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Monday, July 18, 2022

The Media Balance Newsletter: 7/18/22

FREE… Every Two Weeks…What you won’t find in one place, anywhere

Welcome! We cover COVID to Climate, as well as Energy to Elections.

Here is the link for this issue, so please share it on social media. Particularly note the asterisked items below…

— This Newsletter's Articles, by Topic —

Ukraine:

Ukraine — What You Can Do:

COVID-19 — Repeated Important Information:

COVID-19 — Injections:

COVID-19 — Injection Mandates:

COVID-19 — Data:

COVID-19 — Masks:

COVID-19 — Misc:

Renewables (General):

Wind Energy:

Solar Energy:

Nuclear Energy:

Electric Vehicles (EVs):
Misc Energy:

Manmade Global Warming — Some Deceptions:

Manmade Global Warming — Misc:

US Election:

US Election — State Issues:

US Politics and Socialism:

US Politics and the J6 Committee:

Other US Politics and Related:

Globalism:

Religion Related:

Please use social media, etc. to pass on this Newsletter to other open-minded citizen

If at any time you'd like to be added to (or taken off) the distribution of our popular,  free, worldwide Media Balance Newsletter, simply send me an email saying that.

John Droz, Jr., Physicist Citizen’s rights advocate Revision 7/17/22 

 Note 1: We recommend reading the Newsletter on your computer, not your phone, as some documents (e.g. PDFs) are much easier to read on a large computer screen… We’ve tried to use common fonts, etc. to minimize display issues. 

 Note 2: For recent past Newsletter issues see 2020 Archives & 2021 Archives & 2022 Archives. To accommodate numerous requests received about prior articles over the twelve plus years of the Newsletter, we’ve put together   since the beginning of the Newsletter — where you can search by year. For a detailed background about the Newsletter, please read this.  

Note 3: See this extensive list of reasonable books on climate change. As a parallel effort, we have also put together a list of some good books related to industrial wind energy. Both topics are also extensively covered on my website: WiseEnergy.org. 

Note 4:I am not an attorney or a physician, so no material appearing in any of the Newsletters (or any of my websites) should be construed as giving legal or medical advice. My recommendation has always been: consult a competent, licensed attorney when you are involved with legal issues, and consult a competent physician regarding medical matters.  

 Copyright © 2022 Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (see WiseEnergy.org).

 

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Sunday, July 10, 2022

Chemicals not the culprit: Sperm counts stable, not declining

By ACSH Staff — June 7, 2011 @ American Council on Science and Health

 Counting sperm is tricky
No evidence for declining sperm quality
Hasta la Vista Infertility?

Radical environmentalists have pointed to chemicals such as bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates as “toxins” responsible for causing obesity, cancer, and even male infertility due to decreased sperm counts. As proof, they cite a 1992 study by a group of Danish researchers that claimed sperm counts declined by 50 percent worldwide from 1938 to 1991. However, their research was heavily criticized for its many flaws, methodological problems, and biases. Now, though, the life raft that anti-chemical zealots have clung to is sinking, as a new study by the same group of researchers found no decline in the sperm counts of its male cohort. Data gathered from 5,000 18-year-old men over the course of 15 years detected no decrease in sperm numbers or quality; still, the researchers did not publish these monumental findings. Instead, the data was posted on a website for the Danish Ministry of Health and later was published by the journal Epidemiology. According to commentary by Dr. Jens Peter Bonde, a fertility researcher at Copenhagen University Hospital, the research constitutes “the best longitudinal semen data yet available.”

“We know that the so-called decline in sperm count is just another myth promulgated by the ‘our stolen future’ crowd who say that environmental chemicals lead to infertility in men,” says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. “But now we have proof that’s simply not true.”

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Thursday, June 30, 2022

They're Beyond the Peter Principle: They're Criminals

The Peter Principle: People are promoted to their level of incompetence. 

By Rich Kozlovich

Since Biden became President of the United States I've tried in some small way to track to important positions in the federal government.  From the cabinet, to the judiciary, the military, and to the various agencies, there are two things that stand out to those who've paid attention: They're weird and they hate America, and we're seeing the madness of King Brandon on display. 

