Austin Williams argues that the contemporary environmentalist obsession with stopping development is a bigger threat to society than climate change. As humanists, he says, we need to reformulate the idea that all meaningful production requires the appropriation of nature. A Green desire to clamp down on production, population and any human impact on the planet is a middle-class political fantasy that keeps the poorest in developing nations poor. Holding down people’s aspirations for economic, social and national autonomy is the hallmark of modern day, sustainable, neo-colonialism, he says.