David Loftus
Earth Day is now 40 years old. Whether four decades of Earth Days were closer to a moving force in the advancement of environmental consciousness and laws or merely a symptom, things are clearly different today. We have more fuel efficient vehicles (not as many, and not as efficient, as they should be -- and would have been if the Big Three automakers hadn’t fought tooth and nail against every innovation and new law; we can thank the Japanese for getting Americans off their fat rears on this); people are recycling (not half as much as they could or should; and I’ll have more to say on that in a week or two); and even corporations are putting a green face on their activities.
I suppose it’s a victory that the average citizen pays lip service to environmental issues and global warming, while in 1970 he was more likely to regard environmentalists as long-haired hippy commies. On the other hand, the 1970 Earth Day advocates targeted off-shore oil drilling, and President Obama recently cleared the way for more wells off the Atlantic Coast. An exploratory oil rig 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana obligingly blew up this week, killing a possible 11 people, badly injuring 26 others, and threatening to spill as much as 336,000 gallons of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico -- proof that oil is just as safe and healthy as coal mining, and a preview of coming attractions. (British Petroleum leased the $650 million rig for half a million dollars a day!) The Comptroller General for the state of Georgia, James L. Bentley, provided a contemporary version of the know-nothings of the past: he suggested this week that Earth Day might be a communist plot, because it fell on the 100th birthday of Vladimir Lenin. And the Daughters of the American Revolution passed a resolution to call global warming “distorted and exaggerated by emotional declarations and by intensive propaganda.”
In contrast to Mr. Lee, I rode city buses around the Portland metro area to get to a film shoot and a play rehearsal Thursday. Most days I walk three blocks to an office job, having gone carless now (with occasional resort to the car-sharing service Zipcar) for seven or eight years. Despite the adjustments I and millions of other Americans have made, and despite 40 years of Earth Days, that’s not going to be enough. Our species has doomed itself, probably (as I predicted on “American Currents” when we wrote about 2012 end-of-the-world myths back on November 19) within five or six more generations, or 150 years. Mr. Lee can quibble about the numbers -- god knows the picture is far larger and more complex than human science can easily encompass -- but anyone with half a grain of sense accepts that we have placed ourselves in terrible danger; and the longer we deny it, the swifter and more dire the results are going to be for us and our children.
Austin Lee
So, yesterday was Earth Day. What a waste of time and energy. It doesn't matter. In the long run no matter how much we recycle, conserve, or reuse, the Earth will keep turning. That is just the way it is. If the environmentalists were honest with us for a minute, they would admit that they don't have conclusive evidence. Even their poster child, Al Gore, has had parts of his Nobel Peace Prize winning movie refuted. (The Nobel Prize isn't what it once was now that President Obama won the award for...well, we aren't exactly sure what he did to earn the award. Call me if you find out.)
I don't believe there is a such thing as global warming. (Now I think they call it climate change.) They changed the name because the Earth hasn't actually warmed in the last several years. They did the same thing back in the 1970's and 80's. Back then the Earth was cooling and we were on the verge of another Ice Age, so they changed it to warming as the Earth started a warming trend. With all of the changing and confused science, I choose to believe that those people are pretty arrogant to think we puny humans can actually alter the Earths climate all by ourselves.
No, global warming is just another liberal fallacy that has been drummed up to scare little kids. I remember being taught about global warming in elementary school and how if we don't recycle we will all burn up. (Okay, it might not have been that dramatic, but it was close.) I painted a recycling bin and misspelled the word "Recycle". So my teacher took the bin and threw it in the trash and gave me a new one to paint. So much for the urgency.
I hope you had fun on Earth Day. I had a great day. I drove my 5.4 Liter V-8 Ford F-150 to work, caught a few angry stares from my Prius driving neighbors. I smile and wave, so glad to know that I can sleep good knowing that my commute didn't really matter to the Earth. Never has, never will.
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Earth is dying. We've reached the point of no return. In the first 3 months of 2010 there were 6 earthquakes registering 7.0 or more on the Ritcher scale. Compare that to 2005 where the total number of quakes at 7.0 or higher was 9 for the entire year. Volcanos and earthquakes are just the first of many signs to come.
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