Another Earth Day is over


The hype dies down for another year or so

Okay, I was a little snarky yesterday.

Here's the thing. Earth Day is a secular holiday on an arbitrary day (please take your Communist conspiracy theories elsewhere). The only thing it shares with earth-centered faiths is environmental awareness.

But you've been lied to. Most of the environmental "wisdom" propagated in the last forty years is not about "saving the Earth." What's more, it hijacks legitimate concerns and buries them where no one has time to pay attention because they are too busy working on the "big ones" on the list.

So when multiple someones come up and say "Hey, you're a Pagan. What are you doing for Earth Day?" I have this overwhelming urge to stuff mulch up their nose.

Christian ministers will tell you about the C&E people, the ones who only show up on Christmas and Easter but expect EVERYONE to notice that they were there for the Big Days.

My question to all the people excited about Earth Day is, where are you the other 364 days every year?

I've said before that I consider Earth Day to be the environmental equivalent of Catholic indulgences. It's all about going through the motions without actually doing anything.

Or worse yet, the wrong things.

Take recycling. And stars above, I wish somebody would.

Did you know that the only thing it pays to recycle is aluminum? Separating your paper and plastics just makes your taxes go up. Very few companies are willing to pay for the recycled material once it's separated and cleaned because it is significantly more expensive than the raw material. Most consumers won't pay extra unless it's a niche market.

Like one that has to feel better about itself by using recycled products.

Ah, it gets worse.

I could tell you about the conspiracy between Lammont Dupont and William Randolf Hearst that turned hemp from a valuable plant to a social danger that had to be banned, especially to Protect Our Women from those Dirty Mexicans and Degenerate Negros.

No, I am not kidding.

Hemp oil and hemp fibers had major industrial applications. Someone had recently figured out how to turn hemp into paper more cheaply than turning wood into paper. Hemp can be grown a lot faster than wood, and has less impact on the environment.

But Hearst had logging interests and newspapers. Dupont had all these petrochemical derivatives.

Do you understand? Plastic packaging is a direct result of this racist conspiracy.

Bet you weren't told that in recycling lessons.

It's all there. All you have to do is some digging in history.

I could tell you about how subsidizing water and power in the west has led to overuse and those triple-dammned low flow toilets and those blasted low-flow shower heads that take four times as long to get my hair feeling clean as they should.

That's my point.

Almost every single thing that you have been told is good for the environment has minimal benefits and doesn't address the underlying problems. Meanwhile, it leaves people holding the short end of the stick.

So don't ask me to celebrate that nonsense.

Posted: Fri - April 23, 2010 at 12:47 PM
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