TRYING TO UNDERSTAND ENVIRONMENTALISM

What is it about environmentalists? They used to be an annoyance, and sometimes really funny, (this video is a must-watch), but now their extremist views are impacting the country in powerfully negative ways.

From convincing President Obama that bringing 700,000 gallons of crude oil across 1,700-miles of American land is not in the nation’s interest and will create only minimal economic activity, to splashing hundreds of thousands of dollars to defeat a single conservative candidate, environmentalists have certainly been making themselves heard lately.

What seems to drive the enviro more than anything is “climate change”- a very vague term for the sense of evil it carries with it. I’ve been told that change is a good thing, and that when accompanied by hope, its powers are limitless. But enviros abhor change, climate and otherwise. They want the world to remain the way it was years ago. They should really all be conservatives, being so into conserving things, or in very the least, traditionalists, committed to an archaic existence.

I love the earth a lot- I even enjoy being outside (to a point). I definitely see the appeal of the tree-hugger types. Trees don’t say annoying things or smell particularly bad or get in your way on the metro or take up your time harassing the Post Office clerk with long, complicated, asinine requests.

I also like organic food devoid of steroids which make today’s average apple a 3,000-calorie snack the size of a bowling ball. Mother Nature is great, but like most overbearing females, her influence has its limits, and so I have some beef with the green crowd. I do like cars, a lot, and airplanes, and really bright light bulbs, and food that doesn’t look like birdfeed and taste like bark. The truth is that it’s just simply not possible to live the kind of life 21 centuries of advancement have provided to us while at the same time preserving the earth to its 1st-century standard. At least not yet.

There is risk that comes with every decision, of course. With the Keystone project, there is the risk of an oil spill. Indeed. But oil comes from deep within the womb (sorry) of Mother Nature, and is about as natural as it gets. Are environmentalists prejudiced, then, about which elements of nature they choose to admire? Are not all elements of nature created equal? I always thought it unfair that greenies hug the trees but chew up fruits and vegetables for nourishment with great gusto. Quite insensitive to the poor strawberry plant and others of his kind.

Another risk: global warming. In more than one hundred years, the earth’s core temperature has risen 1.4 degrees. I am not alarmed. I am not temperature sensitive, and in 200 years when it will have risen by 2.8 degrees I’ll most likely be dead. And not to get into technicalities, (always a bore), but speaking broadly, what exactly are the negative consequences of warmth?

In the case of the Keystone Pipeline, the reward (all that rich, lovely, shiny oil! Picture James Dean from Giant) far outweighs the risk. We know this. The environmentalists know this.

So, are environmentalists just obsessive, dirty, weirdos, or controlling delusionists who see the earth as their path to world power? Yes and yes. (You can’t tell me Al Gore is a great outdoorsman.)

Another thing: Even if greedy capitalists were devil-may-caringly having their way with the environment, what is the enviros’ end in preserving it? Certainly not for future fellow humans to enjoy? They are not to be trusted, and may turn out to enjoy efficiency over earthliness. Is it from a pure love of plants and animals? They don’t seem to appreciate it. (This guy lived among grizzlies in Alaska for 13 years until one of the bears ate him one day.)

If people want to go about drinking seaweed soup and eating hemp, that is perfectly fine with me. I don’t care what you do with your money, but when your actions prevent the majority of other people from living better lives because your extremist policies of dubious origin prevent them from having jobs, it isn’t amusing anymore. How big of a constituency are the environmentalists, anyway? Nobody admits to being anti-earth, but somehow the green groups have amassed more power and influence than, say, Christians against abortion could ever dream of.

Let’s end with a bright thought: if and when environmentalism falls by the way side, it will stay there. Eco-warriors will green themselves into oblivion. I’m not sure they’ve produced anything worth preserving, so it’s OK that every artifact that would serve to record their cause and existence will have been reduced, reused, and recycled out of memory. “That’s why no one will remember your name.”

http://www.humanevents.com/2013/08/08/trying-to-understand-environmentalism/