OPINION/COMMENTARY

Common Sense Environmentalism

The environmentalist left constantly warns us about how global warming will destroy our planet. Water levels will rise and drown all land. Desertification will cause millions of poor people to starve to death. The Gulf Stream will change course so that Europe will become a cold and barren continent. Human life is in danger of an unimaginable disaster if we do not dismantle the industrial world and join hands in a global socialist farming economy. This doomsday message is thought to our children in their schools as well as preached to the worlds governments. But does it really make sense? Common sense teaches us not to listen to environmentalists. For almost a hundred years we have been warned that the earth’s natural resources are going to be depleted in a few years. Not a single resource has been depleted, due to market mechanisms. During the 1960s and the 1970s environmentalists told us that billions would soon die due to overpopulation. They were wrong. During the 1970s and 1980s we were told that the Sahara desert was expanding due to human activity. It was found that this was part of a natural historical cycle. During the 1980s and the 1990s, we were warned that people would die due to lack of oxygen since the rainforests were cut down. There was no science behind this statement. During the same period we were told that up to 50% of the species on the Earth would die out in one or two decades. According to the UN only approximately 0.7% of the planets species died out between 1980-2000. Nobody has been so wrong, so often, as the environmentalist movement....

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