On June 29, 2022 it was reported that Energy Secretary Granholm violated the Hatch Act by encouraging votes for Democrats during interview, and that conclusion was the result of an investigation by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.  Clearly an independent federal agency.  And she "received appropriate training and the office has advised her that any future violations will be considered a "willful and knowing violation of the law, which could result in further action."  Wow!  They were really tough on her!  Just a little snark.
 
But anyone whose paid any amount of attention to these people and watched the Senate hearings where the were questioned there's only one conclusion.  They were already at the peak of the Peter Principle before they were appointed.  But the quality of their competence is only part of the problem.
 
Secretary of Home Land Security Mayorkas has been in the news a lot these days regarding his , and he was either clueless about what was really going on, or all he said about it was at the very least misleading, including the quality of the woman he wanted put in charge, Nina Jankowicz, who on the best of occasions has to be considered just a bit odd, or he outright lied.
Did he lie?  There's been a pattern of lies to Congress by Mayorkas, as the Washington Post Says Mayorkas’s ‘Prompt Deportation’ Claim Is ‘Mostly False’.  Immigration at the border has been in reality open treason by Mayorkas and the Biden administration.  That breeds the obvious conclusion expressed by Sen. Rick Scott: Mayorkas Has Lied to Congress & the American People – He Must Resign. 
 
Silvio Canto, Jr. says there are 51 reasons for Mayorkas to resign because he's in charge of this immigration mess and recently 51 people were found dead in a trailer roasted to death, and its all on Mayorkas, but especially Joe Biden.  Their blood is on their hands. 

Then there's the energy crisis.  No advanced society can exist and prosper without sufficient energy.  America was a nation that was not only energy independent but an energy exporter less than two years ago, is now facing an energy crisis and even black outs.  Why?  America has more oil than all the Middle East combined, but we have to drill for it.  
 
We have energy issues because Biden and his crew are nuts over something that's not occurring, , and blaming something that has absolutely no impact on the world's climate, manmade , and claim we need to end use and become totally green.

Kelly Haughton posted this piece, Fire Kerry, fire McCarthy, fire Granholm "Ending the "energy crisis" requires serious housecleaning."
 
“Joe Biden can end the global energy crisis in 3 easy steps: 1. Promise to stop his anti-fossil fuel-fuel agenda for the remainder of his administration. 2. Withdraw from the Paris Agreement. 3. Encourage other countries to do 1 and 2. Production will surge, prices will plummet.”

She outlines three steps in fixing that problem, First fire John Kerry for his opposition to fossil fuels, and his efforts to destroy oil producing companies.  Second, fire Gina McCarthy, Biden’s National Climate Advisor. McCarthy, a one time EPA administrator who was a disaster then and still is, is part of this insane green cabal.  She and the position she holds should be assigned to the ash heap of  history and finally, fire Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm. 
 
All of these people are in opposition to America's energy production and independence.  All of these people are demanding America totally transition into alternative energy production and "go green" in our use of energy, which is scientifically and factually  impossible, and they have to know it. No amount of incremental wind and solar power can ever provide energy independence. 
 
Conclusion?  If what I've said about energy production is true, and it is, and if they're policies and actions are in direct opposition to that, and they are, then we must conclude they're consciously and deliberately working to destroy America.  
 
Why should they be allowed to continue?  
 
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Biden’s electric caravan to Green utopia runs out of gas

By | June 28th, 2022| Energy| 54 Comments @ CFACT

The woke Biden administration is receiving loud wake up calls from appropriately alarmed constituents as their poll numbers tank.

The message is that a vast majority of the country isn’t feverish enough about global warming Armageddon hyped by a powerful coalition of globalist non-governmental organizations (NGO’s), investment corporations, well-funded environmental activist, green subsidy lobbies, far left government special interest groups—and politicos—to warrant sacrificing reliable, affordable fossil-fueled energy sufficiency essential to individual life quality and national economic prosperity.

The rude awakening is warranted.

Throughout our history, America’s rich abundance of oil, natural gas and coal has afforded US citizens the world’s highest living standards. And until very recently—just before Joe Biden took office—our nation was not only energy independent, but also a leading global oil and gas exporter.

Witness the current paradox, a presidential promise to kill the hydrocarbon industry, followed up by implementing every conceivable regulatory measure to do precisely that.

