LETTER: Earth Day is for extremists
Earth Day, April 22, passed with small notice. The environmental movement is decimated by extremism, graft and even a murder here and there (Fortino, Buffin et al). The best thinkers of our time suspect that man’s span upon the planet is limited to fewer than another 300-years. Because of environmental activism gone awry, it is too late to do anything about it.
The anti-science gang included everybody you knew: Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, Greenpeace, Lands Council and, of course, the EPA. Environmental activists still give letters and accolades to each other eschewing empirical science and real education. The anti-science gang excluded most scientists by refusing the title “environmentalist” to people who are lettered in the sciences.
The concept of chemical persistence was struck from high school chemistry books. Little paper is recycled any more. Few people collect plastic bottles. Montana’s Open Container Law sees police officers stopping citizens who collect beer cans along highways. Real science is about asking questions but people who question global warming are threatened with jail.
The once profitable environmental confrontation industry lays in ruins, victimized by greed from within. Even Earth First hasn’t felt the need to torch an automobile lot in a long time though a few activist lawyers still file complaints unrelated to science, environment or activity.
EPA shunts tax money to a single political party. Echoing Mafia tradition, EPA operates a Crime Department and an armed Enforcement Division but without the panache. Armed agents can appear anywhere. EPA officers tend to have their educations in law and not in the sciences. As the late industrial engineer John Hern said, “Neither the EPA nor any of its wing-organizations have added a single day to the planet’s life.”
Had we commemorated Earth Day better we might have encouraged some young person in genuine science. We could have helped throw off doubtful wisdom to reveal truths and preserve what is left of the planet and life upon it. Me might even have made a concerted effort to leave the planet.
We might have thrown off the old idea that law can force scientists to invent something that we refuse to pay for. If we had made Earth Day our focus then perhaps someone would have substituted the tired “They will find a way” with “We will find a way.”
As it is, Earth Day passed quietly. Nobody but activists and extremists showed up.
It was a pity.
—Jack Wiegman, Missoula