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Environmental activism in America is based on unrealistic idealism which -
in the real world - does more harm than good. Often these are
people who have the best intentions, but some of them will go to any lengths,
whether illegal, unethical, dishonest or otherwise, to accomplish their goals. Many environmental activists rely on propaganda, half-truths and one-dimensional statistics to convince others that the environment is fragile and the earth needs to be "saved" from humans. This inevitably results in friction between the environmentalists — some of whom believe that man is just another animal — and the people who believe the earth was created for man's use and stewardship. The Bible clearly states that God has made the heavens, with all their host, and the earth, and all things that are in it, and the seas, and all that is in them, and He preserves them all. (Nehemiah 9:6) God himself preserves the earth (and the oceans and the atmosphere), not governments, not environmentalists, not anybody else. Even so, we are to be good stewards of our natural resources. No sane person would intentionally poison the atmosphere and the lakes and rivers, but that's not what this page is about. Here we're talking about people who generate unnecessary strife and raise the cost of nearly everything by demanding infeasible solutions to problems that aren't really problems. Subsections: Leftist politics and bad ideas which often lead to bad laws Anti-capitalism motivates environmentalists The most radical environmentalists want to wipe out the human race The Endangered Species Act The high cost of protecting the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, which is probably extinct. The Polar Bear is used for emotional leverage. Environmentalists vs. Military Preparedness President Obama and the rabid environmentalists Lies, propaganda, distortion and exaggeration New! Environmentalists Oppose Every Practical Source of Energy Newer! Environmentalism is a religion Environmental Propaganda Movie Reviews Eco-terrorism Environmental False Alarms about Alar, arsenic, mercury, freon, radon, etc. Other environmental false alarms: Coral Reefs Polar bears Polar ice Melting glaciers Rising sea levels Hurricane numbers and intensity DDT and Other Pesticide Scares ... including a subsection at the bottom about Rachel Carson. Low-level environmental terrorism ... keeping people alarmed helps retain political clout. Supposedly good ideas that may not be good at all, like windmill generators, recycling, ... and mass transit, more specifically Amtrak, ... and ethanol, ... and compact fluorescent bulbs. ... including a subsection about windmill power proposals by T. Boone Pickens. ANWR — The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge CAFE — Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards The Environmental Protection Agency Media bias related to environmental issues ... including the media campaign against bottled water. Global Warming Global warming overviews Greenhouse Gases -- especially carbon dioxide, which, by the way, is produced in great quantities by volcanoes and cows and termites. The Kyoto Protocol Environmental Propaganda Movie Reviews The United Nations IPCC Report on Global Warming Silencing the Skeptics in the Global Warming Debate Global Warming Subtopics and Sidetracks: hurricane intensity, polar bears, and rising sea levels. Global cooling -- That's right, there hasn't been any warming lately. Cap and Trade Global Warming is Blamed for Everything Property rights issues related to environmentalism Animal Rights vs. Human Rights The Hypocrisy of Eco-Celebrities The UN Earth Summit of 2002 The UN Climate Change Conference, Bali, December 2007. A list of troublesome organizations Other Environmental Topics Recommended Reading Let's start with the basics... Leftist utopian politics – the roots of environmentalism: Dronism. The well-off like nice cars, tasteful homes, good food, and appropriate vacations — but not the oil, gas, coal, nuclear energy, transmission lines, timber, cement, farmland, water pumps, etc., that bring that to them. Climate Götterdämmerung: Exaggeration and alarmism have been a chronic weakness of environmentalism since it became an organized movement in the 1960s. Every ecological problem was instantly transformed into a potential world-ending crisis, from the population bomb to the imminent resource depletion of the "limits to growth" fad of the 1970s to acid rain to ozone depletion, always with an overlay of moral condemnation of anyone who dissented from environmental correctness. With global warming, the environmental movement thought it had hit the jackpot... Green halo slips in study. According to a study, when people feel they have been virtuous by saving the planet through their purchases of, say, organic baby food, it leads to the "licensing [of] selfish and morally questionable behaviour", otherwise known as "moral balancing" or "compensatory ethics". ... Its authors ... argue that people who wear what they call the "halo of green consumerism" are less likely to be kind to others and more likely to cheat and steal. Bill Gates, Environmental Kook. At the TED 2010 conference in Long Beach, California Bill Gates won a standing ovation by calling for the end of carbon-based fuels in forty years; literally, our CO2 emissions must drop to zero or we risk a warming world, lower crop yields, and starvation of the poor. It is absolutely stunning, as we read Gates' excerpts, to accept that a formerly unrelenting strategic genius has transformed himself into a conveyer of hackneyed global warming alarmism. Environmentalism Refuted: [Scroll down] The same intellectual quarter that a generation or more ago urged the totalitarian control of all aspects of human life for the purpose of bringing order to what would otherwise allegedly be chaos, now urges a policy of laissez-faire — out of respect for natural harmonies. Of course, it is not a policy of laissez-faire toward human beings, who are to be as tightly controlled as ever. Nor, of course, is it a policy that recognizes any form of economic harmonies among human beings. No, it is a policy of laissez-faire toward nature in the raw; the alleged harmonies that are to be respected are those of so-called eco-systems. Obama's Progressive Goose and Our Conservative Gander: The president has been trying to convert the country's energy sector to the "green" creed, which is sure to take the wrecking ball to the American way of life and dramatically reduce our standard of living. Obama's energy policy goes to the heart of the entire progressive agenda. After the downfall of communism, the left almost immediately embraced the next millenarian project — environmentalism — and concentrated its prodigious energies on a giant undertaking: to stampede the world and put the progressives in power, wielding the global warming scare as its latest cataclysm. A Green Tea Party: A revolt against economic hardship imposed by unelected bureaucrats based on junk science is brewing. This Tea Party movement wants the faulty finding on carbon dioxide to be reviewed and dumped. The Great Green Land Grab. All across America, various environmental organizations are engaged in schemes to deter development such as housing, new energy plants, or the horror of a manufacturing facility that might actually employ people. In some states, the attack has been on farms and ranches, finding ways to punish their owners for improving their land in any fashion such as digging a drainage ditch. Enviros play dirty on coal, natural gas. They don't discuss the subject too openly outside their own circles, but environmentalists make crystal clear on their Web sites that they want to stop all coal-based power production in this country. They claim coal can never be made clean, so it must be eliminated before it's too late to do anything about global warming. Ted Nace puts it succinctly in a Grist Web site post: "The stakes, for all life on the planet, surpass those of any previous crisis." That may sound extreme, but Nace is merely expressing mainstream environmentalist thinking. Green trade shows are starting to feel recycled. The green scene has been flooded with conferences, conventions, trade shows and other events trying to capitalize on the popularity of sustainability and concerns about climate change. Most of the meetings deal directly with environmental issues such as carbon emissions, conservation or alternative energy. The Editor says... How ironic! People are using capitalism to profit from environmentalism, even though environmentalism abhors capitalism. Skating on thin ice for climate change. Energy Secretary Steven Chu didn't reach the pinnacle of his profession by treading the well-worn path of modern group-think. It's regrettable that the Nobel Prize-winning physicist is stuck in that rut now. ... You have to feel for a man of science trying to make the jump to politics. In science, facts speak for themselves. In politics, facts are often run to ground by baloney. As energy secretary, Mr. Chu has traded fact for fiction and now spends his days selling President Obama's discredited climate-change policy. Activist 'Green' Lawyers Billing U.S. Millions in Fraudulent Attorney Fees. Without any oversight, accounting, or transparency, environmental activist groups have surreptitiously received at least $37 million from the federal government for questionable "attorney fees." The lawsuits they received compensation for had nothing to do with environmental protection or improvement. The activist groups have generated huge revenue streams via the obscure Equal Access to Justice Act. Season's Greenies. This is a tough time of year for eco-friendly global planners. In Copenhagen they tried to put together a deal to save the world's forests while we rode around with millions of Christmas trees tied to our car roofs. Among the ruses that came out of Copenhagen, they called on rich countries to pay poor countries to not cut down their trees. NOAA's Ministry Of Propaganda. Despite failures at Copenhagen, the fraud of the IPCC and the farce of Climate-gate, the administration wants an agency to monitor climate change. Why must we fund one-stop shopping for climate charlatans? UK group fears trash bin spies. It's the new front in the nanny state: Microchips placed in garbage bins to monitor how much people throw away. £1,000 fine for using wrong bin. Householders could be fined up to £1,000 if they fail to comply with complex new rules on refuse sorting. Food scraps, tea bags and vegetable peelings thrown into the wrong dustbin could land them with hefty penalties under government plans to be unveiled today [3/18/2010]. EverGreens: After Failure, Warmists Will Change Hats And Move On. The charge is that scientists only considered stations which showed warming, and tossed those which did not fit their preconceptions. What makes this delicious is that the stations Hadley chose had large chunks of missing data, and the stations ignored had uninterrupted records. This makes sense: it's easier to homogenize data that isn't there. The explanations to come will no doubt provide for some light comedy. Inexplicable italics in original. In Pursuit of Death. Over the last two decades, activists in the news media and popular culture have managed to mainstream radical environmentalism, leading to a "green veto" over the use of natural resources, as well as land and development policy for the nation. Major projects are routinely halted over dubious claims of damage to habitats or endangered species. The costs of EPA-mandated impact studies alone are daunting enough to nix needed projects before they begin. Environmentalism is no longer just a collection of disaffected youth, misguided conservationists, and touchy-feely, back-to-nature types; this once-harmless eccentricity has unveiled a dark side. Just Say No to Democracy. Actually, "democracy" is not only messy but also immoral and unworkable. The Founding Fathers saw that coming, as well. So we don't live under a system of simple majority rule for a reason, as most readers already know. The minority political party, luckily, has the ability to obstruct, nag, and filibuster the majority's agenda. Otherwise, those in absolute power would run wild — or, in other words, you all would be living that Super Bowl Audi commercial by now. Green Police Aren't Just in Super Bowl Ads. If you've been watching the daily scandals destroy the credibility of the U.N. IPCC, then you might not realize that Cambridge, Massachusetts is in a state of climate emergency. This is not hyperbole, but an official policy order, passed by the City Council in May 2009, "recogniz[ing] that there is a climate emergency" and requesting the City Manager "to direct the appropriate city departments to increase the City's responses to a scale proportionate to the emergency." The Green Police Take Over the Country. The most interesting element of the Super Bowl wasn't the Super Bowl. It was an advertisement for the Audi A3 TDI. The commercial depicted uniformed officials arresting Americans for, among other offenses, asking for plastic bags at the grocery, throwing away batteries, failing to compost an orange peel and installing incandescent light bulbs. Audi's Gorewellian Super Bowl Ad. [Scroll down] Some conservatives didn't like it because it makes light of what they believe is actually happening. After all, in America and Europe the list of environmental crimes is growing at an almost exponential rate. The ad is absurd, of course, but not nearly as absurd as Audi thinks. Audi Super Bowl Ad: Working Both Sides of Street? The main selling point, surprisingly, is not that this car, which won a "Green Car of the Year" award, is good for the planet, but that if you drive it, you won't be hassled, bullied, and jailed by the "green police." The ad tries to work both sides of the street. It attempts to appeal to those who believe SUVs are destroying the planet — and those who resent eco-elitists and busybodies telling them how to live. Capitalism and Climate Change. The goals of the climate-change crowd are not reduction in global warming but the enactment of a worldwide system of regulation that puts business under government control and transfers wealth from rich nations to poor ones under the guise of fighting climate change. Should the emissions come down on their own, as they are doing, the excuse for draconian legislation goes, well, up in smoke. Don't confuse environmentalism with science. Climatology is a science, not to be confused with environmentalism. The heart of environmentalism is not to be found in the natural sciences. It is ideology and nothing more. That is why it ends in "-ism." Environmentalism is itself not a monolith, but its dominant strand is distinctly statist in character. As such, its main nemesis is the science of economics, not climatology or any of the other natural sciences. A sound understanding of economics is all that is needed to discredit the emerging interventionist social agenda of the environmental movement. The methods that they recommend cannot deliver the results that they promise. Green Is the New Red. The inconvenience of the truth falls on Gore, not his opponents. Water levels have in fact declined slightly at Tuvalu, and the country's modest population shrinkage is due to economic migration. Malaria was much more prevalent in Nairobi a century ago, and has risen slightly in recent years only because of the ecologists' attack on the use of insecticides. The polar ice caps aren't melting at all; the ice sheets over the oceans are, but the ice over land is actually thickening, so water levels are not being affected. The Left's End Times. [Scroll down] Their chicken-littleism, preaching, and rants about global warming (or climate change, or whatever else they think helps sell the goods) is never portrayed as such — not, of course, by themselves or by a pliant establishment media. Theirs is "settled science," according to movement gurus, with Al Gore being the most conspicuous. Obama's "Progressives": With the collapse of the former Soviet Union, many former communists became "environmentalists," often playing major roles in the many organizations serving that cause. Among President Obama's ever-expanding circle of "czars" is Carol Browner, the former Clinton-era director of the Environmental Protection Agency (1993-2000), whose latest appointment also revealed that she served on the Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which is part of Socialist International. Her association with the group has since been scrubbed from their website. Most obvious and notorious is Van Jones, who has never made a secret of his political preference for communism and is Obama's new "Green Jobs" czar. The links between the environmental movement and communist goals are numerous; it should not surprise anyone that the "global warming" hoax was birthed in the bowels of the United Nations. Save the Planet by Banning Ice Cream. Notice that the environmentalists immediately claim superiority over us. They are the ones who have pointed out the error of our ways, and they are saving the planet that we very nearly destroyed with our selfish lust for material goods and endless modern comforts. They claim that if it weren't for them, we would soon wreck the planet and self-inflict the greatest wound ever suffered by mankind. The only way to redeem ourselves in their eyes is to turn back the clock on our lifestyle. How far should we turn the clock back? They won't say. For now, they just ask us to use less energy. Orwellian Nightmare: Science Is Whatever 'the Party' Says It Is. The Party — the political class of the world — does not want God to exist. Therefore, if the laws of physics and the laws of mathematics say He does, then the laws of physics and the laws of mathematics must be changed to whatever the Party wants. Therefore, God does not exist. He must not be mentioned, must not be prayed to in class. The Party wants the Earth to be warming, so that its members can establish their power over every aspect of our lives. The Earth has not warmed in a decade, in fact it has gotten colder. But the Party says warmer, and further, says that the warming is due to human addition of CO2 to the atmosphere. Steal this! A Canadian study shows that people who buy green products tend to lie and steal more than those who don't. A green, sustainable future that doesn't work. In the high desert of central Arizona, more than five thousand miles from the global-warming summit in Copenhagen, sits an aging and unfinished vision of the enviro-friendly, sustainable life that some climate change activists foresee for us all. It's called Arcosanti, created in 1970 by the Italian architect Paolo Soleri, and it is the prototype of a green community of the future. The only problem is, it doesn't work. And it never did. Can America Survive its Sharp Left Turn? Most Americans want a clean environment. They want to be able to enjoy green spaces that are clean and free from pollution. Most Americans also realize that our planet is much cleaner and healthier today than it was 40 years ago. The left sees people as bad for the planet. Given that they can't actually eliminate people, they insist people sacrifice their comfort and prosperity in the name of environmentalism. They are willing to shut down businesses and whole communities to save a tree or a fish. They are willing for you to pay much more for your energy in the hopes that you will stop using it. That is a threat to our livelihood. Energy to spare. Under the inspiration of the Green Zeitgeist, I cannot go into a magazine shop without finding some science-lite cover story on new prospects for harnessing solar, thermal, wind, tidal, or whatever "renewable" forces. There is an immense credulous audience out there, willing to be entertained by such nonsense. No one with a grasp of high school physics should take any of these schemes seriously. In each case, we are looking at a crank idea from the hippie era, which has not since been significantly improved, because it can't be. Saving the Environment Through Human Misery. The New Scientist describes 5 "eco crimes we commit every day"; acts of thoughtless decadence that are killing the planet. Are you a climate criminal? Listen to these indictments and decide if you engage in any of these heinous activities. Hurricane Expert Rips Climate Fears. There has been an unrelenting quarter century of one-sided indoctrination of the western world by the media and by various scientists and governments concerning a coming carbon dioxide (CO2) induced global warming disaster. These warming scenarios have been orchestrated by a combination of environmentalists, vested interest scientists wanting larger federal grants and publicity, the media which profits from doomsday scenario reporting, governmental bureaucrats who want more power over our lives, and socialists who want to level-out global living standards. Burning the home fires is a crime on bad air nights in Bay Area. Light a fire at home, pay a $400 fine. Burning wood fires in home fireplaces and stoves on bad air nights in the Bay Area becomes illegal again as of Sunday [11/01/2009], when the region enters its second cold-weather season with lighting up banned during Spare the Air alerts. The Editor says... This is the same state that had numerous wildfires this year, which burned hundreds of acres of trees, with no lasting effect on air quality. Fireplaces and campfires are not an air pollution problem. Banning these fires is just another step toward total control of every activity. National Sovereignty, Climate Mysticism, and You. The ostensible subject was the United Nations Copenhagen Climate Treaty, scheduled to take place in December. Anyone who doubts that environmentalism has become one of the most potent weapons in the quiver of the international Left should take a look at some of the treaty's proposed provisions. Basically, it is a wealth transfer scheme in which rich countries send money to poor countries because they, the rich ones, have (so the story goes) done more to insult the environment. (Isn't the real story that they have enriched the entire world beyond imagining? Yes — but that contravenes the left-wing narrative.) 