And then the hubris to demand that this same “big oil” pump more of their evil product as they simultaneously plead with Saudi Arabia, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Venezuela, and Iran to do the same.

The consequences should hardly be surprising—record gasoline and diesel prices that are rippling through every corner of business and driving up food and commodity costs with a devastating 8.6% four-decade high inflation.

Perhaps even far left liberals are beginning to realize that the idea of replacing the more than 80% of reliable energy we get from hydrocarbons by growing the less than 4% provided by intermittent wind and solar combined— plus then also try to add millions of electric vehicles to already overstressed power grids that require big batteries that depend upon rare earth minerals where 80% come from China—may not be a feasible, winning strategy after all.

Nevertheless, that’s exactly what Joe and his core White House and congressional supporters have attempted to push and sell to the public when, as a presidential candidate, he promised: “I guarantee you we’re going to end fossil fuels.”

On his first day in office, President Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline and halted new leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

A week later, he banned new oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters, and in June he shut down exploration on existing leases in ANWR.

In October, he increased the regulatory burdens on building pipelines and other infrastructure, and last February, he limited leasing in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve (NPR-A).

Then, in April, almost a year after a federal judge enjoined the White House from implementing its pause on leases in federal lands and waters, the Biden administration finally offered 144,400 acres for exploration—only 20% of the acreage originally slated for this tranche of leases—an area less than half the size of Phoenix.

By comparison, bear in mind here that the Federal Government owns and manages 640 million acres, 28% of all US land, totaling about six times the size of California.

The feds also raised the federal royalty rate for new leases 50% from 12.5% to 18.77%, the first increase since they were first imposed in the 1920’s.

On top of that, the Biden White House intently nominated vehemently anti-fossil energy officials to shepherd draconian regulatory policies including climate impact disclosures to dry up industry investment capital in favor of preferred “clean” alternatives.

Enter the administration’s Department of Energy Secretary, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who supported every failed government subsidized green boondoggle the Obama-Biden administration threw in her lap.

The Mackinac Center, a Michigan think tank, reported that only 2.3% of Granholm’s hundreds of millions of handouts for favored start-ups in her state during her governorship from 2003 to 2011 met their advertised job creation promises.

Appearing recently on CNN’s “State of the Union,” ahead of President Biden’s plan to meet with the Saudi’s once again seeking relief from his self-inflicted policies, Granholm said, “we need to have increased production, so that everyday citizens in America will not be feeling this pain that they’re feeling right now.”

This national indignity, after the Saudi crown prince previously refused to take our president’s call, followed Biden’s letter to seven major oil producers and refiners in June, demanding them to take “immediate action” to increase the supply of gasoline, and blasting them for record prices at the gas pump—which he also conveniently blamed on Vladimir Putin.

After all, it was Biden’s war on America’s hydrocarbons, not Putin’s war on Ukraine, that reduced supplies and drove up prices.

In January of 2021, the average price of regular gasoline was $2.33 a gallon.

By February of this year, it was up to $3.52.

Since as of May, the average price was $4.44, 56% of that rise predated the invasion.

Rapidly approaching midterm elections leave Democrats little time to relieve inflationary pump pains. Other than return to Trump-era policies—which his party’s far left wing won’t possibly allow, Joe Biden’s only remaining options are short-term gimmicks intended to appear show he’s doing something helpful.

A total public feel-good deception was to have his EPA increase the maximum allowable amount of ethanol additive in petroleum from 10% (E10) currently, to 15% (E15) over summer driving months between June 1 and Sept. 15.

The ethanol strategy is a sham “fix” which will only add to inflationary food costs by consuming more of our nation’s corn supply, provides about 40% less energy than petroleum (reducing milage efficiency); and offers no environmental advantages or CO2 emission reduction benefits whatsoever.

The White House is also pushing for Congress to suspend the 18.4 cents-per-gallon federal gas tax for three months, primarily a public relations play that could save about $3 on the $75 it costs to fill up an average 15-gallon gas tank at $4.98 per gallon.

New York’s June 1st suspension of its 16-cent gas tax—out of roughly 46 cents a gallon between state and local taxeshas had notably little consumer benefit, leaving the $4.98 a gallon pump price nearly unchanged.

