The Environment

I ponder the environment a fair amount these days because of all the global warming hype and high gas prices, high food prices, etc. We should, of course, be good stewards of the earth and avoid pollution as much as possible. However, I disagree with the notion of putting the earth before humans, or blaming humans for anything problematic about the environment. I ran across a couple of articles that I recommend that you read and give some thought to. They are as follows:

At Townhall, "A New Environmentalism" by Victor Davis Hanson

At American Thinker, "Earth First! (People Later)" by David Bueche

In "Earth First! (People Later)", Mr. Bueche discusses why global warming isn't really a problem and how much of a disservice it is to humans to focus on that instead of other, more urgent problems (food, sanitation, etc.).

In "A New Environmentalism", Mr. Hanson focuses on energy and points out that if the US continues to import oil, we are often filling the coffers of terrorists and others who do not have our best interests at heart. If we continue to divert grain to biofuels, we raise food prices around the world, which hurts the poor most of all. He points out that solar and wind simply do not provide enough energy at this time or in the foreseeable future. The wisest course is to build nuclear plants and to drill for oil in our own country (ANWR, off the coasts).

I think these two articles make a lot of good points and that we need to get away from extreme positions on the environment (Don't touch anything!). It is possible to seek traditional sources of energy without much in the way of pollution or other environmental damage. We need to do what is best for our country, which in turn will do a lot to benefit people around the world. We need to think instead of following along with the various hysterical claims of global warming or whatever the cause of the day is. We can still be good stewards of the earth while making sensible use of its resources.