25
RESCUING LADY NATURE
to not add another one of us to file burgeoning billions already
squatting on this ravaged planet, another ray of hope shines through
the gloom. When every human chooses to stop breeding, Earth will
be allowed to return to its former glory, and all creatures will be free
to live, die, evolve (if they believe in evolution), and will perhaps
pass away, as so many of Mother Nature’s “experiments” have done
throughout the
eons.
Good
health will be
restored
to
Earth’s
ecology...to the life form known as Gaia. It’s going to take all of us
going.16
According to the saddening reasoning of VHEM, humans’ are so flawed as a
species, so inherently carnivorous and unrestrainable, they will inevitably
devour the planet. The only way to address this irrestrainable nature is for an
ambiguous ‘us’ to phase out ‘humanity’.
At file even more extreme end of the movement stand blatantly
reactionary groups that advocate authoritarian measures to eradicate ‘humanity’
itself. The Gaia Liberation Front (GLF) asserts that “all life on planet Earth is
more important than the survival of the human race.”17 According to their 1997
mission statement, “the total liberation of Earth can only be accomplished
through the extinction of the Humans as a species.”18 Yet unlike the VHEM,
the GLF endorses “involuntary” genocidal tactics including involuntary mass
sterilization as well as the release of “anti-LIuman” viruses such as the airborne
version of AIDS. According to “spokes organism” “Geophilus” whose writings
can be found in their Web home page, authoritarian tactics are the only option
for restoring ecological integrity:
The evidence is, overwhelming that the LIumans are programmed to
kill the Earth. This programming is not only cultural, but probably
also genetic since the major technologies Humans use for this
purpose, from agriculture and metallurgy to writing and mathematics,
have all been invented independently more than once. In any case,
Human now carries the seeds of terracide. If any Humans survive,
they may start the whole thing over again. Our policy is to take no
chances.19
What makes this expression of ecology particularly troubling is its appeal to the
concept of an innately flawed human nature’ that must be cast in toto out of
the ‘garden’. Unlike other reactionary tendencies which blame particular social
groups or ‘technology’ for ecological injustice, longing for a pre-fall industrial
era, this group sees no possible ‘return’ or salvation for any sector within
humanity. Invoking scientistic language deployed by Nazis (terms which
describe humans as ‘Vermin,” or as “an alien species genetically programmed