Hug a Tree!

The environment means the world to many people. Some tend to go a tad bit far when it comes to their feelings on the matter. The Discovery Channel headquarters faced this unfortunate realization about five days ago. A man identified as James Lee took multiple employees hostage for approximately four hours at one of the station's buildings. Lee, who some may call an "environmental militant", took the hostages by gunpoint and claimed to have an explosive device attached to his chest that was supposed to detonate, but fortunately did not, at his command.

SWAT negotiated with the gunman for multiple hours. Lee ran a website found HERE that contained his rather.. hmm.. insane(?) demands. He came to the conclusion that The Discovery Channel was not helping the world's problems about humanity and its "DISGUSTING FILTH". In the end, Lee was shot by snipers when he pointed his gun at a hostage. Because of the quite possibly real threat of explosives in the building, medical teams could not get to the environmental terrorist in time. Lee died later on the scene.

Personally, I think the man got what was coming. Are there multiple problems with the environment now? Sure there are, but this was no way to go about fixing them. Environmental terrorism is a real thing and never ends well and rarely accomplishes anything. At best, an issue is brought to light. The man already had a problematic history with Discovery, but instead of just giving up he kept on pushing his luck. Can I respect him for trying to protect the environment? Ehh... well, no, not really. Maybe to a small, very small, point. I can agree with him that things need to change for the good of nature. But saying that "the planet does not need humans" is sort of crossing the line for me. It's also somewhat interesting how he always refers to him(?), us(?), people in general(?) as "the humans". It gives us a perspective into the mind of a crazed man with rather larger than life expectations.

Do you agree with what Lee did? Do you think that his goal was achieved?

Read the article for yourself HERE.

SOURCES:

Effron, L. and Goldman, R. (2010). Environmental Militant Killed by Police at Discovery Channel Headquarters. ABC. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/US/gunman-enters-discovery-channel-headquarters-employees-evacuated/story?id=11535128&page=1.

Lee, J. (2010). My Demands. Retrieved from http://savetheplanetprotest.com/.