In part 1 I looked at how Put People First means putting some people, the pressure group of the day, ahead of others. I will now take up what it means for people taken to mean human beings.

Another cause advocated by the Put People First groups is environmentalism. It should be made clear at the outset that by environmentalism it is not meant simply a desire for clean air and water which are obvious values for man. Rather it is the idea that nature as such has an intrinsic value separate from its use by man. So they do not believe that clean air, fresh water, and beautiful views should be maintained because they are of value to man, but rather should be sought as ends in themselves, even if doing so harms man.

This is seen most clearly in the area of development, when the needs of non-human life are put ahead of the needs of human life. This could be an expansion of a university in North Carolina halted due to a rare bird, the prohibiting of timber harvesting due to the spotted owl, efforts to halt pipeline construction in Alaska for supposed danger to caribou, or the prevention of farmers from irrigating their crops for the sake of small fish or mussels. In all these instances, the development of human values is sacrificed for the sake of non-human species, not for any value they have to human beings but because of a supposed value they possess in and of themselves. Thus these species are seen as more valuable than human beings and therefore human beings can, and indeed must, be sacrificed to them.

Environmentalists are unconcerned with finding solutions for the problems they perceive as arising from human development. Rather, they want to prevent additional development and even to revert to earlier levels. This is illustrated most clearly in the environmentalist view of energy production and “global warming.” For years environmentalists have warned about the supposed dangers from the continuing rise in CO2 emissions and have called for their reductions to levels of some time period decades earlier. While the level of CO2 emissions in the United States has declined significantly in recent years due to the increased use of natural gas, environmentalists have opposed the further expansion of its use simply because it is a fossil fuel.

Even so-called “green” sources of energy are subject to similar treatment. With fossil fuels out, there are four other methods of energy generation available. Nuclear, which produces no CO2 and has the potential, as shown in Europe, to be a major source of electricity – but wait, there may be a radiation leak, so it is out. Hydroelectric power is another well-established source which in the right locations can supply significant amounts of power – but wait, damming the rivers blocks the spawning routes or deprives water for fish, so it is out. There is a lot of emphasis on wind power, especially here in Vermont where mountain ridges provide good locations for large windmills – but wait, the windmills may be killing birds or bats and mining the rare earths used in the generators causes pollution, so they are out. The energy from solar panels is of limited value as the sun is only visible for part of the day, but they are widely touted as a potential energy source – but wait, birds are often killed flying near some solar arrays, so they will be out too. In all these cases, even though a potential solution to an environmental issue is found, it is not sufficient if those solutions come at the expense of a non-human species.

The end goal of environmentalism, though rarely stated explicitly, is to reduce man back to the pre-industrial age. Their standard is reducing our “footprint” on the earth, ignoring completely the fact that man survives by adapting our environment to our needs, i.e. having a footprint. We do not grow thick coats of fur to endure the winter; we build houses and heat them. With such a standard, success is achieved by having no footprint at all. By advocating for no footprint, environmentalists want to reduce man to living at a primitive level, no better than the animals they value more highly.

We can now understand is really meant by Put People First. As some must be sacrificed to provide the benefits to others, we know that it cannot mean all people. As we cannot know with certainty which people are which, it is subject to the political whim of the times, we can only know that the individual comes after every other possible pressure group. As any non-human species will be used as an excuse to prevent the production of human values, we can also know that people, meaning human beings, do not come first. If there is no other species to put ahead of us, it will be “the earth” or “nature” that is put ahead of human beings.

In the end, the only definite meaning to be taken from Put People First is: Put Individuals Last.