Green Nonsense

Thank goodness Earth Day is over so maybe we can be spared those lame PSAs they kept running on every TV show. Seeing Jack Bauer talk about going green made me want to torture some terrorists. Anyway, the Green Alarmists are nothing new. Here’s a sampling of some Earth Day predictions from 1970. Sound familiar?

“We have about five more years at the outside to do something.”
• Kenneth Watt, ecologist

“Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”
• George Wald, Harvard Biologist

“We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation.”
• Barry Commoner, Washington University biologist

“Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction.”
• New York Times editorial, the day after the first Earth Day

“Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

“By…[1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

More hilarity here.

They’re using the obesity “crisis” as another thing that causes global warming, compounding their BS arguments so they can link one to the other.

HIGH rates of obesity in richer countries cause up to a billion extra tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year, compared with countries with leaner populations, according to a study that assesses the additional food and fuel needs of the overweight.

The finding is particularly worrying, scientists say, because obesity is on the rise in many rich nations.

“Population fatness has an environmental impact,” said Phil Edwards, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “We’re all being told to stay fit and keep our weight down because it’s good for our health. The important thing is that staying slim is good for your health and for the health of the planet.”

Oh, so China and India are less polluters than Germany or Canada? Yeah, right.

They used similar tactics on smoking and the end result is smokers are nearly ostracized by society, forced to smoke in delegated areas. Now they are making fat people pay twice for airline seats, and don’t think it wil stop there. Some companies even use weight as an excuse to fire or not hire people because of “medical costs” which is another bogus argument.

Once again, the nanny state is a lot more dangerous than people realize and it can lead to some very bad things. Don’t let them get away with this. Or you might be next. If you’re not fat and don’t smoke, don’t think they won’t come after something else you like.

In Spokane County, Washington (way north of me) they have another law banning something for green reasons. You won’t believe what it is. Soap!

The quest for squeaky-clean dishes has turned some law-abiding people in Spokane into dishwater-detergent smugglers. They are bringing Cascade or Electrasol in from out of state because the eco-friendly varieties required under Washington state law don’t work as well. Spokane County became the launch pad last July for the nation’s strictest ban on dishwasher detergent made with phosphates, a measure aimed at reducing water pollution. The ban will be expanded statewide in July 2010, the same time similar laws take effect in several other states.

But it’s not easy to get sparkling dishes when you go green.

Many people were shocked to find that products like Seventh Generation, Ecover and Trader Joe’s left their dishes encrusted with food, smeared with grease and too gross to use without rewashing them by hand. The culprit was hard water, which is mineral-rich and resistant to soap.

I plan to be back in Vegas before the law becomes statewide. Of course, I could always buy soap in Portland, but they are probably dumb enough to adopt the same law. Some of the laws they have up here are really annoying. Politicians seem determined to out stupid each other.