In the first two parts of our series on the sabotage of trains carrying Bakken crude oil in the Pacific Northwest, we looked at what actually happened and what was likely intended to have happened. We concluded that we came perilously close to having a major U.S. oil refinery set ablaze. In this the third and final installment of this series, we take the next step and attempt to predict what will happen next.
First, and most obviously, we should expect that there will be another attempt to carry out the same attack at the same location. Nothing about the law enforcement and Homeland Security response to these incidents suggests that any significant measures have been taken, which would make such a repeat performance non-viable. On the contrary, nationwide we continue to see our security resources being squandered for political purposes on a largely non-existent right-wing, white supremacist insurrection even as radical leftist groups that have been tearing the nation apart for the past year continue to be given a pass.
Armed with experience and knowing what went wrong last time, therefore, we would expect that the very same individuals who came within a hair’s breadth of setting the Ferndale Phillips 66 refinery ablaze last time, will make another run at that target. This time they may well succeed.
The broader, national picture is every bit as dismal. The Marxist and anarchist groups that operate now with impunity within our borders have a definite, radical environmental edge to them. They are particularly focused on the complete destruction of the fossil fuel industry. They long since crossed over into the conduct of relatively simple forms of sabotage. As the level of violence being used by radical leftist groups escalates, however, and nothing is done to counter the trend one can only assume simple sabotage will rapidly escalate into much more destructive and much more dangerous attacks.
In an environment in which radical anarchist groups will undertake to burn down a refinery, attacks on pipelines, wells, power plants and other infrastructure can only be a short distance behind.
If you want to fully understand just how radical the agenda has become in regard to fossil fuels and the kind of ideology that might well be used to justify a war on the fossil fuel industry perhaps you need look no further than the group “Extinction Rebellion.” Only a few years old this radical group began in England and has now spread worldwide. In many respects, it is now driving the narrative in regard to eco-extremism.
In its 2019 handbook for radical environmentalists, Extinction Rebellion makes clear how it sees the “climate crisis” and the way in which it must be approached. ‘This is an existential threat. We are long past the point of talking about the issue. Fossil fuels are killing the planet and us. The entire industry must be eliminated.’
“This is our last chance to do anything about the global Climate and Ecological Emergency. Our last chance to save the world as we know it. Now or never, we need to be radical. We need to rise up. And we need to rebel. This is a book of truth and action.”
Clare Farrell, Extinction Rebellion
To be clear, Extinction Rebellion does not believe simply in climate change and the need to manage it. Fundamentally, it believes that we are on the verge of an ecological disaster, which will destroy the planet as we know it. On the verge, as in we need to act right now today in very, very radical ways or we and most of the other lifeforms on this planet are dead.
Speaking in 2019, one of the leaders of Extinction Rebellion, Roger Hallam laid out the group’s positions very clearly. The “science” says only drastic action can save us. We are facing mass starvation. Society is going to collapse. Six billion people will die in the next ten years unless we act now.
We don’t just need cleaner forms of energy. We need depopulation. We need “rewilding,” which means getting a whole bunch of humans out of the way, destroying much of what most Americans would call modern civilization, and returning to some sort of “balance” with nature. Working within the law has failed. It is time to act outside the law.
Capitalism has failed. Capitalism cannot be allowed to continue.
The fact that Extinction Rebellion is made up mostly of white, middle-class young people who haven’t ever had to live at anything close to the level they are now prescribing for humanity only makes the group more dangerous. Untethered from reality, they have no need to consider the actual consequences of their actions. What the destruction of a fossil fuel power plant will mean for the electrical supply at the local hospital or heat for poor people huddled in crowded apartments in winter or the ability of the government to deliver essential services is irrelevant.
Revolutionaries and visionaries don’t need to trouble themselves with such minor details. When the refinery goes up in flames they will be high-fiving and celebrating even as trucking companies shut down, food rots in warehouses, and food riots break out in inner cities.
In a rational world in which law enforcement and security officials acted based on objective criteria, groups attempting to destroy our entire way of life would be targeted and prevented from achieving their goals. Unfortunately, for us the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and its companion agencies are busy hunting down people present in Washington, D.C. on January 6th and charging them with trespass on the grounds of a public building. When they are done with that task presumably they will then need to move on to hunting down “extremists” in the military and silencing other critics of the “regime.”
We dodged a bullet last December when a mile-long bomb train went off the rails prematurely. We won’t get that lucky again. Stand by for what comes next. It will be painful.
