Posted by
PDX Dave on Sunday, October 28, 2007 2:07:35 PM
The image of conservatives as eco-unfriendly gross polluters and general enemies of nature is one of the most pervasive of the false leftist myths.
The accompanying myth that the left are definitionally champions of nature is unfortunately one which conservatives seem to have ceded to the irrational tree-hugging fringe.
I believe that the right must begin to aggressively counter these lies, and undertake a concerted effort to point out the truth, and to "out-green" the left.
Time and time again, ill-advised policies that the left shoved down America's throat in the name of the environment have turned out to have the opposite effect or have other environmentally damaging consequences. I'm referring to recent and current policies such as Kyoto.
As conservatives heatedly pointed out that Kyoto policies would actually CAUSE more pollution than it cured, the left stuck their fingers in their ears and childishly taunted that Republicans have a desire to destroy the planet. Now, the UN has become an unlikely ally of the conservative message, as the reality of the situation becomes so clear that even they cannot ignore it.
According to a
recent article carried by Reuters, "The biggest emissions-cutting projects
under the Kyoto Protocol on global warming have directly
contributed to an increase in the production of gases that
destroy the ozone layer, a senior U.N. official says."
The rush to bio-fuels has caused a precipitous drop in the availability of food crops and a spike in chemical fertilizer use as growers get on the mindless "green or bust" bandwagon and switch their crops from food to ethanol production. The hungry of the world can thank the left for the pending wave of starvation which is the likely outcome.
No ill-conceived concept captures the left's imagination more firmly than the fascistic idea of controlling what rural land owners do with their property. Under the feel-good guise of "saving the trees" the left has systematically devastated forest lands by making it impossible for logging companies to harvest the trees which they own. The unintended consequence? The logging companies are forced to sell their property..... to developers. Well managed forests are turned into treeless suburban communities with ironic names like "Forest Glen" thanks to tree-huggers whose hatred of logging companies transcends their ability to see that those enterprises are among the biggest facilitators of maintaining large tracts of healthy forest.
Conservatives and hunters have for decades been the champions of
conserving wild spaces on a voluntary basis. The environment has benefited much more from hunters than from the legions of tree-hugging vegans who think humans are a lesser form of life than any other living thing.
Ducks Unlimited, for example, is the world's leading organization for conserving wetlands, having preserved more natural wetlands than even the federal government. Correct me if I'm' wrong, but Rosie and Sean Penn aren't big fans of the gun-toting hunters that make up the membership of Ducks Unlimited.
Conservatives need to take back the "eco-friendly" title from the eco-destroyers on the left. In reality, we are by far the more effective champions of a healthy, well-balanced natural environment, and it's about time we said so. Whenever do-good socialists set out to "fix" something, you can bet that they will bollocks it up and make a bigger mess than previously existed.
PDX Dave
Behind Enemy Lines in Portland, Oregon