tough measures are needed to force people to cut their use of fossil fuels and thinks governments should consider making it a crime for members of the public not to take measures such as installing cavity wall insulation.

Rubbish. My uninsulated cavity walls bother no one but my dentist.

He also said he thought failing to put in energy efficiency measures was "as antisocial as drink driving".

Dr Dixon said: "I think it should be a crime to be wasting energy. It's clearly a moral crime against the climate, and I think we should be having a discussion about whether it should become an actual crime."

Okay, Dr. Dixon, let's do an experiment. You can ride home tonight as a passenger in a car driven by a laddie who's crocked to the eyeballs on Scotland's best-loved product, or spend the same amount of time next to a house whose cavity walls are uninsulated. Think it over, take as long as you need, but then be prepared to live (or not) with your choice.

Make fuel waste an offence, demands climate expert, the story is headlined. This is so nonsensical and so conflicts with the actual meaning of its vocabulary that it calls out for ironic quotes around nearly every word: Make "fuel waste" "an offence," "demands" "climate expert."

Dr. Dixon and mental cases like him are the environment's worst enemies, almost daring those with self-respect and a healthy distaste for bullying cranks to send forth, in his direction, a large emission of greenhouse gas from any convenient orifice.

An "offence"? I'll show you offence.

There is a character in a Kingsley Amis novel who daydreams of newspaper stories about an anthropologist acquaintance he can't stand. He envisions reading: "Ancient tribal ceremony … forced to eat … cut off his … " etc.

I hope Dr. Dixon likes haggis. You know, the Scottish delicacy made of sheep's stomach, heart, liver, and that. Right now I'm thinking: "Ancient Scottish ceremony … forced to eat … "