December 15 - The Evergreen Syndicate

Don't call them eco terrorists.
When people hear that word, they think of radicals, Earth Firsters, George Hayduke knockoffs. Passionate, reckless, undisciplined. Driving spikes into old growth pines, pouring sugar into the gas tanks of bulldozers, disabling drilling wells. The Green PEP squad (pro earth pranksters) out to "raise awareness" and "make a statement" or effect some other impotent, inconsequential ripple of change in an ocean the size of the moon.
That isn't them.
That isn't the Evergreen Syndicate.
Though theirs is certainly a Green ethos, they go well beyond the frays of eco terrorism.
They are more like eco regime change; eco CIA black ops; eco grassy knoll.
They are the shadow of a shadowy entity. A beast of no nations. A phantom outfit. A secret order so far underground they make the Knights Templar and the Freemasons look like the Kiwanis Club.
They don't exist.
And yet their stamp is everywhere. Even though they have no stamp.
Theirs are the invisible hands pulling the invisible strings of environmental policy that 99.9% of the world don't know exist. And when the few who suspect their existence call them the Evergreen Syndicate, they don't even know what it is they're referring to.
The Evergreen Syndicate is a clandestine government agency.
No, they are a sect of covert ops cardinals from the Vatican.
No, they are a federation of rogue deep cover CIA lifers.
They are all of these things and none of them.
They are invisible men and invisible women in an invisible fraternity dedicated to the unchecked growth of nature.
Forests.
Ecosystems.
The oceans.
Wetlands.
Reefs.
Anywhere that Man shouldn't be.
Their M.O. is to keep Man out.
And their methods are extreme: assassinations, kidnappings, high level governmental and commercial sabotage. All of it off the books, off the radar. Unlike Earth Firsters, they aren't about showboating. They aren't romantics. They're results oriented: dispassionate, pragmatic, effective.
And quiet.
A week before a vote to open five million hectares of rain forest for ranching interests, a governor in Brazil receives a package containing the following: pictures of his five-year-old son that look like they were taken from across the street of his school's playground; the same son's nightlight that had gone missing a week ago; and a note that says, "vote no on ranching expansion".
He quietly votes no and the world keeps turning. It didn't make the papers because the Evergreen Syndicate keeps things out of the spotlight.
An offshore oil rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico. As the media and politicians huff and wring their hands, and point fingers at everyone involved, all offshore drilling is suspended while tougher industry regulations are quietly pushed through congress.
The Gulf towns and waters that are devastated by the fallout? Collateral damage. The Evergreen Syndicate is focused on the Big Picture.
They're the ones that saw the writing on the wall in 2000 and decided a Bush White House and all the pro business, anti environment legislation it pushed would be better for the earth in the long run.
And they were right. By the end of Bush's two terms in office, things had swung pro-environment so thoroughly that clean air, global warming, climate change, melting polar caps, alternative fuels, improved fuel efficiency standards, and the entire Green agenda had moved to the forefront of public and legislative consciousness, and the country was primed for sweeping policy changes.
Disputed ballots in Florida, disqualified voters, hanging chads, Supreme Court decisions, Al Gore's consolation Noble Peace Prize?
Evergreen Syndicate.
Their reach is enormous, their power unlimited, their commitment absolute. And although nobody on the outside of their clandestine circle (read: everyone) knows their motives, speculation and rumor run rampant: The Evergreen Syndicate is all about profiteering. They are ultra-conservatives, religious extremists, a combination of the three, all of the above, none of the above.
But in the end, it's impossible to say, because as far as what anyone can prove is concerned, the Evergreen Syndicate doesn't exist.