In the end, President Biden and his progressive playbook have successfully accomplished what they set out to do—to make fossil energy prohibitively expensive so that we use less of it.

Their major failure in the process was attempting to replace those marvelously abundant and efficient hydrocarbons with magical green alternatives before their empty promises ran out of gas, their midterm polls tanked, and their roadmap to Utopia led the country to nowhere any of us should ever wish to be.

This article originally appeared at NewsMax

Author

  •  

    CFACT Advisor Larry Bell heads the graduate program in space architecture at the University of Houston. He founded and directs the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture. He is also the author of "Climate of Corruption: Politics and Power Behind the Global Warming Hoax."

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Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Who knew CO2 was vital to human health? Scientist — Parts one and two

By |June 20th, 2022|Science| 267 Comments @ CFACT

 

In 1904 Christian Bohr, a Danish biochemist discovered that carbon dioxide (CO2) facilitates the release of oxygen (O2) to our cells. Oxygen is carried through our body by the hemoglobin in our red blood cells. Bohr discovered carbon dioxide acts as a a catalyst for hemoglobin to release its oxygen for use by our bodies. When levels of carbon dioxide in our bodies become too low the bond between the oxygen and hemoglobin increases making it more difficult for the oxygen to be released to our cells. Poor physical oxygenation leads to many unhealthy problems within our bodies. Conversely it is actually difficult to have too little oxygen in our bodies. For a healthy body, over breathing or inhaling pure oxygen has little benefit delivering to our tissues and organs.

In other words the pure oxygen your favorite quarterback is inhaling on the sidelines between offensive drives does him little good. The money a jet lagged traveler might spend at an airport oxygen bar is also wasted.

Additional understanding of this new knowledge was increased only recently in 2017 when Dr. U.P. Singh at the Suharto Medical College in India discovered that there were many relationships between yoga breathing and CO2. He wrote in his paper referenced below that CO2 stimulated the vagus nerve. He discovered that increased levels of CO2 in the blood could activate the vagus nerve and slow the heart rate. He describes carbon dioxide as a “natural sedative.” It soothes the irritability of the brains conscious centers, promoting our ability to use logic, reason and common sense. Without CO2 we become anxious, depressed, and angry.(1)

By the 1930s physicians were administering CO2 directly to the lungs at the Harvard Medical School and Boston City Hospital. They ran several innovative studies with CO2 exploring its clinical applications for physical and mental conditions.

Trials of CO2 therapy in epilepsy patients found that after only a few treatments, onset of seizures was reduced. Yandle Henderson, a Yale physiologist found a mixture of oxygen (O2) and 5% CO2 could generate excellent results in patients with asthma, stroke, pneumonia, heart attack and asphyxia in newborn babies.

Patrick Mckeown in his 2021 book THE BREATHING CURE says the therapy increased in pace during the 1940’s and 50’s bringing forth more research into its benefits. It was actually cheap and easy to administer, a fact he says which may have lead to its demise. When a single doctor in Ohio, Ralph M. Waters who specialized in anesthesia claimed CO2 was a bad idea its use declined. It is believed he used a 30% solution of CO2 gas rather than the proven 5%. It was known that 30% CO2 was potentially dangerous.

Whatever Waters’ intention, he succeeded in damming the medical use of carbon dioxide. The therapy was forced underground and its purpose distorted by false claims, lawsuits and selective scientific studies. A century’s worth of medical research showing carbon dioxides clinical applications for many conditions was almost entirely forgotten.

I believe that it is a safe guess that less than 10% of our readers are familiar with these positive aspects of carbon dioxide in our bodies. However I embarrassed myself on our radio show ,THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY at AmericaOutLoud.com on April 30, 2022 when my guest was Dr. Will Happer. I consider him to be the leading climate physicist in the U.S. but told him I thought he would be unfamiliar with this health information regarding CO2. He went on to describe it all, chapter and verse, as I cowered in embarrassment.

Let me summarize what are now the unquestioned benefits of adequate carbon dioxide gas in the human body. First contrary to what might be expected from fraudulent environmental concerns relating to global warming carbon dioxide health effects for the human body are innumerable.