'Climate Change' Treaty: The Supreme Law Of The Land? We hear it said that whenever the President signs, and the Senate ratifies, a Treaty, it becomes part of "the supreme law of the land". But is that True? Not necessarily! Carbon Pawprints. As polls show belief in global warming is dropping, a new study suggests that dogs and cats, like people, are a plague upon the earth. They say people should have edible pets. ... They do not actually say your wiener dog should be on the menu. But they've calculated the carbon emissions created by popular pets, taking into account the ingredients of pet food and the land needed to create them. They advise having pets like rabbits or chickens. Maybe we could start a Cash for Cluckers program. Obama's new world order. Global-warming alarmists are using the myth of climate change to impose an embryonic socialist world government. Following the collapse of communism, the West's progressive elites desperately searched for a viable ideological alternative. They found it in environmentalism. Although the Green movement wraps itself in the flag of empirical science, it represents the very opposite: a dogma that provides meaning and purpose to its rabid followers. Ask Not if the Science of Global Warming is True? "The idea of climate change," [Mike] Hulme writes, "should be seen as an intellectual resource around which our collective and personal identities and projects can form and take shape. We need to ask not what we can do for climate change, but to ask what climate change can do for us." In other words, socialists like Hulme can frame the global warming issue to achieve unrelated goals such as sustainable development, income redistribution, population control, social justice and many other items on the liberal/socialist wish list. Every Drop of Water in America. Some in the federal government want to exert control over ... every drop of water in America. It is an attack on private property and it is emblematic of the real agenda of environmentalists. It is Communism. The American Land Rights Association recently issued a notice. "Having been slapped down by the U.S. Supreme Court's two recent decisions that the words 'navigable waters' in the Clean Water Act limited federal agencies to regulation of navigable waters only, Democrats and liberal Republicans in Congress are striking back." America Needs a Climate Change Revolt. We've got until December — when world leaders meet in Copenhagen to hammer out a global warming agreement — to pound it into the thick heads of our elected officials that we want no part of it. It's fine to be for clean air and clean water. But we are heading toward a new world order on climate change — and that's NOT fine. Going Back In Time. What sort of future are green groups pushing us toward? If they get their way, it will be one that won't look much different than the world our great-grandparents were born into. While some want to put an end to soft toilet paper, the Brits are moving toward a regime in which workers who discharge "more than their fair share of carbon emissions" will have their pay docked. Meanwhile, in California, regulators are hoping to ban big-screen TVs. Environmentalists Seek to Wipe Out Plush Toilet Paper. There is a battle for America's behinds. It is a fight over toilet paper... The reason, they say, is that plush U.S. toilet paper is usually made by chopping down and grinding up trees that were decades or even a century old. They want Americans, like Europeans, to wipe with tissue made from recycled paper goods. Environmental laws put gaps in Mexico border security. In the battle on the U.S.-Mexico border, the fight against illegal immigration often loses out to environmental laws that have blocked construction of parts of the "virtual fence" and that threaten to create places where agents can't easily track illegal immigrants. Starting today, it is illegal not to recycle plastic bottles. Starting today [10/1/2009], that old soda bottle and empty milk jug are no longer just garbage. They must be recycled. A new state law is taking effect that prohibits all plastic bottles from being disposed of in landfills. Supporters of the law say it will boost North Carolina's burgeoning recycling industry, which has an unmet demand for old bottles that can be converted into new goods. The Myth that Liberalism is the Ideology of Science: The Left supported global cooling before latching onto the equally fictitious global warming. Its ban on DDT has led to the death of millions in Africa. Liberals clapped along when Paul Ehrlich predicted that we'd all be starving to death in the eighties and nineties. For all their insufferably smug talk about science, for the liberals, the pursuit of knowledge is always secondary to their political agenda. The Real Climate Agenda. Environmentalism generally and catastrophic man-made global warming specifically is a falsified diversionary scare distracting us from the fall of our Republic into the dark, stinking swamp of statism. ... We no longer have representative government, but are ruled by an alien ideology. Understand that the federal government is not us, it is them. Climate Of Control. Though the EPA says a cap-and-trade bill will do nothing if the developing world doesn't cut CO2 emissions, Democrats are intent on passing a global warming law anyway. What is their real goal? Is environmentalism the opiate of the liberals? Human nature abhors a religious vacuum. ... Just as environmentalism has replaced Marxism as the central economic theory of the far left, so too has environmentalism begun to replace liberal Christianity as the left's motivating religious force. Were it not for the presence of powerful black Protestant churches in the liberal alliance, environmentalism might have supplanted liberal Christianity already. The 'Green' Trojan Horse. Among the many controversies swirling around the White House's "green czar," none is more disturbing than his plan to use the green movement to socialize the economy. The Fall of the Red Czar. No thanks to the establishment media and Congressional Democrats, the Obama administration's "green jobs czar" Van Jones is out of a job. ... Now that Jones has stepped down, the media has rallied to his defense, depicting Jones as the victim of a "vicious smear campaign" by foes of his environmental politics — a charge echoed by the administration's Democratic allies. The less palatable truth is that Jones is a racial provocateur and opportunist who tried to capitalize on the administration's sympathy for the "green" agenda to bring his own brand of socialist and black radical politics to national prominence. More about Van Jones. What a 'Green Jobs Czar' Does. Citing this effort as "a major opportunity" and an "unprecedented opportunity" — both in the same paragraph, so please understand: this is an opportunity, people! — to address the problem of so many people taking up so much space (sorry, critical habitat) and using so much stuff, EPA and the Vice President have decided that "A systematic review of how a wide range of Federal policies affect the development of urban, suburban, and rural America is long overdue." They also can't resist citing carbon (sic) emissions as a reason to revamp policies with an eye toward telling people how to live. Green Jobs and a Green Economy Will Fail Like Van Jones. Van Jones perpetuated the view that environment and climate change are ideal vehicles for advancing total government control. In 1993 former Senator Timothy Wirth, now Director of the UN Foundation, said, "We've got to ride the global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing, in terms of economic policy and environmental policy." Italics in original. Reducing Vehicle Travel Won't Make Much Dent in Greenhouse Gas Emissions. A highly publicized July report by the Urban Land Institute, titled Moving Cooler, also called for policies reducing the vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by people in their cars. The reductions would be forced by highly intrusive land use policies allowing for only minor expansion of roadway capacity and forcing almost all new development to be within existing urban footprints. It would employ such radical strategies as forcing people to pay $400 per year to park their cars in front of their own homes. The Editor says... Allow me to simplify this issue: Leftist politicians want to raise taxes and restrict your freedoms in order to solve a problem that doesn't exist. The Green Nazi Hell and America's Future? When the Nazis seized power, environmentalism was surprisingly given a premier role in 1933-35. In fact, the Nazis passed the most progressive environmental laws found anywhere in the world at the time. The first was a law for the protection of animals called Tierschutzrecht, which forbid cruel experiments on animals, not to mention Jewish ritual slaughter. On the other hand... Save the planet: time to eat dog? The eco-pawprint of a pet dog is twice that of a 4.6-litre Land Cruiser driven 10,000 kilometres a year, researchers have found. Victoria University professors Brenda and Robert Vale, architects who specialise in sustainable living, say pet owners should swap cats and dogs for creatures they can eat, such as chickens or rabbits, in their provocative new book Time to Eat the Dog: The real guide to sustainable living. GE's 'net-zero energy home' scam. Beware: green or clean energy — whatever you want to call it — is the new snake oil. It's sad that the only sort of energy innovation occurring today is based more on financial shenanigans (cost-shifting, subsidies and worse) than technologies to produce more energy at less cost. Greening the Capitol. [Scroll down] In fact, getting any sort of cost-benefit analysis out of Green the Capitol is difficult at best. ... But if you do some digging on the site you can download the report submitted to Congress giving the details of the initiative. Buried 30 pages into the 60-page report is this pertinent information: In 2006, the House's energy costs amounted to $15 million. In 2008, after the implementation of Green the Capitol, the House was spending over $20 million. What Green Jobs? President Obama devoted nearly $60 billion of his stimulus package to building a new green-based economy rich in renewable energy and strategies to cut carbon. But despite the price tag, not one green job yet exists. It comes down to a problem of etymology. No one can yet agree on what a green job actually is. The Myth of the Expert. For some reason government scientists like Dr. [Phil] Jones that get millions in government research grants are considered to be disinterested experts. Yet anyone who has ever taken a dime from an oil company is bought and paid for. Of course that is nonsense. To politicians, scientists are just another interest group competing for favors. It's pay to play. To get their grant money scientists need to deliver science that helps argue for bigger government. And they do, especially in the climate sciences. The Alice in Wonderland World of the Greens. An irrational fear of 'climate apocalypse' has driven nature-worshipping green ideologues in every age generation. Being inherently anti-capitalist they care little whether their demands threaten to bankrupt modern economies, or deny poorer nations the same cheap, hydro-carbon powered industrialization path out of poverty taken by developed nations. For Green World, preposterous self-righteous claims are morally self-evident, Real World facts and reason mere irrelevancies. In Search of an Intelligent Energy Policy. No responsible energy policy can go forward that is rooted in the belief that man-made carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions significantly contribute to global warming or "climate change" as it is now called. This article will address data from the historical temperature record as well as climate models that refute the theory that CO2 causes or to a large extend amplifies climate change. Based on the following data it appears that the only thing consistent about the climate is that it is always changing. Green nonsense. Waxman-Markey contains unpleasant surprises for Americans, including a provision which could prevent homeowners from selling their homes if they aren't retrofitted to meet federal "green" guidelines. But the House passed the 1,400-page bill before its members had an opportunity to read it, much less ponder its implications. Let's pray the Senate is more responsible. Phosphate phaseout has dishwasher soap makers scrambling for an alternative. Automatic dishwasher detergents with phosphates have handled a lot of dirty plates over the years, but new laws aimed at making the soaps easier on the environment are putting that to an end, and the industry hasn't been this agitated in years. Environmentalist Economic Strangulation. [Scroll down slowly] This green agenda is more than absurd, it is sinister. The real goal of greens is not "clean energy" but less energy. Energy is essential to economic progress, and many greens want to halt and reverse economic progress. Some radical greens have praised Fidel Castro for de-developing Cuba. Al Gore wrote in his book Earth in the Balance that U.S. policy should aim for slower economic growth. President Obama's chief science advisor John Holdren's top two environmental goals are to shrink the human population and to slow economic growth. Just another myth used to steal your taxes. The reality is that folks are catching on to the fact that man-made global warming is a hoax, an inconvenient truth attested to by more and more scientists. Like any good con man, Obama wants to hurry the shakedown before his mark figures out his game. Democrats actually said that "if we do not act now, the climate will soon be out of our control." This, of course, raises the question: Just when was the climate ever under our control? This can happen here, too. Environment Agency Sets Up Green Police. The boys in green are coming as the Environment Agency sets up a squad to police companies generating excessive CO2 emissions. The agency is creating a unit of about 50 auditors and inspectors, complete with warrant cards and the power to search company premises to enforce the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), which comes into effect next year. Cap and Trade: Political Alchemy, Economy Buster and Disaster for Poor. During recent years, with the support of radical environmentalists, a form of political alchemy is being foisted upon the public. ... During the last two decades, liberals have developed a way to demonize fossil-burning fuels. This strategy included the turning of carbon emissions into a commodity which can be assigned monetary value. The regulation of essential elements of life. The EPA is now considering designating CO2 a dangerous pollutant. The regulation of essential elements of life by our government scares me. It should scare us all. I am devastated by the notion that our own government founded on freedom would regulate and control the most fundamental aspects of life on earth. ... We generally have too much water where we don't need it and too little where we do. Are you planning to regulate water also? ... Carbon dioxide is just as essential to life as water and oxygen. Carbon dioxide is no more a pollutant than oxygen or water. Communist U.N. Boss Praises "Mother Earth". Our media haven't found much time to cover the U.N. Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis underway at the world organization's headquarters in New York. But the Obama White House is working hand-in-glove with a Communist Catholic Priest who gave a bizarre speech on Wednesday devoted to saving "Mother Earth" from evil capitalists. Lovely Organic Oil. Environmentalists sit in their cozy air conditioned offices attempting to figure out something to do to raise money and keep their marketing businesses alive, so we are bombarded daily about catastrophes suppositions and wild what if scenarios. We are told about all the things that we should do to be "mainstream" and friendly to our planet. If you didn't know better you would think that plastic bags were sent from some evil alien planet to destroy us all, but this (just in case you were not sure) is not the case. Chicken Little Lays Egg. Ever since global warming made the leap from scientific theory to purported scientific law, there has been a shortage of discussion on the effects of the policies aimed to combat it. It is presupposed that if we want to solve this "climate crisis," we must ratify treaties such as Kyoto, shut down coal plants and not invest in any more oil refineries. The ramifications of doing so could be disastrous for America. The Ecopalypse, 96 Months Away? Capitalism is liberating: You're born a peasant but you don't have to die one. You can work hard and get a nice place in the suburbs. If you were a 19th century Russian peasant and you got to Ellis Island, you'd be living in a tenement on the Lower East Side, but your kids would get an education and move uptown, and your grandkids would be doctors and accountants in Westchester County. And your great-grandchild would be a Harvard-educated environmental activist demanding an end to all this electricity and indoor toilets. Environmentalism opposes that kind of mobility. It seeks to return us to the age of kings when the masses are restrained by a privileged elite. Why Anti-Growth Activism Does Not Help the Environment. Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) is closing down an El Dorado county sawmill that has been around since 1889. SPI will also close another sawmill and electric power plant in Tuolome county. Two more SPI mills in Plumas and Humbolt counties will also close, leaving hundreds of workers without jobs. One reason for the closings is the drop in new-home construction. Anti-growth activists will be happy about the shutdowns, part of their stance known as BANANA — Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone. EPA Endangerment Finding for CO2. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued its proposed "Endangerment Finding" for emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases from new motor vehicles. If the finding is finalized, these emissions will be subject to technological limitations under the Clean Air Act and would trigger a cascade of regulations on virtually all sources of regulated greenhouse gases, from backyard weed whackers to massive electrical power plants. Eight Fallacies about Global Warming: The reality is that there is no clear evidence that human emissions of carbon dioxide have any measurable effect on temperatures. Such a claim rests on climate models of unproven accuracy and on lines of physical argument that expressly exclude consideration of other known important drivers of climate change. ... At its most basic, if scientists cannot be sure that temperatures are today rising, nor establish that the gentle late 20th century warming was caused by CO2 emissions, then it is nonsense to propose that expensive controls are needed on human carbon dioxide emissions. 