In its desperation to stage the Games, China made itself hostage to the cultural climate in the West.

And what a climate!  Demoralized, anxious and desperately wanting purpose, Western elites have sought ever-deeper refuge in the semblance of a rationale offered by environmentalism. In such a context, economic growth and development, once the source of capitalist legitimacy, have acquired a threatening aspect. As one of the most rapidly developing nations on earth, under Western eyes, China appears as merely the most potent symbol of baleful modernity.

Never far away, however, was the campaign for non-attendance that cites China’s environmental record. The most recent instance of this involved the decision of the Ethiopian marathon world record holder, Haile Gebrselassie, not to compete in the Olympic marathon. His reason? ‘The pollution in China is a threat to my health and it would be difficult to run 42 kilometres in my current condition.’ By ‘current condition’, Gebrselassie is referring to his exercise-induced asthma. Unfortunately, coming on the back of Belgian tennis player Justine Henin’s withdrawal last September for the same reason - they are both asthma sufferers - his announcement has received a more general interpretation: the Beijing Olympics would be bad for people’s health.  The Sydney Morning Herald even felt it necessary to advise its readers on ‘How to combat Olympic fever’.

It is from this perspective that pollution, the problem of ‘Beijing’s smog’, is too easily understood not as a practical problem with a practical, technological solution, but as an indictment of China’s economic development, and of China itself. Hearing of Gebrselassie’s withdrawal from the marathon, political activist Peter Tatchell said: ‘The Beijing air is so toxic that no athlete can participate safely at this summer’s games.’ Not only will athletes collapse, he rapped, ‘some may die’. Clearly having reached the correct shrill pitch he concluded:  ‘Pollution in the host city is now at such alarming levels that the International Olympic Committee should do the right thing and cancel the 2008 Olympic Games. The city is dangerous for athletes and everyone [else]… It is far too late to make the Olympics safe or to save the lives of the many Beijing residents who are sick - or dead - because of their government’s policy of abusing the environment.’

Unfortunately, for Tatchell and the other manic doomsayers the Beijing Olympics turned out to be the most spectacular Olympic Games of the modern era, so successfully staged that it would probably be a hard act to follow for London and future Olympic Organizing Committees.  And no – no athletes died due to the environment in Beijing!

Palm oil has been a victim of the same kind of shrill rampant ecomania by the likes of the oddly named Friends of the Earth (FOE) and Greenpeace.

After all, palm oil is probably the most productive of oil seed crops, yielding a remarkable 4.5 metric tons of oil per hectare.  This is more than ten times the yield of its closest competitors such as soy, rapeseed and sunflower!  What this translates to is that palm oil requires 10 times LESS land to produce the same unit of oil that its competitors require. 

Logically, if environmental conservationists are looking for an environmentally friendly oilseed crop, they should be looking to palm oil.

Yet inexplicably, Greenpeace and FOE accuses palm oil of causing massive deforestation and the blind ill-will and blatant misrepresentation of facts behind their attacks knows no bounds – not even the recent RSPO certified sustainable palm oil shipped to Europe by United Plantations (UP) is spared.  

Perhaps, Greenpeace and FOE should take cognizance of the fact that it is irrational attacks such as these that alerts right thinking individuals to question just what the true agenda of environmentalists such as Greenpeace and FOE are.  

To Deforestation Watch, the sneaky suspicion that the preservation of western hegemony, first in the political and military realm has now been extended to commodity exports and even sports, judging from the puerile attacks against China and palm oil by western based environmental NGO’s and media may not be entirely unjustified!  THE END.