Life originated and had existed on Earth for millennia under conditions of very high CO2 content in surrounding air. According to published studies CO2 content was between 7 and 12 percent of the air when the first creatures with lungs were evolving.

CO2 helps dilate the smooth muscle tissues and helps regulate the cardiovascular system. CO2 gets converted to carbonic acid thereby becoming a primary regulator of the alkaline/acid balance of the body. It also plays an important role in the proper functioning of the digestive system.

Unfortunately excessive breathing always reduces the amount of carbon dioxide without improving the oxygen content. Significant research has now linked insufficient carbon dioxide in the body to the following medical problems: Heart Disease, Diabetes, Asthma , COPD, Cancer, Sleep Apnea, Liver Cirrhosis, Hyperthyroidism,

Epilepsy and Panic disorder.

Now you all know the other side of the story. I will build on it next week when I explain the many benefits of breathing through ones nose and taking less breathes per minute. Both of which relate to the importance of CO2 in our bodies which I have referred to in this article.

1- Songhai U.P. Evidence-Based of Hypercapernia (excess CO2) and Exhaustion Phase in Vagus Nerve Stimulation: Insights into Hypercapernia Yoga Breathing Exercises” J. Yoga Physics Ther 7, no 276 (2017):2

CO2 important for human health: Who knew? Scientists—Part Two

By  June 27th, 2022 Science  45 Comments

I believe this topic is so important that I will make it a bit personal at least anecdotally from my experience. I am sure exceptional health which has followed me for 85 years till the China virus interfered for a few weeks, has been the result of a great deal of exercise, a good diet, and good genes. However, my reading of two books (mentioned below) taught me how unwittingly lucky I have been to have adopted two extremely healthy habits: 1- breathing through my nose primarily rather than my mouth, 2- breathing at the unusually low rate of 6 breaths per minute. In part one of this series, I explained how rapid mouth breathing depletes the carbon dioxide in your body. The healthiest range of carbon dioxide in your body is 30 to 40 mmHg (millimeters of mercurial pressure) which relates to a variety of increased health problems if one is far off this range. I take no credit for having unknowingly found myself doing this as far back as I can remember.

Although breathing is an involuntary action and we don’t usually give it much thought, the way we breath has an enormous impact on our health. We normally pay it no attention unless something goes wrong. Todays experts tell us that during rest, light movement such as walking and yoga, should make breathing almost imperceptible, never noticeable. Healthy breathing should be through the nose driven by the diaphragm. It should be regular, quiet, slow, and almost undetectable. Unhealthy or dysfunctional breathing involves breathing through the mouth, using the upper chest, irregularly and audible. Many large studies show that nearly 60% of people do breathe through their mouths.

Slow breathing practices have been adopted in many areas of the world due to their claimed health benefits. This has piqued the interest of researchers and clinicians who have initiated investigations into the physiological (and psychological) effects of slow breathing techniques and attempted to uncover the underlying mechanisms.

It is a topic that warrants further research, understanding and discussion, but is very well covered in two books from which I gained most of my knowledge: THE BREATHING CURE (2021, 534 pages) by Patrick McKeown, and BREATH (2020, 280 pages) by James Nestor.

  • Investigations into the physiological effects of slow breathing have uncovered significant effects on the respiratory, cardiovascular, cardiorespiratory, and autonomic nervous systems.
  • Key findings include effects on respiratory muscle activity, ventilation efficiency, heart rate variability, blood flow dynamics, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, cardiorespiratory coupling, and perhaps most important, slow breathing impacts our vagus nerves. The vagus nerves, the longest nerves in our autonomic system can regulate inflammatory responses associated with blood vessels, the lungs, heart, stomach, esophagus, circulation, digestion and more.
  • There appears to be potential for use of controlled slow breathing techniques as a means of improving physiological aspects of health and longevity and may even extend to some disease states.

The last decade has seen the emergence of literature documenting the effects and potential clinical benefits of slow breathing techniques, predominantly in disease states. The physiological effects of slow breathing in the healthy human, however, are yet to be comprehensively reviewed. Documented effects predominantly include the cardiovascular, autonomic, respiratory, and endocrine aspects.