'Job-Creating' Ordinance Makes Negligence of 'Green' Audit Criminal. The government is continuing to encroach on freedoms more and more in the name of climate change. Case in point: An ordinance that went into effect June 1 stating if you sell your home in Austin, Texas and you fail to get a clean energy "green" audit, you will likely face criminal charges. According to an ordinance passed by the Austin City Council in November 2008, any home 10 years or older will require an "Energy Conservation Audit. In Australia: Government's switched on energy move. All Australian homes will soon have to undergo a mandatory energy-efficiency assessment costing up to $1500 per property. The assessment has to be done before any property can be sold or rented under new laws to tackle carbon emissions. U.S. Energy and Climate Plans Would Drag Us Back to 1905 — or 1862. President Obama wants to prevent "runaway global warming," by slashing U.S. carbon dioxide emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. According to Oak Ridge National Laboratory data, this reduction would return the United States to emission levels last seen in those halcyon days of 1905. But America's 1905 population was 84 million, versus 308 million today. We didn't drive or fly, or generate electricity for offices, factories, schools or hospitals. To account for those differences, we'd have to send CO2 emissions back to 1862 levels. Environmental red tape hurts families in California Fish Don't Vote. The Republican Party has long been fishing for an issue that will reach out to Hispanic and other minority voters. Now, a three-inch fish may be the key to establishing common ground between that voting bloc and the GOP. Land Grab, Air Grab, Water Grab — S 787. The CWA (Clean Water Act) regulates point source pollution discharges into "waters of the United States." The United States Supreme Court has interpreted the phrase "waters of the United States" to exclude isolated waters, such as ponds, intermittent streams, and wetlands which do not have a "significant nexus" to a navigable waterway. These bodies of water are not regulated by the CWA. S 787 would change the CWA to significantly broaden the scope of the bill. S.F. OKs toughest recycling law in U.S. Throwing orange peels, coffee grounds and grease-stained pizza boxes in the trash will be against the law in San Francisco, and could even lead to a fine. The Board of Supervisors voted 9-2 Tuesday [6/9/2009] to approve Mayor Gavin Newsom's proposal for the most comprehensive mandatory composting and recycling law in the country. It's an aggressive push to cut greenhouse gas emissions and have the city sending nothing to landfills or incinerators by 2020. Rain or Shine, Environmentalists Want to Control Us. This is the winter of environmentalists' discontent. They desperately want the earth to be warming to prove Al Gore's truth inviolate and they are going to make you pay thousands of dollars for it no matter whether it's true or not. But the weather has been inconveniently cold. The Climate-Industrial Complex. Some business leaders are cozying up with politicians and scientists to demand swift, drastic action on global warming. This is a new twist on a very old practice: companies using public policy to line their own pockets. The Geography of Carbon Emissions. No American city is among the top 50 cities in the world for air pollution according to the World Bank. Another list, 'The Top Ten of the Dirty Thirty,' compiled by the Blacksmith Institute of New York compared the toxicity of contamination, the likelihood of it getting into humans and the number of people affected. Places were bumped up in rank if children were impacted. No US or European sites made the list. Activists Motivated by Power, EU's Klaus Tells ICCC. Environmental activists are less concerned about any crisis posed by global warming than they are eager to command human behavior and restrict economic activity, the president of the Czech Republic told the opening session of the second International Conference on Climate Change. Vaclav Klaus, who also is serving a rotating term as president of the European Union, triggered the approving applause of about 700 attendees when he said, "Their true plans and ambitions: to stop economic development and return mankind centuries back." What Europeanization Will Really Mean: Since Mr. Obama and his friends would like us to be more like Europeans, my wife and I recently went on a great explore to find out what life is really like in Europe and what changes we should expect. Get out your bike because you will soon be riding it everywhere. That means you too, Grandma — no exceptions. The best way to cut down on that nasty CO2 is to chuck your cars and get on a two-wheeler. Of course, after a couple years with the government running two of our three major car companies, a bicycle may become an attractive alternative. An All-Out Deification of Nature. Since the introduction of bumper stickers calling for us to respect "Mother Earth," we have been careening towards an all-out deification of nature. And as the last decade has witnessed an unprecedented push for green cars, green energy, and green government policies, it seems environmentalism has finally become less about saving the planet and more about worshiping it. ... There is an undeniable infatuation with nature in our post-modern culture, and like all infatuations, this one causes people to rush to support solutions that are flatly outlandish in their claims. Green hysteria shackles our economic growth. I am surprised so many people in Europe, the US and elsewhere have come to support policies underpinned by hysteria over global warming, particularly cap-and-trade legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions and subsidies for "green" energy sources. I am convinced this is a misguided strategy — not only because of the uncertainty about the dangers that global warming might pose, but also because of the certainty of the damage that policies aimed at mitigation will cause. The Annual Green Orgy: Earth Day. On Earth Day we will have been engulfed by the avalanche of "Green" propaganda that preceded it, fills the day, and then continues relentlessly thereafter. When I say "propaganda", I am being polite. Much of the foundation of the environmental movement is pure lies, mind boggling distortions of questionable "science", and a thin veneer for the entire purpose of environmentalism, the imposing of a one-world agenda for the enrichment of a few who dream of a monopolistic control of the world's resources and its human work force. California adopts first regulation to limit greenhouse gas emissions from fuel. California took aim today at the oil industry and its effect on global warming, adopting the world's first regulation to limit greenhouse gas emissions from the fuel that runs cars and trucks. The state Air Resources Board voted 9-1 in favor of the complex new rule, which is expected to slash the state's gasoline consumption by a quarter in the next decade. Out West, Catching Raindrops Can Make You an Outlaw. Every raincloud that passes over her eastern Colorado ranch tempts state Rep. Marsha Looper to break the law. A long, hard drought has settled across the land, and on those rare occasions when the sky opens, Ms. Looper longs to set out some rain barrels to collect the bounty for future use. She'd like to use the rain to grow hothouse tomatoes. But she refrains. "I don't want to get thrown in jail," she explains. California May Ban Black Cars. The California legislature is considering regulating the color of cars and reflectivity of paint to reduce the energy requirements to cool them. ... The problem isn't the color per se, but the reflectivity of the paint overall. And dark colors just don't reflect well, so they are likely out. "Jet black remains an issue," says the report. Update: California Car Paint Proposal Parked For Now. California has backed down from a proposal on new cars' paint coatings. The state said it's looking for ways to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions by improving cars' efficiency. One way to do that is by making cars more reflective so that their air-condition systems don't have to work as hard. Public Land Mismanagement and Environmental Irresponsibility. Decades of fire suppression by the Forest Service have disrupted natural fire cycles and turned many western forests into tinderboxes waiting to burn. Dense stands of spindly deadfall and underbrush now occupy land once characterized by open savannahs and large, widely spaced trees. One result is larger, more intense fires that burn the publicly owned forests to the ground. Indeed, by the Forest Service's own estimates, 90 to 200 million acres of federal forests are at high risk of burning in catastrophic fire events. California appears poised to be first to ban power-guzzling big-screen TVs. The influential lobby group Consumer Electronics Assn. is fighting what appears to be a losing battle to dissuade California regulators from passing the nation's first ban on energy-hungry big-screen televisions. California considering banning giant TVs. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state's governor, has supported controversial proposals by the California's energy commission to impose strict energy consumption limits on TVs with screens that are more than 40 inches wide. The commission claims that California's estimated 35 million televisions and related gadgets account for about 10 percent of household energy consumption in the state. California To Ban TV: But Not For a Good Reason. Why is the California Energy Commission (CEC), a Gov. Jerry Brown creation, wanting to ban television sets? Well, it seems that a honking 48-inch plasma screen, that bright symbol of the bygone days of conspicuous consumption and purveyor of drooling vacuity, uses too much electricity, and electricity production makes too much greenhouse gas emissions (at least in America, where half of our electricity comes from coal — in France, a plasma screen would emit nary a CO2 molecule as the TVs there are nuclear powered). Green economics: It just doesn't add up. Green jobs will grow the unemployment rolls, concludes a study at Juan Carlos University in Madrid. Every green job created ploughs under 2.2 jobs elsewhere in the economy, and that doesn't account for the indirect job losses to come of the higher energy prices that accompany green energy technologies: Companies can be counted on to flee this green, or should we say gangrene, economy. The Myth of 5 Million Green Jobs. [Scroll down] The central finding of the study is that — treating the data optimistically — for every renewable-energy job that the government finances, "Spain's experience reveals with high confidence, by two different methods, that the U.S. should expect a loss of at least 2.2 jobs on average, or about 9 jobs lost for every 4 created." Despite expensive and extensive green-job policies, a surprisingly low number of jobs were created. And about two-thirds of those "green" jobs were just to set up the energy source, in construction, fabrication, installation, marketing and administration. Only 10 percent of the green jobs created were permanent jobs actually operating and maintaining the renewable sources of energy. Ruling hands greens a setback. The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday [4/1/2009] that federal environmental regulators can use cost-benefit analysis techniques when deciding how to upgrade equipment at power plants, a defeat for green groups who want the impact on the environment to be the chief or only consideration. The 6-3 ruling strikes down a victory for the Riverkeepers environmental group, which had persuaded the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that cost should not matter in its bid to require companies to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in system upgrades to meet what it claimed were Environmental Protection Agency regulations. California Gas Stations Shut Under Expensive Mandate. Nearly 100 California gas stations are being forced out of business by a statewide mandate requiring them to implement expensive new equipment to reduce vapor emissions at the pump. The mandate, issued by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), is known as Phase II of the state's Enhanced Vapor Recovery program. It requires gas station owners to purchase and install devices to prevent vapors from escaping when customers fill their cars. Hayward begins ticketing for smoking in public. Lighted cigarettes meant lightened purses and wallets for smokers who were caught puffing in public this week, as the city began enforcement of a smoking ban that technically went into effect last summer. The law, passed by the City Council last May, mandates a $50 fine for smoking on sidewalks, streets and other public places, including a 20-foot no smoking zone around outdoor patio areas of restaurants and bars, as well as parks, sports fields, playgrounds and municipal parking lots. That zone also applies to windows, doors and ventilation ducts. Pelosi's Toy Story: Under a new law set to go into effect February 10, unsold toys, along with bikes, books and even children's clothing are destined for the scrap heap due to an overzealous law to increase toy safety. The damage comes from new rules governing lead in children's products. After last year's scare over contaminated toys made in China, Congress leapt in to require all products aimed at children under 12 years old to be certified as safe and virtually lead-free by independent testing. California's 'Green Jobs' Experiment Isn't Going Well. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was all smiles in 2006 when he signed into law the toughest anti-global-warming regulations of any state. Mr. Schwarzenegger and his green supporters boasted that the regulations would steer California into a prosperous era of green jobs, renewable energy, and technological leadership. Instead, since 2007 — in anticipation of the new mandates — California has led the nation in job losses. Green power's hidden agenda: Wind, solar, and geothermal, by contrast, are the most expensive alternatives to coal. A kilowatt of power from such renewables typically costs about ten times as much as a kilowatt from coal — and more than six times as much as a kilowatt from nuclear or hydropower. Alternative energy promoters, including former vice president Al Gore, promise that these prices will decline if only the government subsidizes the necessary technological innovation. Those promises have not come true over the past three decades, and it's extremely unlikely that they ever will. The 100-Meter Gasp. The Beijing Olympics [exposed] the environmentalist fraud that the U.S. is the world's biggest polluter. Compared with China, we get the gold medal for energy efficiency. The Great Global Warming Swindle. I have followed green politics for a while now. ... It is transparently obvious that the greens sit squarely in the tradition of Romanticism. Like the romantics, they hate industry, love nature, idealise peasant life, they think capitalism is wicked, they think people in modern society lead depraved shallow lives and have forgotten the true value of things, they don't like cars or supermarkets or lots of proles taking cheap long-haul holidays, etc, etc. Environmental Myths Masterfully Debunked: Greener Than Thou, the new book by Terry L. Anderson and Laura E. Huggins of the Hoover Institution, ... debunks four environmental myths: 1. No price for environmental purity is too high. 2. Materialism and concern for nature cannot coexist. 3. Constraining markets and the use of private property protects the environment. 4. Malthusian population growth will outstrip resources. Suddenly being green is not cool any more. Julie Burchill can't stand them. According to her new book, Not in my Name: A Compendium of Modern Hypocrisy, she thinks all environmentalists are po-faced, unsexy, public school alumni who drivel on about the end of the world because they don't want the working classes to have any fun, go on foreign holidays or buy cheap clothes. Judge scales back ruling on roadless national forests. A federal magistrate judge ruled Tuesday [12/2/2008] that a Clinton-era ban against new road construction and development on millions of acres of national forest would apply only to 10 western states. Two years ago, Judge Elizabeth Laporte invalidated a 2005 Bush administration rule that overturned the 2001 "Roadless Rule," which protected 58.5 million acres of federal land in about 40 states. But in August, a federal judge in Wyoming invalidated President Bill Clinton's Roadless Rule, leading the Bush administration to request that the two judges modify their conflicting rulings. The Long Awaited Re-Emergence of the Silent Majority. Radical environmental legislation, in the form of endangered species acts, clean water acts, salmon recovery acts, inhibiting or outright prohibiting energy source extraction, power generation by any energy means, or the construction of oil refineries, and the fraud that is man-caused global warming in the form of CO2 emission limits and the insane cap and trade policies, has cutoff American creativity, ingenuity, industriousness and its envied economy, bringing the economy to its knees and rendering the United States a third-world country. Environmentalism: Freedom's Foe for the '90s. At the time of the first Earth Day in 1970, some young people, intimidated by the pace and complexity of modern life, were looking either to rebel or to retreat -- to tear down "the System," or to withdraw to nature for a "Colorado Rocky Mountain high." ... [T]hey preached the inherent goodness of untouched nature and undisciplined emotion; the corrupting influence of reason, culture, and civilization; economic egalitarianism and small-scale participatory democracy; the mystical infallibility of the collective will and the sacrifice of the individual to the group. And they were united in their hatred of a common enemy: modern American, capitalistic society. High cost of hitting climate panic button. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's handpicked global warming guru Ross Garnaut has issued his third apocalyptic theory unencumbered with any hard scientific evidence. Again, he calls for Australia to take a lead in controlling emissions though he admitted on ABC radio yesterday [9/30/2008] that any mitigating action taken by Australia to control so-called hothouse gases would have absolutely no effect on global climate change. Garnaut's prescription would however throw more Australians out of work even as Australia's economy wilts in the global economic meltdown. How the Greens Captured Energy Policy: Through its influence in the media and government (both bureaucracy and congress), the Greens effectively abolished nuclear power, curtailed domestic oil production, and left the American energy industry in the comatose state in which it abides to this day. Nor this was an error or overreaction — it was a deliberate effort to fulfill the Green agenda. California may adopt energy standards for new TVs. Many large TVs are energy hogs, however, and California regulators want to get the biggest offenders off store shelves. The California Energy Commission is expected to adopt rules this summer requiring retailers by 2011 to sell only TVs that meet guidelines of the federal Energy Star program, which is generally voluntary. The proposal includes labeling that tells California buyers how much of their utility bill goes to powering their flat-screen. The Editor says... Energy Star guidelines were voluntary. But that was just the first step. Naturally, California leads the way in the incremental march toward a mandatory environmental utopia. State considers ban on big screen TVs. In their continuing quest to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, state regulators have uncovered a new villain in the war on global warming: your big screen TV. Couch potatoes, beware. The California Energy Commission is considering a proposal that would ban California retailers from selling all but the most energy-efficient televisions. Critics say the news standards could take 25 percent of televisions off the market — most of them 40 inches or larger. Who Should Decide the Size of Your TV? As part of its effort to combat global warming, California is considering a proposal to regulate big-screen TVs off the market. Freedom, not climate, is at risk. As someone who lived under communism for most of his life, I feel obliged to say that I see the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity now in ambitious environmentalism, not in communism. The Environmentalists' Real Agenda: Once in a while the truth accidentally tumbles out on global warming activists' real agenda. That's exactly what happened at the U.N., when Bolivia's leader called for ending capitalism to save the planet. This sums up the global warming issue pretty well... Baby, Baby It's a Cold World. Global warming has nothing to do with climate or science. What it is all about is the great, historic class struggle between working people and the ruling classes. Global warming is a great excuse for a massive expansion of government power. That, not science, is why the overlords, from the New York Times to the United Nations to Al Gore, so heartily embrace it. The U.N. thinks global warming is a perfect reason for the U.N. to be transformed into a world government. Climate Reality Bites. Thankfully, the American system makes it hard for colossal tax and regulatory burdens to foxtrot into law without scrutiny. So we hope our politicians will take responsibility for the global-warming policies they say they favor. Or even begin to understand what they say they favor. For a bill as grandly ambitious as Warner-Lieberman, very few staff, much less Senators, even know what's in it. The press corps mainly cheerleads this political fad, without examining how it would work or what it would cost. Taking Us Back To Mud Huts And Loincloths. Time's Joe Klein probably thought he was being clever when he wrote his late June essay on the evils of cooling headlined "Kill Your Air Conditioner." Instead, he wrote yet another chapter in the left's book of environmental silliness. … Predictably, Klein believes Americans should sacrifice. Sounds noble, but he leaves out the part in which sacrifice slowly mutates into government rationing. Neither a Borrower Nor Lender Be. Liberalism, as an experiment against common sense, undermines every institution it touches, including financial ones. ... Indeed, given the choice between economic decline and political correctness, liberals always choose the former. To preserve the kangaroo rat, they will cut jobs. To advance faddish global warming theory, they will undercut whole industries. Testimony before a Texas Senate Hearing on Wind Turbines: Despite what activist groups and the renewable power industry may tell you, alternative power mandates will not create jobs or boost the state's economy. Indeed, simple common sense tells us that if a product makes economic sense, you don't have to subsidize it to make people produce it, and you don't have to put a gun to somebody's head to make him or her purchase it. Australian homeowners may be forced to turn houses green before sale. The Master Builders Association wants laws to make it compulsory for owners of all existing homes to meet minimal environmental standards before they are allowed to sell them. Spy planes with thermal imaging camera to snoop on homes wasting energy. Our movements are already tracked by CCTV, speed cameras and even spies in dustbins. Now snooping on the pubis has reached new heights with local authorities putting spy planes in the air to snoop on homeowners who are wasting too much energy. Thermal imaging cameras are being used to create colour-coded maps which will enable council officers to identify offenders and pay them a visit to educate them about the harm to the environment and measures they can take. A scheme is already underway in Broadland District Council in Norfolk, which has spent £30,000 hiring a plane with a thermal imaging camera. Eco town dwellers may be monitored for green habits. Residents of the planned eco towns in England could face strict monitoring of their travel habits, home insulation and even wasted food, to ensure they are truly living a "green" lifestyle. Experts advising the government on its plans to build up to 10 eco towns by 2020, yesterday called for ministers to toughen environmental standards for the developments with monitoring to ensure their carbon footprint is three times smaller than the British average. British government sending heat detector vans to snoop on 'wasters'. Town halls are photographing houses in the middle of the night to see whether they are wasting energy. The thermal images, which show heat escaping though windows, doors and roofs, will be sent to homeowners to encourage them to insulate. Tens of thousands of properties have been photographed over the past few months and there are plans to extend the scheme to every house in the country. Aircraft may spot energy wasters in Australia. The Christchurch City Council says it may "shame" people into more energy-efficient ways by using an aircraft with infra-red imaging to identify poorly-insulated houses. The proposed aerial thermal imaging map is part of an ambitious plan to slash Christchurch's $1.6 billion annual energy bill and cut energy use by every city resident by 9 percent. The scheme will be rolled out this winter. Going green means having green to spend. The dirty secret of the environmental movement is how indifferent it can be to the poor. Consider the widespread ban on DDT. As environmental groups celebrated the recovery of bald eagles, parents in poor countries buried 20 million children who died from the ensuing malaria outbreak. Now we see another crisis looming from the fight against global warming. Food riots are breaking out in poor countries as motorists in wealthy countries burn grains and oils in gas tanks. We are green for one simple reason: We can afford it. California threat to sue US govt over ship, aircraft emissions. California said Thursday [8/31/2008] it planned to sue the US government for failing to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from ships, aircraft, construction and agricultural equipment. In the latest legal threat from the state against the Environmental Protection Agency, California's Attorney General Jerry Brown said the body was "wantonly ignoring" its duty to set pollution standards. Inhofe Report Exposes Environmental Groups as 'Massive Democratic Political Machines'. U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, today released an updated comprehensive investigation into the financial and political activities employed by charitable and environmental organizations claiming to be non-partisan. Here is the full report: Political Activity of Environmental Groups and their Supporting Foundations. Following the League of Conversation Voters' endorsement of Senator John Kerry for President, The Hill, a Capitol Hill publication, published an article featuring the financial connection between the League of Conservation Voters and Heinz family foundations. The article further featured the connections between the League of Conservation Voters and other well-known environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council and Environmental Defense and their financial links to Heinz family foundations as well. North America's first carbon tax rolls out under fire. Civic leader Scott Nelson says he is as worried as anyone about global warming, but that does not make him happy to be one of the first North Americans to pay a carbon tax to curb climate change. The Editor says... Well, then Mr. Nelson should quit bellyaching about one or the other. Here's a clue: One is a big problem and the other is not. First In Nation 'Pollution Fee' Coming To SF. