Environmental Conflicts

It’s Earth Day, so here is a little environmental rant for you. Americans don’t want to keep buying all our oil from foreign countries, so we are looking to alternative sources of energy. We heard all about that during last year’s Presidential campaign. But we can’t drill for oil in our own country because we might confuse the caribou in the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve. And we can’t put wind farms in Massachusetts because we would interfere with Cape Cod’s tourism and disturb the Kennedys. And we can’t put solar energy plants in the Californian desert because we would disturb the desert tortoise and the protected desert land.

The very politicians (like Kennedy and Feinstein) who push for “environmental” causes then get in the way of real plans when it touches their own back yard. Environmentalists want to do all sorts of things, but they can’t even reconcile their own causes. One group wants solar power so we will use less oil, another wants to protect the desert. Where, as many have asked, are we supposed to put solar energy plants if we can’t put them in the desert? I would also like to know when the caribou and the tortoise population become more important than the needs of human beings. We try to be so noble, and protect everything and every place, and we lose all sense of perspective in doing so. And I won’t even get into how the same person who promotes the killing of unborn children is diligent about making sure we don’t kill any tortoises.

I am glad for environmental progress and laws that help ensure that we have cleaner air and water, and for practical conservation of resources, but the government is seriously overstepping its bounds in controlling the impact of people on the environment. God has given us these resources to use. He put the oil in the ground, put the sun in the sky, and makes the wind blow. He made the trees, rocks, water…everything! Instead of using these things with wisdom and thankfulness, we fuss over them to the point that we don’t use them effectively at all. So, massive amounts of oil sit underground while we are made to believe that if we turn our lights off for an hour we are saving the planet. Come on people, use some common sense.