Greenzone Online

For those unfamiliar with blogging vernacular, I’d like to introduce a common phrase: concern trolling.  Trolling is the act of posting inflammatory rhetoric with the intention of causing trouble and rabble-rousing, rather than to futher dialogue or maintain civil discourse.  A troll is one who engages in the practice of trolling.  Concern Trolling is an insidious, passive aggressive (as if all blogging conflict isn’t passive aggressive, we’re arguing with computer screens) form of trolling.  The perpetrators pose as allies, and throw out “concerns” they may have about a particular issue, candidate, or movement.  These concerns are presented as though the “troll” has the best interests of said issue or group in mind, when in fact they are instigating trouble and/or attempting to derail progress. 

Why the exercise in blogging vocabulary? Because it seems that real life concern trolls are at work out in Cape Cod. As Jerry noted in a green family fued, two environmental groups have been facing off in regards to a proposed wind farm in Nantucket Sound. One, Cape Wind supports the development of the proposed 130 turbine, 420 megawatt wind farm. The other, The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound opposes the development, based largely on concern for the health of the sound. Which is greener?

The motives of one group have recently been called into question. As reported in the Boston Globe and blogged on Treehugger:

A new lobbying firm for the group opposing a wind farm off Cape Cod filed a federal document last month reporting that its work for the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound is partially funded and shaped by an international energy conglomerate.

This disclosure represents the first documented financial connection between the group opposing the wind farm and Oxbow Corp., which mines and markets energy and commodities, including coal, natural gas, and petroleum.

So the Alliance to Protect Nantcket Sound, a citizen’s group concerned with protecting the sound, is “partially funded and shaped by” a company that stands to lose money if the plan to develop a clean, renewable wind farm goes through?

Concern indeed.