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District's board of directors on Wednesday [5/21/2008] approved new rules to charge businesses a fee for the pollution they emit. The group's board of directors voted 15-1 on unprecedented new rules that will impose fees on factories, power plants, oil refineries and other businesses that emit carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases. Certain dishwashing detergents to be banned in Whatcom County. Starting July 1, all dishwasher detergents for sale in Whatcom County can't contain more than 0.5 percent phosphorus. The new law affects only detergents for automatic dishwashers, such as Electrasol and Cascade. No driveway carwashes, Washington state says. Along with wild salmon and steelhead trout, the Pacific Northwest soon may have another endangered species — the driveway carwash. Washing your car or boat in the driveway or street is a residential ritual as American as backyard barbecues. But the state of Washington is telling its local governments they must prohibit home car washing unless residents divert the wash water away from storm drains, where they say it causes water pollution. San Francisco's $100 fine for visible recycling bins: San Francisco residents, already facing some of the highest housing prices and parking fines in the nation, now have a new nightmare to watch out for — $100 tickets if their garbage or recycling cans can be seen from the street. … Under a law passed two years ago by the Board of Supervisors, it's no longer good enough just to get your cans off the sidewalk once they've been emptied — you have to get them out of sight as well. Completely out of sight. Seattle Imposes Stricter Mandate for Recycling. The City of Seattle has announced a new program requiring residents to increase recycling of food scraps, plastics, and other materials not currently covered in the city's recycling mandate. The new plan will create a significant increase in garbage pickup prices. … Seattle currently requires residents to recycle certain materials, including paper and some types of plastic. If either the trash collector or a City of Seattle inspector believes more than 10 percent of the content of a trash bin is recyclable, they can flag the can and refuse to pick up the trash. Los Angeles to experiment with table-scrap collection. First it was bottles and cans. Then it was cardboard and lawn clippings. And next month, Los Angeles officials will ask a select group of residents to reuse coffee grounds, eggshells and other leftovers — by placing them in yet another recycling bin. Take Out the Trash Precisely, Now. It's the Law. When Gareth Corkhill, a bus driver, was fined $215 — and given a further $225 fine and a criminal record when he failed to pay — for leaving his garbage can lid slightly ajar this spring, Whitehaven's residents banded together in dismay. They raised the money to pay the fine, and they began to complain. Overfill your bin and you'll be treated worse than a shoplifter. Families who overfill rubbish bins are to face bigger fines than those imposed on drunks or shoplifters, the government has told local authorities. New guidance instructs councils to impose fixed penalties of "not less than £75" and up to £110 in what the opposition has attacked as a "new stealth tax". S.F. mayor proposes fines for unsorted trash. Garbage collectors would inspect San Francisco residents' trash to make sure pizza crusts aren't mixed in with chip bags or wine bottles under a proposal by Mayor Gavin Newsom. And if residents or businesses don't separate the coffee grounds from the newspapers, they would face fines of up to $1,000 and eventually could have their garbage service stopped. Gang Green: Earlier this month, while visiting a friend in San Francisco, I almost spilled my latte in my lap when I read this on the front page of the Chronicle: "S.F. Mayor Proposes Fines for Unsorted Trash." The story began: "Garbage collectors would inspect San Francisco residents' trash to make sure pizza crusts aren't mixed in with chip bags or wine bottles under a proposal by Mayor Gavin Newsom." Isn't that what homeless people do -- rooting around in other people's garbage? Earth Day Is a Holiday For Liars. I have followed the apocalyptic claims and the legislated mandates of the environmental movement since the 1970s and their single unifying factor has been the lies told to achieve various elements the Green agenda. … By blocking access to energy such as the ban on oil extraction in ANWR or off the coasts of the United States, by lobbying against the building of coal-fired and nuclear electricity generation plants, by arguing for inefficient, highly subsidized solar and wind alternatives, Greens are creating a national energy crisis. Climate alarmists pose real threat to freedom. The climate alarmists believe in their own omnipotency, in knowing better than millions of rationally behaving men and women what is right or wrong. … We have to restart the discussion about the very nature of government and about the relationship between the individual and society. We need to learn the uncompromising lesson from the inevitable collapse of communism 18 years ago. It is not about climatology. It is about freedom. Climate rhetoric does not justify bad policy. Like the spices that have been used since ancient times to hide the flavor of spoiled meat, a liberal reference to 'stopping climate change' has become the perfect ingredient to hide bad public policy. Speech writers sprinkle the oratory of politicians with repeated allusion to 'stabilizing climate' and other virtuous sounding, but impractical green rhetoric whenever they want to avoid serious debate. The Little Car that Environmentalists Love to Hate. Car A gets a fuel efficiency of 46 miles per gallon. Car B gets about 50 miles per gallon. Car A is called the Toyota Prius and is hailed by environmentalists as a step towards solving global warming. Car B, a new car called the Tata Nano unveiled by an Indian company, is reviled by environmentalists as disastrous for global warming. The New York Times devotes an entire editorial condemning the Tata Nano. Columnist and author Tom Friedman calls for the Tata Nano to be "taxed like crazy." The reason for this extreme criticism? The Tata Nano is cheap — very cheap. It is a revolutionary new car design that will cost only about $2,500 and will bring car ownership within reach of millions of new people in the developing world. Why I Left Greenpeace: At first, many of the causes we championed, such as opposition to nuclear testing and protection of whales, stemmed from our scientific knowledge of nuclear physics and marine biology. But after six years as one of five directors of Greenpeace International, I observed that none of my fellow directors had any formal science education. They were either political activists or environmental entrepreneurs. Ultimately, a trend toward abandoning scientific objectivity in favor of political agendas forced me to leave Greenpeace in 1986. The Greenpeace Scam: In the early 1990s, an encyclopedic book, Trashing the Economy, by Ron Arnold and Alan Gottlieb, closely examined the many environmental organizations, including Greenpeace. It was and is quite revealing, noting that Greenpeace was founded in 1971 by a group of draft dodgers living in Vancouver, Canada. "Confrontation, civil disobedience, inflammatory lies and physical harassment are Greenpeace's methods ..." Greenpeace gained fame protesting the whaling industry and went on to attack the timber industry. Time to grow up. Greenpeace, in addition to wanting economies to be fair and for us to quit using limited resources … also wants "an energy revolution" to stop climate change, disarmament (I know, that one's always good for a giggle) and to change farming practices that actually feed people to "socially and ecologically responsible" farming. Say hello to the $10 loaf of bread. Lights out? The recent campaign urging people to turn off their lights was a futile gesture by environmentalists. … Measuring the avoided climate impact for the indefinite future, the entire combined efforts of the queen, many companies, and the city halls of Copenhagen and other cities yielded $20 worth of good. When 'green' is shorthand for environmental idiocy: Consider the recent "lights out" campaign … the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) quickly called it an amazing success. Newspapers around the world dutifully wrote feel-good stories about how engaged environmentalists celebrated as the lights went out around the world. Nobody, it seemed, wanted to spoil the party by pointing that the event was immensely futile, that it highlighted a horrible metaphor, or that it caused much higher overall pollution. Earth Hour all sour. During Earth Hour — from 8 to 9 p.m. last Saturday — we were all supposed to turn out our lights and quit using energy because … because … using energy is bad. If ever there was a stunt that revealed the true nature of the radical environmentalists, this was it. Earth Hour was a preview of what they want for us on a 24/7 basis. They want us to: Sit in the dark. Not watch TV. Let our dirty clothing fester in filthy piles. Allow bacteria to grow on our used dinner dishes. Live like some savage in a reed hut located somewhere unpleasant. The Real Meaning of Earth Hour: Earth Hour is intended to showcase public concern about global warming and to inspire people to take practical actions to reduce their "carbon footprints." But it is far from indisputable that we face any sort of planetary crisis. Predictions of catastrophic global warming have long been disputed, and continue to be disputed, by numerous serious scientists skeptical of the global warming "consensus." Furthermore, what is never mentioned is the fact that reducing greenhouse gases to the degree sought by global warming activists would, itself, cause great harm. Sit in the Dark — or Power to the People? Which is the better answer to the world's growing energy requirements: feel good gestures or creating new energy sources that can feed our needs? Being an incurable right wing redneck whacko, I tend to favor finding solutions that actually do something. Feel good gestures such as turning out your lights and sitting in the dark for an hour (as in the recent "Earth Hour") may save us some energy — though media reports said electrical consumption in my city actually went up during Earth Hour — but it doesn't address the real problems of a growing society that requires ever-increasing amounts of electricity in order to power the machines that make our civilization possible. Seven Environmental Catastrophes Liberals Don't Want You to Know About: The liberal environmental movement takes for granted that strict government regulation and public ownership is necessary for the preservation of the environment. Yet who, in the end, is responsible for the great environmental catastrophes of the recent past? According to Iain Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the real answer is: environmentalists themselves. They Mean To Bug Ya: Greenies promote entomophagy. A May 29th Time magazine article extolling the virtues of "entomophagy," or bug-eating, has drawn a few snickers from conservative commentators. When viewed in the context of a broader public relations campaign, however, it becomes apparent that it won't be laughed off so easily. … In the Far East, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, they tell us, bugs are often seen as a delicacy. Dump Cars, Nix Air Travel, Climate Alarmists Say. "The car is doomed," says Damon Honnery, an associate professor at Australia's Monash University. In an interview with the Melbourne newspaper The Age, Prof. Honnery [says] car travel should be cut by 80 percent, road construction halted, air travel drastically cut, and public transport boosted if Australia is to meet carbon emission targets set by the Kyoto Protocol. Why daylight saving time is bad for the environment: The annual time change has long been sold as a way to save energy, but the opposite might be true. Always sold as a conservation measure, the practice of daylight savings actually jacked electricity use in homes across one central U.S. state by up to four percent, according to a new American study. California's Potemkin Environmentalism: [Governor] Schwarzenegger's reputation as an environmental trailblazer is in keeping with California's recent history and self-perception. … In truth, however, the Golden State's energy leadership is a mirage. California's environmental policies have made it heavily dependent on other states for power; generated some of the highest, business-crippling energy costs in the country; and left it vulnerable to periodic electricity shortages. Its economic growth has occurred not because of, but despite, those policies, which would be disastrous if extended to the rest of the country. Laurel, Maryland Considers Ban on Dry Cleaning Chemical. The city of Laurel, Maryland is considering a ban on the most efficient and inexpensive dry cleaning chemical, even as a similar ban in California is chasing dry cleaners there out of business. Perchloroethylene, known simply as "perc" in the dry cleaning industry, is the primary chemical used in more than 80 percent of the nation's dry cleaning businesses. Environmental group files lawsuit over fire retardant. Fire retardant has an impact on the environment, according to the nonprofit Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, and so the organization is challenging the U.S. Forest Service's decision to continue using the firefighting tool. Enemies of the Poor: The WWF, Greenpeace, Oxfam, Sierra Club, Rainforest Action Network and other multinational activist corporations battle mines in Romania, Peru, Chile, Ghana and Indonesia; electricity projects in Uganda, India and Nepal; biotechnology that could improve farm incomes and reduce malnutrition in Kenya, India, Brazil and the Philippines; and DDT that could slash malaria rates all over Africa, where it kills 3,000 children every day. Greenpeace Farming Plan Would Reap Environmental Havoc around the World. A new report from Greenpeace International, Cool Farming, includes organic farming recommendations that would impose severe hunger on half the world's humans or force the clearing of the world's remaining forests to plant more low-yield crops. Environmentalism's Dangerous Campaign for "Safety". Green Communism routinely uses any method of deception or propaganda it can to justify eliminating, or hampering US Industry and growth. Their goal is classic Marxism, the capture and management, even elimination of all means of production. The red menace is kind of green. The décor inside the national headquarters of the Communist Party USA, or CPUSA, is more Macy's than Marx. Glass walls rise from the floor to form state-of-the-art work spaces, nontoxic linseed oil burnishes the work surfaces, and biodegradable blue carpet is underfoot. … The Reds went "green" for their $1 million overhaul, including various environmentally conscious features in the design. The Seeds of the Global Warming Police State: Czech President Vaclav Klaus, drawing on his memories of Soviet oppression, recently declared that the global warming hysteria had replaced Communism as "the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy, and prosperity." The environmentalists continue to do their best to prove him right. The Gore Global Warming Agenda and our Energy Future: With the help of the Hollywood Elite and liberal friends in Congress such as Senator Barbara Boxer, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, this radical environmentalist agenda is gaining momentum towards legislation that would bring drastic change to our everyday lives. If Mr. Gore gets his way, Congress will likely push forward new taxes and restrictions on our energy consumption including a total ban on the incandescent light bulb and a moratorium on any new coal plants in the United States. Who Will Control Your Thermostat? In California, we have 236 pages of state-mandated standards for building energy efficiency, known as Title 24. … What should be controversial in the proposed revisions to Title 24 is the requirement for what is called a "programmable communicating thermostat" or PCT. Every new home and every change to existing homes' central heating and air conditioning systems will required to be fitted with a PCT beginning next year following the issuance of the revision. Each PCT will be fitted with a "non-removable " FM receiver that will allow the power authorities to increase your air conditioning temperature setpoint or decrease your heater temperature setpoint to any value they chose. During "price events" those changes are limited to ±4°F. and you would be able to manually override the changes. During "emergency events" the new setpoints can be whatever the power authority desires and you would not be able to alter them. In other words, the temperature of your home will no longer be yours to control. The Editor says... I can think of a couple of ways to defeat that FM receiver without touching it. And I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before some hacker figures out how to shut off (or turn on) every air conditioner in town. California Seeks Thermostat Control. Next year in California, state regulators are likely to have the emergency power to control individual thermostats, sending temperatures up or down through a radio-controlled device that will be required in new or substantially modified houses and buildings to manage electricity shortages. The Editor continues... Scroll down to the end of the article to see a quote from Nicole Tam, a spokeswoman for PG&E, who claims that the thermostat control signals are hacker-proof because they "are encrypted and encoded". What a relief! We all know that no encryption scheme has ever been cracked by hackers. California Proposes Taking Control of Thermostats. The California Energy Commission has proposed requiring thermostats that allow the government to control the temperature of homes and businesses in case of high energy prices or shortages, a measure that some critics are calling "draconian." States, environmental groups ask EPA to regulate plane emissions. A coalition of states and environmental groups is urging the federal government to curb global warming pollution from planes and other aircraft. California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia plan to file a petition Wednesday asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from domestic and foreign aircraft departing or landing at American airports. [They apparently assume that airplanes use fuel only during takeoff and landing.] Cool it! You can give birth. Good news! Kevin Rudd will next month stop global warming, so you won't have to cull your children, too. He'll sign that Kyoto Protocol, and pfft — problem gone. Such a relief, if a little late for Toni Vernelli, who works for PETA, the animal liberation group. Like all smart people, Vernelli believes in apocalyptic man-made global warming. But she's not an Al Gore hypocrite, flying around the world to tell mugs to cut the gases she's just blown out the back of her jet. Environmentalism's Outer Limits: Enviro-fanatics are sterilizing themselves to reduce their "carbon footprint." We dread where their nihilistic ideology — that mankind is an evil planetary force — will lead next. Handy ideas to make us green and mouldy. By now you'll be in a panic, wondering how to save yourself from the apocalypse to come. After all, when the Profit of Doom, Al Gore, says global warming risks "ending all human civilisation" you'll have figured it will take more than a few low-energy light bulbs to save us. Too right, so I've collected the best and most original tips of many experts on how to slash the gases they say are killing the planet. A New Environmentalist Manifesto: When I see enviro-luddites burning down homes and torching SUVs, when I see so many people transfixed on punitively taxing carbon and subsidizing allegedly better alternatives, when I see anti-intellectual hysteria over a degree Fahrenheit of global warming over a century's time, and when I see all sorts of anti-business taxes and regulations masquerading as necessary for the environment, I see a lot of negative unintended consequences. I see people standing in the way of progress. I tend to view today's collection of largest environmental interest groups, replete with anti-human population control worldview and socialist overtones, as — at best — neutral for the environment in the short term and terrible for the environment over the very long term. The Soylent wing of the Green movement examined. The enviroloonies seem to have found their way out of the asylum again: this time to tell us that 70 percent of Britons should die for the sake of Gaia. That's not quite the way they put it, of course. Sorry, no more babies. Eco-doctor's orders. Doctors have called time on big families. A recent editorial in the British Medical Journal talked of discouraging patients, on environmental grounds, from having too many children. The more people, the bigger the drain on global resources. 