As an outdoors person who grew up spending my Summers camping and backpacking in some of the most beautiful areas of our great country, I have a healthy respect for environmental issues. In Pennsylvania, where I spent my youth, we were encouraged to gather "dead & down" wood in order to curb some of the fuel available should fires break out. We also had a lot of spraying activity in order to try to keep the tent worms from destroying the natural beauty and habitat of the areas; and my home town is one of the only places in the country that found a way to save their Dutch Elm trees from total annihilation. Then as an adult, I came to my Mother's home state of California where I learned to love the places she had frequented in her youth such as Big Basin, Sequoia and Yosemite. I care about the environment and I care about saving such species as the Bald Eagle, and yes, even the California Condor. But, I also see the other side of this issue and when the decision comes to saving human life over some obscure insect, frog or even a majestic bird, I'd like to think that common sense and decency would play a role in decisions on protecting the environment. There needs to be a balance. The following two posts can be found over at Moonbattery and they detail some of the tugs and pulls those of us who worry about the lack of balance face.
Enviromoonbattery in the Courtroom
In yet another example of activist courts teaming up with moonbats in their onslaught against common sense, a federal court is forcing the Forest Service to suspend over 1,500 permits for a variety of activities that include fire prevention, Boy Scout meetings, and even the cutting of the Capitol's Christmas tree.
Projects determined to have minimal environmental impact used to be exempt from the requirement of spending $zillions on marathon legal battles against the well-heeled environmentalist lobby in order to get a permit. But the Earth Island Institute found a court willing to help them change that.
From The Washington Times:
Judge James K. Singleton of the Eastern District Court of California ruled in July against a project to remove charred and damaged trees, which could kindle a future fire, in the Sequoia National Forest.
The court said last month in a follow-up ruling that its decision in Earth Island Institute v. Ruthenbeck applies nationwide, rather than just to the local dispute.
As a result, the Forest Service immediately suspended all "categorical exclusions," which approved the Sequoia project and had been used since 2002 to allow permits of numerous other activities, including trail upkeep at ski resorts and issuing outdoor guide permits.
Among the projects to be hogtied in red tape:
- Hundreds of projects nationwide for fire prevention on tens of thousands of acres
- Nearly 100 guide permits for hunting, fishing, horseback riding, and fishing
- 150 wildlife habitat projects
- 165 permits to maintain camp grounds and trails
- 15 ski area projects that may shut down the upcoming ski season in some areas
- 40 permits for family reunions and Boy Scout and Girl Scout activities
Thanks to the new requirement of public notices, comment periods, and appeals, this year's Capitol Christmas tree should be arriving in Washington sometime around Valentine's Day.
On the bright side, employment prospects for lawyers are looking as sunny as ever.
Sorry Cindy Loo — The eco-Grinches are stealing it this year.******************************October 12, 2005
Environmentalism Kills Africans
Runaway environmentalism isn't just bad for the economy — it's bad for human health. Take the case of DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane). This wonder chemical has saved millions of lives by killing the one species that has given the human race the most trouble — the mosquito. According to a WaPo op ed, the National Academy of Sciences estimated in 1970 that DDT had prevented 500 million deaths.
It would be saving millions of lives still, if it hadn't fallen afoul of environmentalists.
DDT has proven highly effective against the spread of typhus, dengue, and yellow fever, but it's best known from combating malaria, which would make it highly useful in Uganda, which had 12 million cases of malaria out of a population of 27 million in 2003. But the European Union doesn't approve of DDT, and is threatening Ugandans with crippling import restrictions if they employ the chemical.
There's no solid evidence that DDT is harmful to people. But when it comes to moonbattery, you don't need evidence, you just need to believe. One million people a year still die from malaria. But the most effective weapon against it can't be used, in order to indulge elite bureaucrats in their fashionably kooky environmentalism.
Thanks to Byron for the tip.
Mankind's worst enemy, after moonbats
The problem here is that those advocating for the use of DDT are focusing only on the human conditions and not lookinig at the bigger picture.
Kill all the mosquitoes and the birds and spiders suffer. So what? Well, as anyone who has looked at the whole "circle of life" concept, it's pretty clear that destroying other species ultimately affects all other species in the ecosphere. We lose when they lose.
Now there is no reason to go overboard here, and refusing to permit building or recreation because we may disturb some nesting bugs or other such thing does border on ridiculous. As you imply, balance is necessary.
But there are other ways to combat mosquitoes as a vector, and if the companies who make them really cared about human suffering, they'd make these products more readily available and financially affordable to the rest of the world.
Posted by: ken grandlund | 13 October 2005 at 05:14 PM