HISTORY OF SLOW BREATHING

The act of controlling one’s breath for the purpose of restoring or enhancing one’s health has been practiced for thousands of years amongst Eastern cultures. For example, yogic breathing (pranayama) is a well-known ancient practice of controlled breathing, often performed in conjunction with meditation or yoga, for its spiritual and perceived health-enhancing effects. Their claimed health benefits and potential to treat a range of medical conditions has piqued the interest of the medical and scientific communities and is stimulating research.

Since the 1990’s, a system of breathing therapy developed within the Russian medical community by Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko has made its way across several continents. He began treating patients with respiratory and circulatory diseases using breathing retraining in the 1950’s and 1960’s . Other clinicians adopted his methods and claimed success in treating a wide range of chronic disorders.

Slow breathing is commonly defined as any rate from 4 to 10 breaths per min. The typical respiratory rate in humans is within the range of 10–20 breaths per min. Slow breathing towards a rate of 6 breaths per min has been said to result in increased venous (blood) return. There is however a second part of the equation, which is slow and complete exhalation, certainly as important as inhaling.

This is further augmented in diaphragmatic breathing due to the anatomical fact that the diaphragm is connected to and supports the heart and provides passage for the aorta and the inferior vena cava. At around 6 breaths per min, significantly greater coupling occurred in subjects with low initial blood oxygenation.

In the process of your breathing through your nose, the air is heated, cleaned, slowed, and pressurized after leaving your nose. Therefore, the lungs can then extract more oxygen with each breath. This why nasal breathing is far healthier and more efficient than breathing through the mouth.

One poetic scientist Jayakar Nayak who James Nestor wrote about, explained that “the nose is the silent warrior: the gatekeeper of our bodies, pharmacist to our minds, and weathervane to our emotions.” Such beliefs go back to 1830 when scientist George Catlin, studying Native American health, was told that breath inhaled through the mouth sapped the body of strength while breath inhaled through the nose kept the body strong. One tribal leader said, “The air which enters the lungs through the mouth is as different from that which enters the nostrils as distilled water is different from the water in an ordinary cistern or frog pond.” These native Americans trained their children to be nose breathers and even often avoided smiling, which would open their mouths, fearing some noxious air might enter.

Catlin traveled the world studying more mouth breathers which all went into his 1862 book, THE BREATH OF LIFE. A more modern scientist Dr. Mark Burhenne agreed with all Catlin learned and wrote a book describing the contribution of mouth breathing to periodontal disease, bad breath, and cavities. Burhenne claimed mouth breathing was more damaging than sugar consumption, bad diet, or poor hygiene.

In summary when we breath too much, we expel too much carbon dioxide, and our blood pH rises to become more alkaline, but when we breath slower and hold in more carbon dioxide the pH lowers and blood becomes more acidic. Almost all cellular functions in the body take place at a blood pH level of 7.4, our sweet spot between alkaline and acid.

Slow mouth breathing could be a path to improved health but not necessarily an easy one. If you have been a rapid mouth breather it will be a difficult habit to change, but likely worth the effort.

Author

  • CFACT Senior Science Analyst Jay Lehr has authored more than 1,000 magazine and journal articles and 36 books. Jay’s new book A Hitchhikers Journey Through Climate Change written with Teri Ciccone is now available on Kindle and Amazon.

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Sunday, June 19, 2022

Green Paganism

By ,   | August 15th, 2020 | Environment @ CFACT 
 
Editor's Note:  While this article is almost two years old, it is in point of fact timeless.  Definition leads to clarity, and we need to understand all this misery being caused by the Biden administration in the name of global warming is in fact foundationally nature worshiping paganism in origin, thought and intent.  Once we understand that, everything else becomes clear.

Many zealous greens are strongly imbued with pagan values. Paganism is generally defined as polytheism mixed in with nature worship. Primitive pagans frequently cowered before the forces of nature, fatalistically resigned to being at nature’s mercy, believing that progress was not only impossible, but a criminal offense against nature. So complete was their submission to nature, and so foreign to them was the idea that individual lives have value, that pagan societies often practiced human sacrifice to appease the gods of nature, particularly the sun god (e.g., the Aztecs).