'Medieval Environmentalists' attack CO2 in their efforts to derail civilization. Why are carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, particularly the relatively small amount emitted by human activity, the sole focus of most climate change debates? In scientific circles, CO2 is referred to as a 'trace gas' that, for hundreds of thousands of years, has remained at or below five ten-thousandths of the atmosphere by volume. Even among the so-called 'greenhouse gases' (GHG), CO2 accounts for less that 4%, with water vapour being by far the most significant GHG. CO2 is clearly a miniscule component of the massive mechanisms that create climate and cause climate change. Film Exposes the 'Dark Side of Environmentalism': The one big advantage environmental activists have is the presumed purity of their motives. They claim they want only to protect the Earth from a few particularly greedy people, and they say their efforts benefit everybody. That's their story, anyway, and they're sticking to it. The reality is a far different matter…. Green Goodies: It's payback time for another left-leaning lobby. First came Big Labor. Then the tort lawyers. What special interest lobby remains for the Democratic majority to reward for services rendered this past election? The answer rests in the ecstatic press releases tumbling out of the nation's largest environmental groups, as they oversee the House's pending energy legislation. Green Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: There is little more annoying for a policy analyst than when two types of wrong-headedness conspire to undermine his case. Such is the case for policies driven by the pursuit of a pesticide free — or at least pesticide diminished — future, which will cause an increase in insect-borne disease. When this happens, as it surely will, climate alarmists will claim it's due to your greenhouse gas emissions, not their policies, and will press for more stringent controls. 'Green fatigue' leads to fear of backlash over climate change. In Britain, people have made no noticeable changes to their behaviour and are taking increased numbers of car journeys, going on more flights, pumping out more carbon dioxide and using more electricity to heat their homes. At the same time there is deep antagonism towards green taxes and the introduction of wind farms to the countryside to generate carbon-free electricity. Forest Reforms in the Crossfire. A small yet fanatical group of eco-activist groups who argue that forest thinning projects kill habitat and species are challenging efforts to prevent forest fires. Wildfires and environmental obstructionism: Environmentalists blame global warming for the problem, but guess who's standing in the way of a solution? Litigious environmentalists! Global Warming Is Not the Cause of the California Wildfires. Attempts by activists to make the ongoing California wildfires a global warming issue are patently ridiculous. The modest warming of the twentieth century has resulted in moister soil conditions and reduced drought frequency and severity. Arguing that global warming is causing more drought and wildfires is like arguing that increasing crop yields is causing more starvation. Our Burning Forests – the Legacy of Radical Environmentalism: Fire is nature's way of keeping conifer forests healthy, as even the Sierra Club is now belatedly beginning to comprehend. Without the small regular fires that we have been putting out in our forests for the last 100 years what we now have are forests overrun by brush that not only strangles the conifers but also changes the ecology of the conifer forests. Kennedy makes connection between democracy, environment. Appearing before a crowd of Westminster College students along with area residents Tuesday night [9/25/2007] as part of the second annual Symposium on Democracy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he was "really happy the connection has been made here between democracy and the environment. "The primary measurement of how effective a democracy is, is how they distribute the goods of the land," Kennedy said. The Editor says... Mr. Kennedy is either a socialist masquerading as a Democrat, or he is astonishingly ignorant. First of all, we do not live in a democracy, and secondly, the distribution of wealth — evenly or unevenly — is not the proper role of our government. Environmentalism is a religion It's not easy being green. Although it is clear that something can easily be both ridiculous and prominent, somehow I underestimated the staying power of environmentalism. I did so partly because I underestimated the mesmerizing power of this version of paganism on the collective consciousness of our secular elites: too sophisticated to subscribe openly to traditional religion but who nonetheless yearned for a token of spiritual uplift with which they could flatter themselves and impress others. The Danger of Environmentalism. A grave danger faces mankind. The danger is not from acid rain, global warming, smog, or the logging of rain forests, as environmentalists would have us believe. The danger to mankind is from environmentalism. The fundamental goal of environmentalism is not clean air and clean water; rather, it is the demolition of technological/industrial civilization. Environmentalism's goal is not the advancement of human health, human happiness, and human life; rather, it is a subhuman world where "nature" is worshipped like the totem of some primitive religion. Church of Green: At its core, environmentalism is a kind of nature worship. It's a holistic ideology, shot through with religious sentiment. "If you look carefully," author Michael Crichton observed, "you see that environmentalism is in fact a perfect 21st century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and myths." Environmentalism's most renewable resources are fear, guilt, and moral bullying. The Green Religion. Most people almost instinctually try their best to be responsible stewards of this earth's valuable natural resources. But the abrasive approach and militant tactics of many who fill the ranks of the environmentally conscious have led me to believe that the movement has gradually devolved into a kind of Religion. In fact, if we look closely at some of the social initiatives and assorted orbiting causes that are championed by the so called "green movement", one may discern some eerie similarities with some less well organized religions. Lord Lawson claims climate change hysteria heralds a 'new age of unreason'. [Scroll down] Lord Lawson closes on a note that others of us have struck in trying to puzzle out the deeper reasons for this great climate panic. He recognises that in many ways the global warming ideology has filled the vacuum left by the collapse of Marxism: "Green is the new red." He sees parallels with the apocalyptic visions held out by certain religious movements in the past. He is alarmed by the fanatical intolerance shown by many believers in global warming to any heretic who dares question their certainties. He ends by describing "the new religion of global warming" as "the Da Vinci Code of environmentalism. It is a great story and a best-seller. It contains a grain of truth and a mountain of nonsense." Global warming: the bogus religion of our age. What is so tragic is the way that this dubious ideology has achieved such dominance in our public life. Politicians love the green agenda, of course, because it means more control, more regulation, more taxes, more summits, and more opportunities for displays of self-important zeal. Origins of Environmental Religions: Green religion competes with old-style religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam. Environmentalists passionately believe its stories and predictions to be as accurate as fundamentalists view the Old and New Testaments or the Koran. While the old religions encouraged charitable activities toward others, the new Green religion grants dispensation by bicycling to work, recycling beer cans, and voting for the most "progressive" candidates. FNC's Wallace: 'Denier' Label Ascribes 'Religious Certainty' to Global Warming. Chris Wallace, host of "Fox News Sunday" is the latest in a long line of observers to note the essentially religious fervor of those who believe man is responsible for global warming, and the blind faith with which they cling to the science behind it. Why do intelligent people fall for fad science? [Scroll down] So why do so many intelligent people fall for these hoaxes? ... A lot of it is a need for religion among irreligious people. The idea of man's sins causing punishment by nature is nearly universal in the history of mankind. ClimateGate, the Green Dragon, and the End of Christianity. Dr. James Wanliss, Associate Professor of Physics at Presbyterian College, has written The Green Dragon, a book about how environmentalism is actually committed to "the reconstruction of a pagan world order" and "rejection of Christian spirituality." Wanliss argues that the environmental movement "is a religion with a vision of sin and repentance, heaven and hell. It even has a special vocabulary, with words like 'sustainability' and 'carbon neutral.' Its communion is organic food. Its sacraments are sex, abortion, and when all else fails, sterilization. Climate Change: The Religion of Copenhagen. During the recent COP-15 Conference in Copenhagen, the United Nations claimed it wanted to maintain religious neutrality. It was a lie. Global Warming is the established religion at these international events. ... Faith is belief without verifiable evidence. This unquestioned adherence to the theory of Global Warming bears all the markings of what traditionally would be recognized as a religion. Understanding the Global Warming Delusion. Computer models are practically the only "proof" that global warming alarmists have to support their theory and forecasts. How can scientists know that global warming is man-made and will be a crisis, while at the same time express deep skepticism towards the computer models that might support such beliefs? The answer is that they don't actually "know" global warming is man-made or will be a disaster; they "believe" this to be true. The Global Warming Religion: Manmade global warming, for many, is an Earth-worshipping religion. The essential feature of any religion is that its pronouncements are to be accepted on the basis of faith as opposed to hard evidence. Questioning those pronouncements makes one a sinner. ... One of the most dangerous features of the global warming religion is its level of intimidation of heretics or would-be heretics. The Heretics: Lord Christopher Monckton. Given the dogmatic fervor of global warming proponents, and their intolerance of skeptics who dare to question the latest commandment in the green scripture, it is perhaps no coincidence that the environmentalist movement sometimes seems to have more in common with theology than with science. The Environmentalism Fraud: [Scroll down] Today, one of the most powerful religions in the Western World is environmentalism. Environmentalism seems to be the religion of choice for urban atheists. Why do I say it's a religion? Well, just look at the beliefs. If you look carefully, you see that environmentalism is in fact a perfect 21st century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and myths. ... Increasingly it seems facts aren't necessary, because the tenets of environmentalism are all about belief. It's about whether you are going to be a sinner, or saved. Whether you are going to be one of the people on the side of salvation, or on the side of doom. Whether you are going to be one of us, or one of them. The Temperature at Which Global Warming Freezes. There is a kind of madness to walking through a blizzard, while wearing a thick coat and picking the moment to discuss Global Warming. A theory according to which we should be sliding toward the tropics, awash in fleeing polar bears and Florida style temperatures, instead of frantically shoveling our driveways. Such an attitude has very little to do with science, and a great deal to do with faith. Environmentalists Want You to Eat Bugs. Science has two speeds: "proven as fact" and "not sure." Like it or not, the scientific theory that humans are causing the Earth to warm is still in the "not sure" camp. Nonetheless, we're racing ahead in an anti-global-warming frenzy. Some global-warming advocates have turned the issue into a religion — the believers shall be exalted and the deniers shall be burned at the stake. Baby girl survives after being shot in the chest. A seven-month-old baby girl survived three days alone with a bullet in her chest beside the bodies of her parents and toddler brother. Argentines Francisco Lotero, 56, and Miriam Coletti, 23, shot their children before killing themselves after making an apparent suicide pact over fears about global warming. The New Paganism. As many commentators and "global warming skeptics" have observed, climate science has metamorphosed into a religion — or, more accurately, a cult in religious dress. It has its high priests (Al Gore, David Suzuki, James Hansen, Rajendra Pachauri), its sacred texts such as computer models whose inconsistencies and disparities are blithely ignored by the myriads of true believers, its prevailing orthodoxies that cannot safely be questioned or violated, and its Second Ecumenical Council of the Global Warming Vatican (after Kyoto), known as the Copenhagen Climate Conference. Do as our eco saviours say, not as they do. Take Al Gore. He is the world's loudest climate-change warrior. He believes the Earth is a "ticking time bomb". Or does he? Dogged reporters in the US make the point that Gore can't really be concerned about the planet because he has three homes, including one in Nashville with 20 rooms, eight bathrooms, a guesthouse and a pool. … Either the planet is coughing, spluttering, dying and in need of urgent action, or it isn't. Heather Mills Questions Why We Don't Drink Rats' Milk. Yesterday, Mills arrived at Speakers' Corner in London's Hyde Park to give a lecture on how eating meat and dairy is contributing to global warming and harming the earth. From the onset, Mills did her case absolutely no favors by arriving in a mileage-challenged Mercedes 4x4 SUV. Nice move. Once inside, she started her speech saying, "'Why don't we drink rats' milk, cats' milk or dogs' milk? The startling truth is that animals farmed for meat and dairy are now one of the greatest threats to the planet." Other sources for the same story: [1] [2] [3] [4] The Editor says... For some reason my neighborhood grocery store doesn't carry rats' milk. Maybe Heather should invest in a rat dairy, if she feels so strongly about it. The Green Counter-Establishment: How it Holds Power. The Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, and the National Wildlife Federation are examples of traditional conservation organizations that underwent a radical transformation during the rise of modern environmentalism. ... Whether through land deals, foundation grants, government funding, individual contributions or membership dues, the big environmental groups have found a way to stay big and rich. The Man Who Saw Tomorrow: [Warren] Brookes warned of Americans "being led in part by a dangerously shallow media to engage in the reckless regulatory pursuit of zero risk, and a flat-earth assault on science and technology" and a nation "more willing than ever to give up big benefits to control either imaginary or infinitesimal risks." "Just as the toddler on a tether is safer than the child running free," Brookes continued, "a risk-free society is one on a very tight leash." Governor's budget plan grows green staff. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's … latest budget proposal calls for no fewer than 211 greenhouse-gas busters to be sprinkled throughout state government, at an annual cost of $55.4 million. That's 77 more greenies than are on the payroll this year. The new jobs range from $36,000-a-year accounting technicians to $102,000-a-year attorneys to draft and enforce green regulations. Too costly to go green. [Scroll down] Certification standards for these green buildings may also end up putting a strain on the budgets of governments and businesses. The installation of low-flow faucets, shower heads and toilets could be particularly burdensome for small businesses, restaurants, laundromats and small retailers. The call for 75 percent to 90 percent of school classrooms to have a significant amount of windows to produce natural light. … The reduction of outdoor lighting, and the level of wattage used in outdoor lights, may be difficult for college campuses focusing on safety and security as a major priority. Seattle Mayor wants to curb landfill dependency — is recycling table scraps next? First, Seattleites were told to recycle glass, paper and aluminum, or risk having their garbage left on the curb. Now the city wants residents to recycle food scraps starting in 2009. Mayor Greg Nickels and City Councilmember Richard Conlin on Thursday proposed stricter rules for sorting trash as part of a comprehensive plan to raise the city's recycling goals and limit the amount of trash sent to landfills. City to require table-scrap recycling at homes in 2009. All single-family homes in Seattle must sign up for table-scrap recycling in 2009, the City Council decided Monday. While residents will have to pay for the service, the city will not check whether they are actually dumping food in the new separate bin. The Editor says... Oh no, they won't check. Not at first. But history shows us this kind of incremental change only goes in one direction. Within a few years, they'll start enforcing it more vigorously. S.F. mayor proposes fines for unsorted trash. Garbage collectors would inspect San Francisco residents' trash to make sure pizza crusts aren't mixed in with chip bags or wine bottles under a proposal by Mayor Gavin Newsom. And if residents or businesses don't separate the coffee grounds from the newspapers, they would face fines of up to $1,000 and eventually could have their garbage service stopped. An Inconvenient Truth or Convenient Fiction? No serious person is genuinely anti-environmental, and the obvious similarity between "conservative" and "conservation" suggests that in some ways care for the environment — or nature — is wholly compatible with conservative principles. And there are genuine environmental problems in the world; just because they are exaggerated by environmentalists or over-regulated by bureaucrats doesn't mean they don't exist or should be ignored. So it is important to take this issue back from the extremists and the mindless bureaucrats and apply sensible remedies to our genuine problems. 