Green Options

What makes a protest worthwhile? Does it have to change policy, or achieve the reversal of a specific decision? Recent protests in the environmental arena seem to have educative as well as practical purposes.

Despite pleas from environmentalists and wildlife groups, the Scottish government has approved Donald Trump’s plans for a $1.5 billion golf resort along the Aberdeenshire coastline, an area previously designated as a ‘Site of Special Scientific Interest.’

The government defends the decision by pointing to the hundreds of jobs the 2,000-acre facility will create amid a damaged economy. The facility is expected to generate $100 million annually for the Aberdeenshire community.

The government has essentially given Trump free reign to do what he’d like with the land with little-to-no environmental supervision. Wildlife groups had hoped to form a compromise, but instead, Trump’s development will not be required take the wildlife habitat into account whatsoever.