Every April for the last 48 years, we are lectured to by activists, celebrities, academics, and politicians that we should feel guilty for our impressive progress. Because of our impact on the environment, mankind must atone for its sins by regressing, embracing a pre-industrial existence. To seek forgiveness from Al Gore and the United Nations, we must support higher taxes, demand more government, and ignore the hypocrisy of those selling the latest eco scams.
Earth Day is a time to virtue-signal to the extreme.
A global demonstration will be held. An expert will go on television to prognosticate a doom and gloom scenario. A politician will promise to solve climate change with more state interventions. A thespian will tweet something inane. A hashtag will trend. The media will blame President Donald Trump for whatever reason.
If you don’t do any of this, then you hate the planet. Or, at the very least, you’re an odious creature.
As the old adage goes: the more things change, the more they stay the same. You only need to look back to 1970 to see how the media behaved like those strange fellows standing on the street corner wearing a paper shopping bag screaming, “You’re doomed! You’re all doomed!”
The World is Coming to an End
Looking back nearly 50 years ago, you can see how most of the predictions never came to fruition. One can only imagine what people will read about today 50 years from now.
Here are some things the public were told in the first year of Earth Day:
Life Magazine wrote in January 1970:
“By 1985, air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half.”
The New York Times opined in April 1970:
"Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from the intolerable deteriorations and possible extinction."
Scientist Paul Ehrlich told Mademoiselle Magazine in April 1970:
"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."
Former Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-WI) declared in April 1970:
“Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, believes that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.”
Viewed through the current-day lens, these quotes of hysteria are laughable, just like the scenarios portrayed in Soylent Green or Mad Max. But they are hardly different from what CNN and Al Gore routinely spout. Last month, at the Global Education and Skills Forum (GESF) in Dubai, the former vice president spoke of “rain bombs,” “flying rivers,” and “climate refugees.”
He didn’t become the world’s first carbon billionaire for being subtle.
Saving the Planet
Rather than demanding levies on fossil fuels or blaming man for selfishness, why can’t we celebrate human ingenuity? In just the last 125 years, we have gone from the horse and buggy to the automobile to the airplane to reusable rockets. Also, in this same time period, we have developed the pen, the computer, instant communications, and 24-hour cable news cycles – OK, the last one may not be such an achievement after all.
No one will argue the fact that mistakes have been made over the years. However, considering how much progress has occurred in a century, the environmental fanatics, who don’t really care about Mother Nature, should give us a break.
Every time an error has needed to be corrected, the free enterprise system has come to the rescue.
By the time the Roaring Twenties commenced, whales were on the cusp of extermination. Meat, oil, bones, ribs, and ambergris, the whaling industry killed scores of the mammals. Thanks to the creation of kerosene, spring steel, and the automobile, whales were no longer needed for consumer products. Save the whales, indeed!
For years, environmentalists have griped about coal. They have complained about its devastating effects on the planet. But they are getting their wish: coal is being annihilated as it’s phased out in favor of natural gas. A law or an international demonstration wasn’t necessary. The free enterprise system worked its magic.
A contentious piece of technology right now is hydraulic fracturing, otherwise known as fracking. It is another boogeyman for the left to attack. Despite the Oscar-winning documentaries and speeches, fracking has reduced America’s CO2 emissions. As of 2016, U.S. CO2 emissions are at their lowest levels in 30 years because the electric power sector has transitioned to natural gas from coal.
Ditch Earth Day, Celebrate Capitalism Day
Yesterday, they said there wouldn’t be anymore trees. Today, the number of trees is expanding. Yesterday, they averred the bees were going extinct. Today, the number of bee colonies is going up. Yesterday, they warned the Arctic Ocean would be wiped out. Today, it is still there.
Whether it’s the extinction of species or ocean pollution, there are many environmental problems that are actively being solved by entrepreneurs, the free enterprise system, and capitalism without the government. Even theories are being developed to reverse warming trends that do not require greater taxation, government intrusion, and eco scams.
Here is a proposal that won’t be dated in 50 years: let’s ditch Earth Day and celebrate Capitalism Day!
Do you celebrate Earth Day? Let us know in the comments section!