2008 Candidates Rely on Private Jets. A flock of small jets took flight from Washington Thursday [4/26/2007], each carrying a Democratic presidential candidate to South Carolina for the first debate of the political season. … No one jet pooled, no one took commercial flights to save money, fuel or emissions. Flighty Hill Changes Planes — Constantly. Jet-setting Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton is a fussy frequent flier who used three different planes in a single day during a recent campaign swing through South Carolina. The former first lady even grounded one aircraft — a chartered Gulfstream II — in Columbia, S.C., last Friday [4/27/2007], demanding a swankier Gulfstream III replacement for a flight out west. Unmasking Global Warming: The Case of Mikhail Gorbachev. It is as paradoxical as it is revealing that the man who now parades as an angel of ecological salvation is by virtue of his actions at Chernobyl and elsewhere responsible for more environmental destruction than any other person alive. The March Of The New Luddites: Global-warming alarmists now want to limit our use of toilet paper. What's next, one-room shacks with bamboo fences? Don't laugh. That's also on their list of recommendations. California Hotels Go Green With Low-Flow Toilets, Solar Lights. Visitors to the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa won't find the Gideon Bible in the nightstand drawer. Instead, on the bureau will be a copy of "An Inconvenient Truth," former Vice President Al Gore's book about global warming. Environmentalism vs Creativity: [Environmentalists] support like-minded politicians who've invented nothing but obstacles to innovation. They march in protests that have created nothing but vandalism. And they rage against capitalism the only system by which worthy creations can effectively be financed, marketed and widely distributed. One woman is admired by her fellow environmentalists, not for pouring her time and energy into, say, inventing a new kind of generator or more fuel-efficient engine, but for spending two years perched atop a redwood tree! If Environmentalism Succeeds, It Will Make Human Life Impossible. Earth Day approaches, and with it a grave danger faces mankind. The danger is not from acid rain, global warming, smog, or the logging of rain forests, as environmentalists would have us believe. The danger to mankind is from environmentalism. The horse: Is this the secret weapon to beat global warming? They may previously have appreciated it more for its culinary value, but the French are discovering a new green form of transport: the humble horse. More than 70 French towns have already gone back to the future by introducing horse-drawn carriages to replace petrol- and diesel-powered vehicles for local tasks such as collecting rubbish, street-cleaning and taking children to school. And at least 30 more are set to join the revolution next year. The Editor asks... Is this where the environmentalists want to take us? Do you want to commute from the suburbs in a horse-drawn wagon? Going Against the Green: Green is the universal sign of conspicuous virtue, of concern for planet, of a new paganism that worships the goddess Gaia and treats the Earth as itself a single living organism. Anyone who questions this newly fashionable faith is regarded as a dangerous heretic to be cast into the outer darkness. San Francisco votes to ban plastic bags in stores. San Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted 10-1 this afternoon [3/27/2007] to make the city the first in the nation to prohibit petroleum-based plastic checkout bags in large markets and pharmacies. Beware the Eco-Industrial Complex. President Dwight D. Eisenhower famously warned Americans in 1961 against the growing and unwarranted influence on our government of a "military-industrial complex." The 2007 version of this concern should focus on the looming eco-industrial complex. Global Warming as European Imperialism: The great Global Warming scare is only the latest eructation of European imperialism. Euro-imperialism used to be known as socialism. Before that, it was just called British or French imperialism, because those countries were very proud of it. There was no need to lie. The only reason today's huge European effort to control the world isn't called "imperialism" any more, is that its supporters hate that word. The reality of imperial control is fine with them. Pull plug on motorway lights to save the environment, say experts. Motorway lights should be turned off at night to protect the environment, experts have said. Light pollution stops us enjoying the beauty of the night sky and could be disrupting the delicate life cycles of birds, bats and other wildlife, according to the Royal Commission of Environmental Pollution. The Editor says... If "light pollution" is such a problem, why not ban headlights on automobiles? The answer is obvious: The safety of people is more important than the comfort of animals. Brussels in push for 'green crime' laws. A series of "green crimes", enforceable across the EU and punishable by prison sentences and hefty fines, are to be proposed under a contentious push by the European Commission into the sensitive area of criminal lawmaking. The drive by Brussels to apply penalties for ecological crime reflects concerns that some countries treat offences such as pollution and illegal dumping of waste more seriously than others, allowing criminals to exploit loopholes. The draft directive, seen by the Financial Times, lists nine offences ranging from illegal dumping of waste to the unlawful "taking or damaging" of protected wild flowers. [Fines for "light pollution" and picking wild flowers? They're serious! Please note that "light pollution" only occurs in countries where there is such prosperity that electric power is abundantly available at night. This naturally excludes Communist countries like Cuba and North Korea.] How Elite Environmentalists Impoverish Blue-Collar Americans: The great Central Valley of California has never been an easy place. Dry and almost uninhabitable by nature, the state's engineering marvels brought water down from the north and the high Sierra, turning semi-desert into some of the richest farmland in the world. ... The depression conditions in the great valley reflect more than a mere water shortage. They are the direct result of conscious actions by environmental activists to usher in a new era of scarcity. Anti-capitalism motivates environmentalists Capitalism Under Fire From Highly Self-Interested Dictators And Diplomats. [Scroll down] The so-called "climate change" agenda has essentially nothing to do with trying to change the climate or "saving the planet," and everything to do with self-interested politicians trying to control the world's economic resources. A convenient lie. Radical environmentalists are forging a new socialist post-democracy that is slowly undermining representative government. ... The 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall should have exposed the failure of socialism. It didn't. Instead, the left simply moved from championing the class struggle to global-warming alarmism. Its goal, however, remains the same: to smash free markets and impose economic collectivism. The revolution continues, only today it is being fought under the green banner. Where's the Beef? This slogan did not sit well with many on the Left, either; there had been a movement for decades to do away with beef. Vegetarianism had been a part of some Asian religions for centuries (and liberals love to push alternatives to our Judea-Christian ethos), and meat avoidance had its place among left-leaning Protestant sects during the 19th Century. Environmentalists hated beef because it used land which the tree-huggers wanted to return to pasture or forest; anti-capitalists hated beef because it was a symbol of the triumph of wealth over poverty. The Environmentalists' Real Agenda: Once in a while the truth accidentally tumbles out on global warming activists' real agenda. That's exactly what happened at the U.N., when Bolivia's leader called for ending capitalism to save the planet. Enviro-Harassment: The environmental movement, which has largely become a loose league of global warming hysteria peddlers, is almost rabidly anti-business and tends to be offended by corporate profits. Think of how they respond when oil companies announce record profits. Take note of the venom they routinely spew toward business and commerce, portraying honest businesses as eco-villains out to despoil the Earth. When green was easy: Now that the Soviet Union has collapsed and socialism in general has miserably failed, the left has been reenergized by New Age environmentalism, like Marxism a quasireligion that provides an even more comprehensive justification for restricting individual freedom and its economic expression in the form of market capitalism. The leftist project of replacing socialism with environmentalism as an ideological organizing principle has culminated with global warming theory, an apocalyptic scenario that has proved much more salable than anything Karl Marx could come up with. Going Green = $4 per Gallon. Going green (its real name is sustainable development) has led to Orwellian regulations resulting in the destruction of American businesses and the jobs that go with them, including manufacturing and industry; the locking away of American natural resources like oil, timber and minerals, forcing expensive imports; the near abolishment of private property, the bedrock of any economy's source of wealth; and massive invasion of the farming industry to assure it is "sustainable," including the mandated use of corn for the making of ethanol, leading to food shortages and higher prices. The Eco-Radicals' Real Motives: The driving force behind the eco-radicals' fierce efforts to strangle the free market with environmental regulations is their virulent hatred for a free, prosperous economy. Yet behind this hatred is an even deeper one. To understand why they try to wreck our economy, you have to grasp the shocking fact that many eco-radicals hate the human race and Western civilization. Obama Supporters for $10 Gas. "The people at this rally made the mistake of telling the truth about the left's energy policy," [Ed] Frank told Townhall in an email. "From the ban on American oil drilling to proposed global warming legislation, the entire point is to drive up the cost of oil and gas so Americans are forced against their will to use alternative energy sources that by and large aren't viable. For Greens, the Energy Crisis Is Not a Problem, It's the Solution. Two of the problems our presidential candidates are being called upon to solve are the spiraling cost of energy and the "crisis" of man-made global warming. … "The notion that these two issues can be addressed simultaneously is nonsense," said Dr. Keith Lockitch, resident fellow of the Ayn Rand Institute. "No policy aimed at 'fighting global warming' can help solve the energy crisis. An energy crisis is the proposed 'solution' to global warming. This is where environmentalism is headed: Environmentalists want to wipe out the human race. Fight Global Warming! Get an abortion! Using abortion for population control is inhuman. But the bottom line is that Great Britain is moving toward a China-type policy where the government intrudes into the most personal decisions made by families; how many children is right for them. Our green friend also wants to shift health monies from curing illnesses to aborting babies. Why do Green zealots think they can dictate how many children we are allowed to have? So the deepest green of them all turns out to be not so much a friend of the earth as an enemy of the human race. Jonathon Porritt, the Government's 'green' adviser, has said that couples who have more than two children are being 'irresponsible' by creating an unbearable burden on the environment. Curbing population growth through contraception and abortion must therefore be at the heart of policies to fight man-made global warming. Who is speaking for the plants? David Graber, a research biologist with the National park Service said, "Human happiness, and certainly human fecundity, are not as important as a wild and healthy planet." "Until such time as Homo Sapiens should decide to rejoin nature, some of us can only hope for the right virus to come along." Getting rid of everyone permanently solves the problem — David Foreman former chief lobbyist for the Wilderness Society says the optimum number is zero. Ingrid Newkirk of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said, "Mankind is a cancer; we're the biggest blight on the face of the earth." Now we can see where the environmental movement is headed. Encouraging families to have fewer children seems innocuous, perhaps thoughtful. It's easy to dismiss those who support such measures as harmless busybodies, not ill-willed environmentalists. Beware, however, of apparent banality. Groups such as England's Optimum Population Trust have to be subtle. While a planet with few people — or perhaps no people — is their ideal, they know they can't say that. Enviro Mentalists Call For Culling Of Human Population. A disturbing move is afoot by several "green" groups to associate climate change with over population and suggest that the solution is to implement depopulation policies and punishments for those who flout them. The London Times reports today that a report to be published by green think tank the Optimum Population Trust says that children are 'bad for planet and 'having large families should be frowned upon as an environmental misdemeanour in the same way as frequent long-haul flights, driving a big car and failing to reuse plastic bags. The Warm Turns. In a speech at Harvard last November, Harvard physicist John Holden, President-elect Obama's choice to be his science adviser as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology, presented a "top 10" list of warming solutions. Topping the list was "limiting population," as if man was a plague upon the earth. This is a major tenet of green dogma that bemoans the fact that the pestilence called mankind comes with cars, factories and overconsumption of fossil fuels and other resources. Doctors: Third babies are the same as patio heaters. A pair of doctors have said that British parents should have fewer children, because kids cause carbon emissions and climate change. The two medics suggest that choosing to have a third child is the same as buying a patio heater or driving a gas-guzzling car, and that GPs should advise their patients against it. Global Warming Game Tells Children They Should Die. Are global warming alarmists encouraging children to commit suicide because their carbon footprints supposedly are harming the planet? It certainly appears so in a children's game concocted by the state-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Science Department, available online. The game is called Planet Slayer. Using it, children can calculate their carbon footprint — how much impact their carbon emissions allegedly have on global warming. The Anti-Human Agenda: Some environmentalists think if we could just get rid of all the people on the planet it would be a great place to live. Generally over-population is a major part of the environmentalists' argument that humans are causing all the problems, including climate change. Global Warming: The Left's Latest War on the Family. Procreation is killing the planet, and traditional religion is to blame, Global-Warming cultists insist. First the industrial revolution had to go. Then it was to the wall with oil company executives, those malignant Carbon Interests. Next, SUVs were declared enemies of the planet. Now, the left's attention has shifted back to its perennial targets — large families and "patriarchal" religion. 'Saving' the planet may deny heat, cooling for the frail. Fact: Cold, not heat, is what really kills people, as we see now in Britain. Fact: A warming world would save countless lives, not cost them. And fact: Those who died last week were in less danger from global warming than from the deadly incompetence of green governments trying to "stop" it. Psychology Today Blog: Ban Having Children for 5 Years. A bestselling author has called octuplets-mother Nadya Sulamen a 'murderer' and warns of overpopulation saying, "we need to lose 4.4 billion people." ... Steven Kotler has declared that responsible adults should stop having children in order to save the planet. Those who are having kids, are being selfish and stealing from the future, the rest of humanity, and "every living thing on the earth," he wrote. Have too many kids and you should go to jail. Global Warming Alarmists Propose Limiting Population ... to the Point of Extinction. In a statistical study entitled "Reproduction and the Carbon Legacies of Individuals," published in Global Environmental Change by Murtaugh and Shlax of Oregon State University, ... the authors propose that the potential savings from reduced reproduction rates among humans are some 20 times more effective than the savings wrought by life style changes. It is clear that the authors follow the Liberal mantra of the ends justify the means. If we can reduce carbon emissions by reducing the number of children, then we should do it, they gloat. It appears that carbon reductions trump even "life" itself. UK population must fall to 30m, says Porritt. Jonathon Porritt, one of Gordon Brown's leading green advisers, is to warn that Britain must drastically reduce its population if it is to build a sustainable society. Porritt's call will come at this week's annual conference of the Optimum Population Trust (OPT), of which he is patron. The trust will release research suggesting UK population must be cut to 30m if the country wants to feed itself sustainably. Earth population 'exceeds limits'. There are already too many people living on Planet Earth, according to one of most influential science advisors in the US government. Nina Fedoroff told the BBC One Planet programme that humans had exceeded the Earth's "limits of sustainability". Dr Fedoroff has been the science and technology advisor to the US secretary of state since 2007, initially working with Condoleezza Rice. Ban Humans to Lower Carbon Emissions? According to California Congressman Tom McClintock, the world's six billion humans breathe out 2.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year. His state has a goal of reducing emissions by 170 million tons of carbon dioxide to meet legislative requirements. Simple mathematics shows if we can just "do away" with 425 million of Earth's inhabitants, we can help Governor Schwarzenegger meet his bogie. David Attenborough argues the planet cannot handle more people. Sir David Attenborough has become a patron of an organisation that campaigns to limit the number of people in the world, arguing that the growth in global population is frightening. The television presenter and naturalist said the increase in population was having devastating effects on ecology, pollution and food production. Depopulate and die of boredom. It must take a rather active imagination to look at a map of Australia and think that it is too full. Last week Sandra Kanck, the national president of the environmental group Sustainable Population Australia, urged the country to cut down its population from 21 million souls to just 7 million. To do so, she recommended we adopt a one-child policy, completely eliminating middle-child syndrome and saving the planet in the process. The Population Bum. A member of Britain's government says couples should be limited to two children to save the Earth from global warming. It's discouraging that such muddle-headed people are in positions of power. Save the Planet: Have Fewer Kids. A study by statisticians at Oregon State University concluded that in the United States, the carbon legacy and greenhouse gas impact of an extra child is almost 20 times more important than some of the other environment-friendly practices people might employ during their entire lives — things like driving a high mileage car, recycling, or using energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs. Obama's Science Czar: Traditional family is obsolete, punish large families. President Obama's Science Czar, John Holdren, took a controversial and amoral approach to the science of population by recommending mass compulsory sterilization and even forced abortion (and/or forced marriages) under certain circumstances. His 1977 tome, Ecoscience, which he co-authored with Paul and Anne Ehrlich, also displays a revealing disregard for the institution of the traditional human family. 'Contraception cheapest way to combat climate change'. Contraception is almost five times cheaper as a means of preventing climate change than conventional green technologies, according to research by the London School of Economics. Saving the Earth by Hating Humanity. One singular fact stands out in all Green propaganda and permeates all the legislation and other programs they sponsor. It is a contempt and disdain for the Earth's human population. The leaders of the movement hate humanity. Obsessed with population growth, anything that can reduce it — disease, poverty, famine, or lack of energy is pursued as part of the Green agenda. Birth Control Seen As Way to Combat Climate Change. Giving contraceptives to people in developing countries could help fight climate change by slowing population growth, experts said Friday [9/18/2009]. An idea like this must be implemented gradually. Step one: Cap-And-Trade For Babies? An environmental writer mainstreams an idea floating around the green fringe — save the earth by population control and give carbon credits to one-child families. Are we threatened by the patter of little carbon footprints? Carbon Credits for One-Child Couples? Andrew Revkin, who reports on environmental issues for The New York Times, floated an idea last week for combating global warming: Give carbon credits to couples that limit themselves to having one child. Revkin later told CNSNews.com that he was not endorsing the idea, just trying to provoke some thinking on the topic. The Editor says... This is a very common Democrat strategy: They will say something outrageous, and if there are any objections, follow up with, "Can't you take a joke?" The Totalities of Copenhagen. In his 2007 best seller "The World Without Us," environmentalist Alan Weisman considers what the planet would be like without mankind, and finds it's no bad thing. The U.N. Population Fund complains in a recent report that "no human is genuinely 'carbon neutral'" — its latest argument against children. John Holdren, President Obama's science adviser, cut his teeth in the policy world as an overpopulation obsessive worried about global cooling. But whether warming or cooling, the problem for the climate alarmists, as for other totalitarians, always seems to boil down to the human race itself. We will fix the climate all right... let's kill a ton of people. The bottom line behind the climate change leftists trying to save the world: people are in the way. People cause carbon emissions so people must die. Let us start with hundreds of millions of abortions worldwide. The People Problem. Calls for forced population control as a means to conquer global warming are in the news this week. We knew the Copenhagen climate conference would keep drawing out the cranks. 'Humans are overpopulating the world," Diane Francis, a staff writer for Canada's National Post, said in Tuesday's [12/8/2009] edition. Enviro-Marxists discover the real scourge of the planet: human beings. Diane Francis writes in the Financial Post: "The 'inconvenient truth' overhanging the UN's Copenhagen conference is not that the climate is warming or cooling, but that humans are overpopulating the world. A planetary law, such as China's one-child policy, is the only way to reverse the disastrous global birthrate currently, which is one million births every four days." What a great idea! Of course, there are a few details to work out, which Ms. Francis doesn't address, most specifically, how it would be implemented and enforced. I don't think she wants to mention those icky forced abortions that occur in China, as late as the 9th month of pregnancy. UN: Human Life Threatens Climate!. "Too Many Births Said to Threaten the Climate" read the headline in the November 19 edition of the French daily Le Monde. The headline refers to the new "State of World Population 2009" report published by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The document is called a "report," but in light of the unabashed and unrelenting advocacy of which it consists, it might be better described as a "pamphlet." In Pursuit of Death. The warped premise of radical environmentalism is clear: The earth is pure, and we are the pollutant. Devising plans to dramatically reduce earth's population is just another day's work for these modern Cassandras. There is a nihilist subcurrent bubbling to the surface of mainstream environmentalism, and it is being given a global imprimatur in Copenhagen. Environmentalism and Animal Rights: "[O]bserve that in all the propaganda of the ecologists — amidst all their appeals to nature and pleas for "harmony with nature" — there is no discussion of man's needs and the requirements of his survival. Man is treated as if he were an unnatural phenomenon. Climate Change Debate Over? It's Just Begun! Along with stiff carbon taxes and straight-jacket regulations comes, inevitably, population control. At Copenhagen, China's Peggy Liu — chair of the Joint U.S.