WhatFinger


No single force has harmed the earth more than the so-called environmental movement

The wacky world of environmentalism



It’s usually in the spring of the year that we take a good look at our lawns to see how they’ve weathered this past brutal winter. Walking along the grassy tract outside of my home I noticed large areas of lawn that consisted only of weeds and bare earth.

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What had once been grass was now dead, dry thatch. A cursory scrape with my garden rake confirmed my suspicions: my lawn was infested with grub worms and you can literally watch as they devour lawns by the acre from the roots up. Currently the most effective method of dealing with type of infestation is to spray the lawn with a pesticide that kills the grubs and eventually allows the lawn to heal itself. But Dalton McGuinty and his stalwarts at Queen’s Park are about to change all that in an ill-advised move to ban the use of all cosmetic pesticides beginning next year. It isn’t that the use of pesticides is responsible for any human deaths, but it’s good optics for a generally uninformed populace who consider themselves friends of the earth. Probably no single force has harmed the earth more than the so-called environmental movement. Steeped in good intentions and an absolute conviction of their own moral rectitude, much of what environmentalism has managed to accomplish amounts to death and destruction. Beginning back in 1962 with the publication of Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, society was made aware of the rampant use of chemicals and groundlessly informed that chemicals were causing an epidemic of cancer and other illnesses. The book is said to have spawned the environmental movement and resulted in the worldwide banning of the chemical DDT. The foreword to the 25th anniversary edition of Silent Spring accurately declared, "It led to environmental legislation at every level of government." And it continues to do so. But just how beneficial is all this legislation designed to “protect” the environment? Currently malaria is rampant in most of Africa and much of Asia. The World Health Organization estimates that over 100 million people have died from the disease over the last four decades. The most effective and least expensive way to combat malaria is by killing the mosquitoes that carry the organism responsible for malaria. And the most effective pesticide in eradicating mosquitoes is DDT. Ronald Bailey of Reason Magazine commented on the 40th anniversary of Carson’s book that her legacy is more troubling than her admirers will admit and gives some startling facts about the use of DDT. “In 1943, Venezuela had 8,171,115 cases of malaria; by 1958, after the use of DDT, the number was down to 800. India, which had over 10 million cases of malaria in 1935, had 285,962 in 1969. In Italy the number of malaria cases dropped from 411,602 in 1945 to only 37 in 1968.” And today many Africans are imploring the West to send DDT, as millions are stricken with malaria every year and hundreds of thousands die annually. The world is appalled at Canada’s annual seal hunt because of the grotesque scenes of baby seals being clubbed to death by hunters. In fact, the seal hunt was suspended for a number of years because of the objections of environmentalist and animal lovers. Trouble is that an exploding seal population quickly runs out of food, as Canada’s cod fishers quickly discovered, and exposes the entire species to the possibility of extinction through starvation. Currently, British Columbia is also embroiled in a controversy over the hunting of harbour seals whose population is exploding there due to a dearth of natural enemies. These cute and cuddly appearing seals are now threatening the Pacific salmon population as their voracious appetites results in the decimation and eventual disappearance of those magnificent fish. Yet the environmentalists in BC are urging a ban on a proposed cull of harbour seals, not realizing that if their numbers are not reduced, then the species could face extinction. Hunters are also feeling pressured by individuals who think that no one should hunt. “What’s the need for hunting?” many of these people ask. “There’s plenty of meat at the supermarket.” Given the fact that the natural enemies of deer and moose are not as plentiful as they once were, there is only so much food available to sustain them. Starvation and disease often kills off large numbers of these magnificent animals, as food grows scarce. If they were not hunted at all, their numbers would increase beyond the point that the land could provide sufficient food, thus threatening the very survival of the species. I do not suggest that environmentalists have anything but the most altruistic motives, but often good intentions aren’t enough. Mr. McGuinty’s legislation, if passed will come back to haunt Ontarians in a serious way. It’s hard to understand why in a time that allergies have grown rampant, any government would wish to ban pesticides that could be helpful in reducing the number of allergens. As for common garden pests, such as grub worms and chinch bugs, they will eventually run rampant turning, green verdant lawns into dusty expanses of weed-infested deserts. Considering that a thick, rich lawn does more to cool a home from summer heat than most window air conditioners, having a green lawn is more than cosmetic. But then so long as we act from a position of ignorance in our quest to feel good about ourselves, we’ll continue to create even greater problems than ones we think we are solving.


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Klaus Rohrich -- Bio and Archives

Klaus Rohrich is senior columnist for Canada Free Press. Klaus also writes topical articles for numerous magazines. He has a regular column on RetirementHomes and is currently working on his first book dealing with the toxicity of liberalism.  His work has been featured on the Drudge Report, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, among others.  He lives and works in a small town outside of Toronto.

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