Let’s forget about polytheism for now. What’s more important are the attitudes toward nature and human life. In the modern scientific era, many people – whether prompted by theistic or humanistic beliefs and values – reject the pagan beliefs that humankind should submit to nature and that individual human lives deserves protection. However, many other people, particularly hardcore greens, reject those principles and replicate primitive paganism by exalting nature and devaluing human life.

Pagan greens insist that we cling to dependence on natural, “clean, renewable” sources of energy, namely, from the wind and sun. Try as they might, though, they can’t coax consistency and reliability out of those fickle natural sources. Nor are wind and solar energy really clean or renewable, since they depend on massive consumption of many “nonrenewable” resources, some of them highly polluting. (They also kill more wildlife than fossil fuels do, but that’s another story.)

Of particular concern are the sometimes rabidly anti-human beliefs of green pagans. They have variously labelled the human race “a virus,” “a disease” “vermin,” “a cancer.” The hatred for humanity is palpable. Here is more: “The extinction of the human species may not only be inevitable but a good thing”; “Human beings, as a species, have no more value than slugs”; “Man is no more important than any other species.”

Like some primitive pagan societies, groveling in fear before the forces of nature, pagan greens believe that some individuals need to be sacrificed for life to go on. Thus, the founder of the Environmental Defense Fund, favored banning DDT because the ban would, “get rid of some of them” (in Ebenezer Scrooge’s words, “decrease the surplus population”) via insect-borne malaria and insect-caused crop destruction. Indeed, the human death toll from banning rather than moderating the use of DDT has exceeded the death toll from communism, making environmentalism the most lethal leftist ideology in history. That shouldn’t be surprising, for communists at least paid lip service (however dishonestly) to “the good of the people,” while pagan greens regard human life as no better than a pestilential germ.

The anti-human animus of pagan greens even gave rise to a pejorative term: “speciesism” – i.e., the belief that humans are superior to other species. Well, in pagan green cosmology, humans may not be superior to other species, but in the real world, we are. Forget about us being at the top of the food chain. Think moon-landings, movie magic, Mozart and McCartney. Humans are unique. Every other species pursues its self-interest without a thought for the long-term survival of other species. Only humans have enough foresight to take deliberate steps to try to conserve other species. Only humans could feel regret and grieve if a beloved species goes extinct. Only humans are clever enough to discover or invent 57 different genders. Sorry, animal kingdom, but it’s no contest – humans are superior.

The contrary belief to speciesism is that all species are equal. That belief can be harmful to humans. About 30 years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency blocked the cleanup of sewage in the Tijuana River Basin on the grounds that the cleanup would endanger the survival of the life forms that dwelled in that toxic (to humans) brew. Yes, federal bureaucrats placed the survival of various bacteria above the health of human beings. That’s pagan!

Another manifestation of anti-human green paganism is their preference for anti-growth agendas. The deadliest environment for a human being is poverty, yet greens work to thwart economic development in developing countries by trying to deny them access to the very fossil fuels that enabled the people in developed countries to climb out of poverty and live thriving, healthy lives. You can read details of these tragic and genocidal policies in Paul Driessen’s superb book, Eco-Imperialism. We need an environmentalism as if people mattered. (As a counterpoise to Friends of the Earth, we could use an environmental advocacy group called “Friends of people who live on Earth.)

Green icon Paul Ehrlich once asserted, “Economic growth is not the solution it’s the problem.” He is 180 degrees off-target. Growth is the solution. If it were true that the more economic development there is, the more polluted our environment would be, then our goose would be cooked. We could conceivably get so prosperous that we’d pollute ourselves to death. But the world doesn’t work that way.

Instead, there is a well-known pattern known as the Kuznets curve (named after the late economist Simon Kuznets who explained the pattern). What happens is that when societies begin to develop and climb out of poverty, pollution rises. But once development gets to the point where basic needs are met and discretionary income rises, people are willing and able to spend money on both pollution remediation and pollution prevention. Consequently, affluent (developed) societies are less polluted than developing societies.

Contemporary green paganism is an atavistic, anti-life fetish. Cloaked in mystical ignorance and wildly misanthropic, contemporary green pagans are as much of a threat to their fellow humans as their primitive forbears ever were.

Authors

  • CFACT -- We're freedom people.

  • Mark Hendrickson, Ph.D., is an economist who has analyzed the global warming story for 30 years.

 

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