-China Collaboration on Clean Energy — bragged about Beijing's brutal one-child policy. That policy, said this winner of Time Magazine's "Hero of the Environment" award, "reduces energy demand and is arguably the most effective way the country can mitigate climate change." Animal Wrongs. [Scroll down] The West is founded on a Judeo-Christian moral ethic, which holds that human welfare is central and that humans and animals are not of equal worth. The animal rights movement tears at the heart of that. It's a movement that is not based on rationality; there is a very strong anti-human element. For animal rightists, being human is not special. They don't believe in human exceptionalism. They see us as an evil species, as killers and the causers of suffering. The misanthrope is so thick you could cut it with a knife. The True Meaning of 'Go Green': To "go green" is a metaphor for a cause, but the cause is not the one you might think it is. Green is not about saving energy. It is not about conservation or living more efficiently by recycling. It's not about electric cars or hydrogen power or solar panels. Green is not about you. Green is about saving nature. From you. The Gore Who Stole Christmas. Yesterday's foes of the free market were socialists, communists, and Keynesians. Today's are greens who want government engineering to "stabilize" the climate and ensure "sustainability." Climate ideology control: America's vital traditions of free speech, association and debate are under assault. Al Gore bristles at anyone who raises inconvenient truths about climate alarmism. Greenpeace calls us "climate criminals." Grist magazine wants "Nuremberg-style war crimes trials" for climate disaster skeptics, probably followed by hangings, since burning at the stake would release greenhouse gases. Democrats Prepare Global Warming Push. Newly empowered Democrats in the 110th Congress appear ready to make a major push to solidify their "global warming mantra" on the American people. Get ready for a new Democratic barrage asserting that there is "scientific consensus" the earth is getting warmer because of greenhouse gas emissions from burning hydrocarbon fuels. New York's 'green' mayor gets ride to subway. Mayor Michael Bloomberg's regular trips on the New York subway, which he has boasted are environmentally friendly and a sign he is an ordinary guy, are not quite as straightforward as they seem. … A five-week undercover investigation by the New York Times has revealed that a quarter of his journey takes place in a large sports utility vehicle. Environmental activists' suits damage wildlife in the long term. Environmental groups are unwittingly destroying forests and killing wildlife with lawsuits. Ironically, they are doing so while claiming to save them. Activists again are filing lawsuits to stop forest management, and the government pays them to do it. They craft settlements that pay them handsomely with taxpayer money so that they can live well and file the next lawsuit. No wonder they are inflexible. Live Green, Die Green. The media have been all over stories of eccentric families' toilet paperless lifestyles and their green weddings, but now CNN has pushed the peripheries of ecological awareness to the end of life by making the case for a green funeral. Greens Reveal their Plan for Global Domination. According to the Greens behind this plan, "Increased transport also uses drastically increased fossil fuels, adding to the problems of climate change, ozone depletion, and ocean, air, and soil pollution." There is a very big problem with the assertion quoted above. None of it is true. If the US, let alone the rest of the world, did not have airports, seaports, roads, rail-lines, pipelines, dams and electric grids, you would not be reading this, nor would there be too many goods in your local supermarket or mall. Losing the Greens. As Democrats take control of Congress, once firm opposition to the green lobby's campaign of imposing carbon emission controls is weak. Panicky captains of industry have themselves largely to blame for failing to respond to the environmentalists' well-financed propaganda operation. One government official says "industry appears utterly helpless and utterly clueless as to how to respond." Make poverty history: first by getting rid of the greens. As protesters and green activists gather in Melbourne this weekend to lay the usual blame for poverty on the greed of developed nations, a powerful new documentary shines light on a different villain. Mine Your Own Business, which opens this week, shows that the "powerful group telling the world's poor how to live, how to work, even how to think" are not the world leaders gathered in Melbourne. They're not even wealthy multinational corporations, but wealthy multinational environment groups such as Greenpeace. Save the planet, eat a vegan. According to new research, power stations and transport produce lots of carbon dioxide, but in addition they also produce lots of aerosols that, in the short term at least, help keep the planet as cool as a deodorant model's armpits. So who has come up with this new theory? Some half-crazed nitwit with a motoring show to protect? George Bush? A bloke in the pub? No. In fact it comes from an organisation called EarthSave, which is run and funded, so far as I can tell, by the usual array of free-range communists and fair trade hippies. Green CEOs Bad for Business. Bill Ford just announced that he would step down as CEO after a disastrous 5-year reign during which company shares lost two-thirds of their market value. While Ford Motor's woes can't entirely be blamed on Ford, you have to wonder what Ford Motor's board was thinking when it selected him as CEO. … Ford always appeared more concerned about being green than being profitable. In May 2000, he declared that SUVs — his company's most profitable product — harmed the environment. What Happens to Companies That 'Go Green': Mutual fund manager explains why consumers, shareholders and business leaders should be skeptical of global warming regulation lobbying and 'market-based' solutions. Incumbents Supported by Environmental Groups Lose in August 8 Primaries. Incumbent politicians rarely lose elections in the United States, so when they do, it's significant. It is even more newsworthy when an incumbent loses a primary election. On August 8, three incumbent members of Congress lost their primary elections. All three were seen as supporters of environmental activist groups. Al Gore visits Berkeley, charges up Prop. 87 rally. Former Vice President Al Gore appeared in Berkeley on Monday [10/23/2006] to lend his celebrity and reputation as a crusader against global warming to a measure on California's Nov. 7 ballot that would tax oil companies to raise $4 billion for green energy projects. Plastic bag levy failing. Ireland's levy on plastic bags, once heralded as a market solution to an environmental problem, has failed to curb the country's plastic addiction, prompting calls from Australian environment groups for a total ban here. The number of bags used in Ireland dropped to 85 million in a year after the levy was introduced in 2002, but was back up to 115 million in 2005 and has risen steadily since. Kit Bond goes into battle on a lawn mower. Environmental groups heralded California's move three years ago to adopt new pollution standards for small engines. The standards could require use of catalytic converters, which have cleaned up cars and trucks, to be added to lawn mowers as well. Al Gore's Green Money Machine: As Al Gore's global warming alarm tour winds down for the summer, let's pull back the curtain and see the real wizard. After you get past all the scare mongering, what is left is a giant scheme to tax the air we breathe. No wonder the tax and spend liberals are so enthralled with big Al. Has John Kerry Morphed into Al Gore? The British author and critic, Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) said that a phony kind of patriotism was the last refuge of a scoundrel. These days it's environmentalism. When a candidate for president really doesn't have any good ideas on how to keep the economy going strong, deal with America's enemies, or any of the other practical necessities to insure our future, they always rely on the "environment" as their pitch for votes. What Scriptures Tell Us About Environmental Stewardship: Now that secular liberalism has all but driven orthodox religion out of public life, it should come as no surprise that heterodox spirituality has become the latest battering ram of the left. In a time when the Bible has been expunged from schoolrooms as an icon of Western bigotry, biblical arguments are now oddly on the comeback, recast as a fashionable means of pushing a leftist agenda. What is not to be expected is the degree to which well-meaning Christians have become the spokesmen of these distortions. Town Battles Army Corps Over Permafrost. Challenging an Army Corps of Engineers assertion that permafrost 20 inches thick is a "navigable water" of the United States, an Alaskan borough attempting to build public playgrounds and athletic fields on a two-acre parcel of permafrost has sued the Corps over its enforcement of the Clean Water Act. "This case is a classic example of the Corps operating without boundaries, limits, or common sense in its application of the Clean Water Act," said Russell Brooks, managing attorney of Pacific Legal Foundation's (PLF) Northwest Center. NJ Clean Energy Program Under Investigation. New Jersey's Clean Energy Program (CEP), responsible for promoting energy conservation and the use of renewable energy in the state, is coming under heavy criticism for accounting irregularities, apparent cronyism, and gross mismanagement. The latest salvo was fired on October 16 when Bob Ingle, the Trenton bureau chief for Gannett New Jersey newspapers, called for a stepped-up investigation of financial irregularities associated with the program. Property Rights Improve Environment, Book Says. The American public has shown significant concern for environmental quality since the first Earth Day in 1970, yet the maze of environmental laws and regulations enacted since then has fostered huge government bureaucracies better known for waste and failure than for innovation and success. New Book Examines Maze of Failed Environmental Policies. The maze of government regulations and environment laws enacted since the 1970's has created more waste and failure than innovation and success, say the book's contributors. They point out that many current environmental policies fly in the face of American liberal legal and political traditions. Missouri Town Hikes Taxes for Green City Hall. Citizens of Cottleville, Missouri will be forced to pay an extra one-half percent sales tax to finance a "green" city hall. … Costly environmental gestures include solar collectors, wind turbines, and rainwater collectors. My pick for the court: John Rapanos is a 70-year-old grandfather who lives in Michigan. The Bush administration wants to put him in jail for five years. His crime? He moved sand around on a farm he owns. Last week, the Supreme Court took up his case. Rapanos is being prosecuted by the Bush Justice Department for an alleged violation of the federal freshwater wetlands law. The Earth Day before yesterday: "Earth Day" [was founded] by former Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson. It's also V.I. Lenin's birthday — which is no coincidence. Nelson modeled his anti-capitalist protests after anti-Vietnam War demonstrations of that era. Today, the so-called "environmental movement" he helped spawn has devolved from a gaggle of unwashed adolescent peaceniks into a slick cadre of leftists, lobbyists and lawyers. Environmentalism is dead — Long live environmentalism! Even though recycling is often a monstrous waste of time, energy and money, the Greens have insisted that if you don't separate your plastic from your paper you are "against" the environment. The truth is that nobody is anti-environment. Green versus Black: Denying other people the same rights that you claim for yourself is the essence of bigotry. People who call themselves environmentalists could more accurately be called green bigots. Selfishness is never a pretty thing but it is at its ugliest when it masquerades as some kind of lofty nobility. That pose not only gets the green bigots good press, it also helps recruit the young and uninformed to their movement — especially the young who have been misinformed on college and university campuses. It's a Wonderful Life, So Far. The single-family home with the white picket fence, two cars in the garage, and a couple kids in the backyard has everything wrong with it, according to some environmentalists. The home is made completely or in part of wood … but logging is a bad thing. That little yard in a small suburban or rural community contributes to "urban sprawl." When those two cars leave the garage for work or the grocery store or to take the kids to school, they burn unacceptable quantities of fossil fuels traveling paved roads which, in all too many cases, prevent animals from migrating (apparently only chickens are able to cross the road). Oh, those two kids? They are a problem, too. Overpopulation, you know. Enjoy America while you can. Planet Parenthood. People on the leftward side of the political spectrum say they want to "keep government out of your bedroom," by which they usually mean they oppose restrictions on abortion. … But it's an oddity of today's politics that abortion proponents tend to be allied with environmentalists, and environmentalists want government in every room in your house, from the bathroom (mandatory low-flow toilets) to the kitchen (energy saving appliances) to the garage (fuel-economy standards) to — well, any room with artificial lighting (the bulbs had better be the compact fluorescent variety). Aquatic Weeds Overwhelming the Nation's Lakes. Milfoil, sometimes known as Eurasian Watermilfoil, has grown significantly in Lake Minnetonka. According to Minneapolis television station WCCO, the lake is so thick with milfoil that experienced divers find the lake frightening. Some communities have sought to control aquatic weeds such as milfoil through the use of herbicides. Environmental groups, however, are strenuously opposing those plans. Cement Production Hits a Concrete Wall. U.S. businesses and households are feeling the brunt of short-sighted environmental activism as America's supply of cement dries up. If you couldn't get cement to pour the new patio you had planned in August [2004], or if the increase in the price of concrete added several thousand dollars to the final cost of your new home, you can blame China or the Sierra Club or the federal government or your state government. Or all of the above. The Dangerous Greening of American Foreign Policy. Foreign aid funds are actually being used to undermine market economies abroad and put American businesses at a competitive disadvantage. In Indonesia, for example, the Agency for International Development (AID) gave more than $1.3 million to the local chapter of Friends of the Earth (virtually its entire operating budget) for its campaign against New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold. The environmental organization accused the mining company of grossly polluting an Indonesian river, destroying crops, and inciting military attacks on civilians — but none of those accusations has been substantiated. Documentary: Mine Your Own Business exposes the dark side of environmentalism. The documentary hacks away at the cosy image of environmentalists' as well meaning, harmless activists. Mine Your Own Business is the first documentary which asks the hard questions of foreigners who lead campaigns to "save" remote areas from development. Their answers are often disturbing, with racist overtones, but we, in the west, blindly support such campaigns that want to keep people in poverty. Review: The Forgotten Mammal. "Mine Your Own Business" tells story of the one animal environmentalists forget. Environmentalists are AWOL on Saddam. Saddam Hussein has committed some of the biggest environmental crimes of all time. During the 1991 Gulf War, Saddam's troops set 600 Kuwaiti oil wells ablaze "creating a toxic smoke that choked the atmosphere and blocked the sun," according to news reports. However, most environmental groups have gone absent-without-leave when it comes to removing Saddam — even without the use of force. A few are protesting the war. Environmental Activists Cannot Use Courts To Micromanage Federal Agencies. On June 15 [2004], the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected efforts by environmental groups to give courts greater authority over the day-to-day management of federal administrative agencies. State Legislatures Face Anti-Pesticide Bills. Anti-chemical activists have pushed several state governments in recent years to pass laws to eliminate or drastically reduce the use of pesticides in schools and daycare centers. To date, about 20 states have enacted such laws. [However] pesticides are used to control roaches, molds, mice, rats, wasps, lice, fleas, mosquitoes, spiders, fire ants, poison ivy, and other pests. The public health implications of allowing them to get out of control are substantial. Children will suffer if schools and daycare centers are not able to control these pests. Volcanos Environmentalists are quick to minimize and dismiss the atmospheric influence of volcanos, because they know volcanos can't be taxed and regulated into submission, no matter how many megatons of "greenhouse gas" they emit. Mount St. Helens is the state's No. 1 air polluter. Right now, the biggest single source of air pollution in Washington isn't a power plant, pulp mill or anything else created by man. It's a volcano. Since Mount St. Helens started erupting in early October [2004], it has been pumping out between 50 and 250 tons a day of sulfur dioxide, the lung-stinging gas that causes acid rain and contributes to haze. Those emissions are so high that if the volcano was a new factory, it probably couldn't get a permit to operate. Smashing Environmentalist Myths: I have never believed the earth is fragile. Did you know that your typical volcanic eruption puts more pollutants in the air than all auto emissions in the history of civilization combined? But the earth also has a mechanism for cleaning itself. It doesn't just sit there, get dirty and die. It has its own corrective measures. For us to think that we have the ability, just by virtue of living our lives in a way that enhances our lives, to destroy this planet is the height of folly. Hawaii's biggest polluter is completely out of control. Gas from Kilauea forces 2,000 from Hawaiian park. Elevated sulfur dioxide levels from Kilauea volcano and a change in wind direction Tuesday [4/8/2008] forced 2,000 people to leave Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island. Trivia: Hawaii is the only state that is getting bigger. It is also the only state that has no straight-line borders. Chile volcano blasts ash 20 miles high, forcing evacuations. [Scroll down] So far, Chaiten has emitted only a few thousand tons of sulfur dioxide, "which is very small," said Simon Carn, a University of Maryland-Baltimore volcanologist who uses satellites to measure volcanic gases. In general, a volcano must spew at least 1 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere to have a global effect on climate, said Alan Robock, a Rutgers University professor who co-authored a book on the subject. … The Philippines' Mount Pinatubo produced a brief cooling of the climate after spewing 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide in 1991. Warming or Cooling? You Be the Judge. In 1991, the volcanic eruption at Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines put more carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere than did the whole human race during the most recent century of the industrial era. Notwithstanding all the heat and fury released in the neighborhood of the volcano, the event had a cooling effect on the world as a whole. Volcanoes and climate: [Scroll down] Volcanoes also release large amounts of water and carbon dioxide, the two most important greenhouse gasses. From an isolated point of view, a volcanic eruption might thus be expected to result in atmospheric warming. However, there are large amounts of water and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere already, and even a large eruption will not be able to change the atmospheric composition of these compounds much. In addition, the water generally condenses out of the atmosphere as rain within few days, and the carbon dioxide quickly dissolves in the ocean or is absorbed by plants. The Editor asks... If the thousands of tons of CO2 from a volcano are absorbed so "quickly," why is there any concern over industrial production of carbon dioxide, where the CO2 trickles into the atmosphere from thousands of locations all over the world? Why all the fuss over carbon credits? Some "experts" say "carbon dioxide … stays around for more than a century." Which "expert" is right? Global Warming Heresy: Manmade carbon dioxide emissions are roughly 5 percent of the total; the rest are from natural sources such as volcanoes, dying