Last year I wrote a three part series on Earth Day. Part 1 addressed my role working as a government employee in the environmental field while balancing my environmentalism with conservatism. In Part 2 I tackled some of the issues surrounding alternative energy and why the energy solution is not easy or cheap. I finished with Part 3 with a blast of the media and the misinformation that they spread as facts about the environment.
It is hard to stop writing about all of the misinformation spread by the extreme environmental movement. I do distinguish between the extreme activists and those like me. I do recycle, I maintain two compost piles and a worm compost bin, I am using native species in the landscaping at my house, and my wife and I both drive SUVs.
I recently attended an Earth Day event and an auto dealer had some vehicles on display that probably catered to the environmentalist crowd. One was a small Subaru station wagon. I noticed that the estimated mileage for that car was several miles per gallon worse than for my SUV. My car is not a full-sized Ford Excursion, but it is much bigger than the Subaru on display.
As a follow up to my Earth Day posting I would like to address some of the environmental issues that are frequently in the news. A common thread of the news seems to be that the solutions are simple “if we spent enough money to promote” whatever solution is being purported.
Take wind power as an example. I participate in some school presentations as part of my job and I talk about energy. Invariably solar, wind, or hydropower comes up as part of the discussions. Most students are taught or at least exposed to the benefits of these renewable sources of energy. We need to build more windmills.
As someone who works in the environmental field, Earth Day is the super bowl. It is a day when many folks alter their behavior and do things that are “earth friendly” for a day and then go back to the way they always do things. There are a lot of slogans and events and wearing of t-shirts with earth symbols.
Earth Day is an unusual time for me as a conservative, an environmentalist and someone who works at an environmental regulatory agency. It is my experience that most people who work in the field are left-leaning and are probably registered as Democrats. You might be surprised to learn that there are a lot of us conservatives.
