I have been a conservationist all my life. What is a conservationist? A conservationist advocates the planned management of natural resources. I believe in good stewardship of the natural resources God gave this great country. And they were given to us to be USED. I believe in re-using and re-purposing instead of throwing things away.I believe in recycling where practical. I have often wondered how much the recycling in my community is really helping. Instead of one garbage truck picking up our trash, we now have two - one for regular garbage and one for recyclables. Twice as much gas used, twice as much exhaust out of those trucks.
Good conservation of our forests means that new trees are planted when old trees are cut. Environmentalists want everything left to nature. That is part of the reason there are so many devasting fires in California. If the trees were properly managed and dead underbrush allowed to be removed, whether by man or nature, the catastrophic fires would be lessened.
'The fire problem in the West has resulted from an unnaturally large buildup of dry, highly-flammable excess wood in the forests. Before the government began to suppress forest fires in the early 20th century, frequent small fires cleaned out the underbrush. Large ponderosa pines, for example, often grew in open stands with densities between 20 and 50 trees per acre. Now, as a result of preventing forest fires, smaller, crowded, less healthy trees often grow in the same places with densities of 300 to 700 trees per acre.' http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2011/06/10/massive_forest_fires_due_to_forest_service_incompetence. Our government has not been a good steward of our forests.
I also hate those new CFL's. Those of us with older eyes find them hard to read with. And they have mercury in them - a potentially hazardous material. Have you ever read how you are to proceed if you break one? Check out these directions from our government: http://epa.gov/cfl/cflcleanup.html. And they really shouldn't be put with your regular trash. Eventually that mercury will seep into groundwater. Just another example of unintended consequences of government rules.
Many enviromentalists believe wind and solar are the answer to our energy problems. I don't agree. Petrolium is a product of Nature - did you ever think of that? And there is nothing (except nuclear) that can produce the energy we need as a society the way petrolium can. A side effect of windmills is birdkill. 'Windmills kill nearly half a million birds a year, according to a Fish and Wildlife estimate. The American Bird Conservancy projected that the number could more than double in 20 years if the administration realizes its goal for wind power." http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/wind-farms-under-fire-for-bird-kills/2011/08/25/gIQAP0bVlJ_story.html
I could continue to give examples of environmental and government policies that are not really helping our world, but I want to keep this short and start you thinking.
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Cookbook c. 1969)