vegetation and animals. Annually, volcanoes alone produce more carbon dioxide than all of mankind's activities. Oceans are responsible for most greenhouse gases. ... The bottom line is, the bulk of scientific evidence shows that what we've been told by environmentalists is pure bunk. Ian Plimer argues CO2 is not causing global warming. Professor Ian Plimer, a geologist from Adelaide University, argues that a recent rise in temperature around the world is caused by solar cycles and other "extra terrestrial" forces. He said carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, widely blamed for global warming, is a natural phenomenon caused by volcanoes erupting. "We cannot stop carbon emissions because most of them come from volcanoes," he said. Greens Against the Poor. Pitched battles over ideology and public policy certainly are not confined to classrooms or legislative chambers. They are also fought in poor communities of Africa, Asia and Latin America, often pitting multinational corporations against multinational activist groups. Why Socialism Causes Pollution: If the profit motive is the primary cause of pollution, one would not expect to find much pollution in socialist countries, such as the former Soviet Union, China, and in the former Communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe. That is, in theory. In reality exactly the opposite is true: The socialist world suffers from the worst pollution on earth. Could it be that free enterprise is not so incompatible with environmental protection after all? Left-Leaning Donors Skewing Climate Change Research. While new environmental regulations might be an annoyance for private industry, the fact is that the bulk of any new environmental-related costs to those industries are simply passed on to the public through more expensive goods and services. By contrast, spearheading environmental issues is the only reason for the existence of environmental organizations. Since all organizations have self-preservation as their number one priority, it is the environmental groups that are the most vulnerable to a loss of public interest, and thus funding. Environism: The Environmental Movement As A Pagan Religion. Environism is a combination of pseudo-science, new age mysticism, paganism, and socialism which serves as a combination of political philosophy and religion. This is clearly an attempt to replace America's historic Christian culture with a new religion — a pagan religion. Dominion and Stewardship: Believers and the Environment. As the United States prepares to celebrate Earth Day on April 22, people of faith should be wary of a "neo-pantheism" underlying much of the secular environmental agenda. The American Flag Itself Angers "Environmentalists". "I'm a patriot, but I'm not a gun-toting, flag-waving, Bush-loving patriot," huffs one "green" after Georgia dares to put U.S. symbols on a license plate. NIMBYS, BANANAS and Greens: Americans support programs to lock away land to keep wilderness pristine, free of human development, power lines and cell towers. Yet they want to use their cell phones and computers wherever they go. They want three car garages to house the family van, the daughter's little bug and the husband's sports car; but don't blight the landscape with filling stations, refineries or power plants. Regulations: The Untold Story. Regulatory costs, like consumption taxes, consume a larger portion of the poor's income, leaving fewer resources for adequate housing, medical care, proper diet and other crucial needs. Environmental regulations are particularly regressive. Controlling Pests or Controlling Competition? The Pacific Legal Foundation challenges a California licensing law that would require a Environmentalists Attempt to Kill America's Most Environmentally-Friendly Major Energy Source. Anti-nuclear activists now are filing lawsuits in the hope of forcing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to deny the U.S. Department of Energy the construction permit it needs to complete the Yucca Mountain project. Environmentalism: A Globalist Tool for Tyranny. There are plenty of good reasons for a freedom loving people to steer clear of the United Nations, one of the chief ones being the fanatical zeal with which the UN and Friends grasp hold of every worry and woe, make it their own, blow it out of proportion, and insist that they and only they can provide a solution, a solution which must be imposed by force upon the world. Polls Show Little Interest in Green Agenda. American voters are generally happy with the condition of their local environment and the performance of their elected representatives on environment issues, according to several recent public opinion polls. As a result, the polls show, environment issues rank near the bottom of concerns for American voters this election season. Unflushable: Not content to turn the bathrooms of the western world into chambers of low-flushing horrors, some environmentalists have a new target: toilets as such. They want to make sure they "save water" by preventing developing countries from installing any flush toilets at all. America's New Dark Ages: Today's environmental movement has little to do with protecting the environment and everything to do with imposing a radical agenda to derail human progress, destroy free enterprise, and diminish individual liberty. October 2004 Environment & Climate News. Page 1 stories in this issue report on … a new study confirming the unreliability of global warming computer models; and charges against Greenpeace for violating environmental regulations it lobbied to impose on ships in Alaskan waters. Greens Attack America: The one abiding goal of both the Greens and "animal rights" lunatics is to attack America's economic base in every way possible. This is why, for the past few decades, they have sought to undermine every kind of industry in the nation, from timber to energy, from agriculture to fast foods, from mining to ranching. Red-Tape Conservationists: Environmentalists are up in arms about a recent Bush administration proposal to reduce red tape on logging in federal lands. But what this controversy is really about is not just the "conservation" of forests, but the conservation of the vast, arbitrary authority of federal regulatory agencies — an authority environmentalists are accustomed to exploiting for their agenda. The Top 5 "Human Costs" of Environmental Extremism: Inflexible environmental laws and overregulation are dramatically impacting people's lives and livelihoods every day, often for species protections that are illegal or unnecessary. The top five human costs of environmental extremism are: • Separating people from nature. • Cutting people off from water to give to fish. • Extinguishing hundreds of thousands of jobs. • Diminishing the American dream of home ownership, and • Blocking forest fire prevention that saves lives and homes. Solar Power Statists: Blinded by the Light. The idea that improving the livability of human homes requires political coercion is repellent and serves as yet another indictment of the environmentalism movement. The Environmentalist Crusade Against Progress and Technology: We are fortunate enough to live in the US at the beginning of the 21st century and enjoy all the benefits of modern science and technology. Human life is now longer, healthier and richer than ever before. But not everybody is happy about it. Some people would rather have us go back in time and sacrifice it all. They are the advocates of Environmentalism. Environmentalism is Bad Medicine for Humans. On Earth Day, environmentalists should celebrate the latest consequence of their ideas: skyrocketing gasoline prices. Environmentalism vs. Human Life: Although most environmentalists are emphatic in their professions of how deeply they care about every little earthworm and gnat on the planet, environmentalism is, at its core, the hatred of human life. Environmentalists Excluding People from Parks: Human enjoyment of the parks — sightseeing, golfing, hiking, skiing, biking, canoeing, camping — is being systematically sacrificed to environmentalist ideology. As long people believe that environmentalism is compatible with human enjoyment of nature (or anything), environmentalists will continue to prevent people from enjoying the parks. What makes these environmentalists tick? Africans Starve Rather than Accept Bounty of GM Corn: I grow poison on my farm, feed it to my family, and sell it to unsuspecting consumers in the U.S. and around the world. That's what the president of Zambia seems to think. As 3 million people in his country face starvation, Levy Mwanawasa has let some 15 million metric tons of donated corn sit untouched in storage because some of it is genetically modified. EPA Seeks Faith-Based Grants For Green Causes: The director of an Environmental Protection Agency energy program told a meeting of environmentalists Thursday [12/19/2002] that the White House's faith-based initiative should include federal grants for religious groups that advocate green causes. Eco-Sanity: A Common-Sense Guide to Environmentalism. Eco-Sanity means applying reason, sound science, and a respect for the rights of others to environmental issues. A commitment to eco-sanity necessarily means abandoning scare tactics and relying instead on the good judgment of individual environmentalists and the general public. Environmental quality is improving steadily and in some cases dramatically in key areas: • Average vehicle emissions are dropping about 10 percent per year as the fleet turns over to inherently cleaner vehicles, including modern SUVs. Our posterity will laugh at us. How profoundly arrogant is it to think that public policy can, or should, "preserve" the environment as it was at some point in the past? Suppose the policy-makers at the turn of the 20th century had decided to "preserve" the environment as it was before America was discovered. Had government been enlightened then, as it seems to be now, and prohibited mining, oil drilling, grazing and logging, would the world be a better place? Environmentalists are new foes of some of the world's poorest. This threat is not from cigar-sucking, champagne-swilling robber barons. Mining is now one of the most regulated businesses in the world. Banks will not lend to, insurance companies will not cover and governments will not give licenses to companies that want to open unsafe or polluting mines. Instead I have discovered that the biggest threat to miners and their families comes from upper-class Western environmentalists. It's time to reclaim our rights: Once again, the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has proven itself to be subservient to radical environmental groups, stopping the salvage of dead and dying trees in northern Idaho and eastern Washington. Bark beetle and tussock moth infestations, in epidemic proportions, have invaded prime timber. It would be logical to salvage those valuable trees, but radicals have sued the U.S. Forest Service preventing that from happening — preferring, apparently, to allow a valuable resource to rot in the forest. Not In the Driver's Seat: Isn't carbon dioxide a key component of the air we breathe and a compound absolutely vital to plant growth? Well, yes, you're right, but… Gray Davis, as it turns out, is embroiled in a surprisingly tight governor's race with upstart Republican candidate Bill Simon and he desperately needs to patch fences with California's large and affluent environmental community. Cold warriors never die, they just turn green: In a February [2000] interview with Environment & Climate News, Dr. Walter E. Williams, chairman of the economics department at George Mason University, noted, "Now that communism and socialism have lost all respectability, I think in general those people who have those inclinations have changed their agenda and call themselves environmentalists." Hard Choices: Environmentalists and the Forests: Greenpeace once prided itself on subscribing to a philosophy that was "transpolitical, trans-ideological, and trans-national" in character. Truth mattered and science was respected for the knowledge it brought to the debate. That tradition was abandoned by many environmental groups during the 1990s. A new brand of environmental extremism has emerged that rejects science, diversity of opinion, and even democracy. Playing with fire: Environmental rules fuel a massive inferno by undermining the efforts of the men on the line. Texans Won't Be Driven to California's CO2 Craziness: SUV-driving California legislators passed a bill on July 1 to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from new vehicles. How is California going to meet these requirements? Well, the politicians there don't really care; the automobile industry will have to figure it out and consumers will have to pay for it. California Makes Cars Less Affordable: California today became the first state in the nation to restrict automobile emissions of carbon dioxide, the same gas humans exhale. The auto industry pointed out, to no avail, that the measure would make cars even more expensive and pressure people to buy death traps they don't feel safe driving. Environmentalist Mythology Killing Us Softly: One would have to conclude, given the facts, that environmentalists are either insane or intent upon eradicating every human being from the face of the planet. Asbestos Absurdity in New Jersey: Could the asbestos quagmire possibly get even deeper, stickier and more dangerous than it's been up until now? Well, that is exactly what is about to happen in a New Jersey courtroom, where Sealed Air Corporation is scheduled to begin defending itself against an asbestos lawsuit. Green Group Includes U.S. In "Axis of Environmental Evil": The environmental group Friends of the Earth International (FoE) called the U.S., Canada and Australia the "axis of environmental evil" for not supporting international environmental agreements. The American Taliban is All Green: Until Americans understand how Greens really think, they will never understand that they are united against everything that has made America great. American Citizens Are Left to Swim in Government Cesspool: This is not supposed to be happening. Not in America, at least. Not after Congress passed the expansive Clean Water Act that predicted water pollution would be entirely "eliminated by 1985." Yet it does happen, and quite often. And federal officials don't just know about it; they are actively rewarding the worst offenders with more tax dollars. Bush Fights Fire-Fueling "Greens": To the dismay of environment-destroying "environmentalists," President Bush today [8/22/2002] shifted federal policy toward thinning national forests to reduce the risk of wildfires. "The forest policy of our government is misguided policy. It doesn't work," Bush told cheering residents outside Medford, Ore., near the state's largest fire on record. Environmental Group's "Dirty Dozen" Labeled Tool to "Elect Democrats": An environmental advocacy group is releasing more names of politicians it describes as Congress' "Dirty Dozen," based on their votes on issues dealing with water quality, energy, family planning and international trade. But one critic says the listing of the dirty dozen is intended "to elect as many Democrats as possible." Burned Out: If only those who could make changes in foolish, ill-conceived and often ludicrous environmental polices thought things through and listened to people who know what they are talking about rather than a movement that is way past its best days. "Environmentalists" Abet Wildfires: Nuisance lawsuits filed by self-styled "environmentalists" have sabotaged half of the U.S. Forest Service's attempts to cut the underbrush that fuels the West's catastrophic wildfires. Clean Water – The Tip of a Radical Green Iceberg. Feds decline private assistance – again! Rick Stanley, the Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate, was characteristically blunt. "Two years ago, when the fire started at Mesa Verde National Park, local volunteers showed up with bulldozers and water trucks. They could have put the fire out in a matter of hours. But the National Park Service was unwilling to accept private assistance. Twenty-four-thousand acres of beautiful forest land was incinerated before that fire burned itself out." Utah Senate strikes back at frivolous environmental suits: The Utah state senate on March 6 passed Senate Bill 183, allowing ranchers, miners, and oil developers to file countersuits and recover damages against persons or organizations who delay projects on state or federal lands through "improper" litigation. Environmentalist slams "lunatic fringe": Jan Michael Jacobson, an environmentalist and Everglades expert who is part of a battle against the government's habitat policies in South Florida, claims the leadership of the environmental movement has betrayed both its core constituency and the U.S. Constitution. "Unfortunately, the environmental leaders are what could be described as hard-core socialist psychotics. They are the lunatic fringes of socialism, and they are killing the American dream." Animal Rescues Bring in Big Bucks to Special Interests: Each year, several thousand dogs and cats are put to death because there's not enough money to build adequate animal shelter space. In the meantime, saving a whale in the Puget Sound is costing $500,000, with taxpayers picking up half the tab. Greenpeace Serves "No Public Benefit": Revenue Canada has refused to recognize the Greenpeace Environmental Foundation as a charity, saying its activities had "no public benefit" and that lobbying to close polluting industries could send people "into poverty." Do I Hear Jackboots? "When I helped to create Greenpeace from a church basement in Vancouver in 1971 I had no idea that I would spend the next 15 years as an international director and leader of many Greenpeace campaigns. I also had no idea that after I left in 1986 they would evolve into a band of scientific illiterates who use Gestapo tactics to silence people who wish to express their views in a civilized forum." Green Thumb Al: Al Gore and the environmental mafia surface to celebrate Earth Day while attacking George W. Bush. Unnecessary Threats to Freedom: An old adage says that to a hammer, everything seems like a nail. Likewise, to an environmentalist, everything is related to excessive American consumption. Christine Whitman's Folly: Dredging the Hudson will be half a billion dollars down the drain for not even a trivial public health gain. The Green Taliban Of America: The hubris of the Greens has allowed them to dictate to everyone just how we should conduct our lives for decades. That is why you can't build a home, an office building, a factory, a hospital or a school, without an "environmental" study. That is why Americans have been steadily deprived of pesticides, many used safely for decades, to protect us against the diseases spread by insect and rodent pests. That's why millions of acres of our national forests burned this year because Greens won't let them be managed through selective logging or to allow roads to be built into those forests. The list goes on and on because the Greens have been responsible for one third of every law and regulation in the Federal Register today. Note: The material about "Environmentalists vs. Military Preparedness" has moved here. Intended Consequences: Over the years, the phrase "unintended consequences" has come up with increasing frequency, as more and more wonderful-sounding ideas have led to disastrous results. Carbon offsets that couldn't be less green: Food-price inflation so severe that central banks are forced to raise interest rates to growth-stifling levels; corn prices so high that poor Mexicans can't afford their tortillas; massive deforestation to make way for more corn and palm oil; poor farmers pushed off their land to make room for carbon-offsetting plantings paid for by rich jet-setters; and Al Gore for president. These are some of the unintended consequences of hastily conceived environmental policies. A Really Bad Case of Gas: After campaigning to restore sound science, reason and responsiveness to the regulatory process, the "Reformer with Results" is now standing by one of the dumbest, top-down environmental edicts on the books. GOP Lawmakers Join Democrats in Aiding Enviro Left: About half the Republicans in Congress are joining a united Democrat party in promoting the interests of a left-wing movement that is also (not incidentally) out to defeat the GOP majority in Congress. "A multilayered fraud" is the way Mike Hardiman, lobbyist for the American Land Rights Association (ALRA), describes the Conservation and Reinvestment Act (CARA). The bill is better known among its critics as the "Condemnation and Relocation Act." Tax status of environment group questioned. In a move that could hobble environmental protests, a conservative lobbying organization has petitioned the Internal Revenue Service to rescind nonprofit status for a San Francisco environmental group. Environmental Fringe Exposed: A public policy specialist for the American Farm Bureau Federation worries that the environmental fringe is shifting mainstream environmentalism further to the left with its extreme actions. New Novel Exposes Eco-Fanatics, Neo-Pagans, and Eco-Terrorists! A review of Jack R. Stevens's new novel, Spark's Tract, a satire of environmental extremism — which Stevens terms "deep ecology." Zoning Board Gives Golf Range Owner the Birdie: While it's not uncommon to hear news stories about local zoning boards run amok, one Northern Virginia board has jailed a golf-range owner and possibly made an interstate fugitive of his wife in an ongoing fight over what may ultimately boil down to the placement of a few trees. Book review Re-thinking Green: Alternatives to Environmental Bureaucracy. Environmental quality has been a major public concern since the first Earth Day in 1970, yet the maze of environmental laws and regulations enacted since then has fostered huge government bureaucracies better known for waste and failure than for innovation and success. Back to the top of the page 
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Document location http://www.akdart.com/environ.html Updated March 19, 2010. Page design by Andrew K. Dart ©2010 |