Commentary: The Environmentalist Assault on Civilization

No reasonable person would deny the importance of protecting the environment. The accomplishments of the environmental movement over the past 50 years are undeniable: cleaner air and water, protected wildernesses, and more efficient use of resources. The list is endless and illustrious. Environmentalist values are an integral part of any responsible public policy agenda. But the pendulum has swung too far.

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Commentary: Today’s Environmentalism Caters to Global Oligarchy

The conventional wisdom among America’s liberals, often seconded and rarely challenged by conservatives, is that population growth in the United States should be channeled as much as possible into the footprint of existing cities. Surrounding cities should be “greenbelts,” suburban growth should be rejected as unsustainable “sprawl,” and human settlement in areas defined as the “urban-wildland interface” should be discouraged and, where possible, reversed.

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Phoenix Suns Arena Renamed ‘Footprint Center,’ Will Serve as Testing Ground for Environmental Initiatives

Talking Stick Resort Arena

The Phoenix Suns Arena will now be known as the “Footprint Center,” named after their new partner: local material science and environmentalist company, Footprint. This partnership will reportedly advance environmentalist initiatives concerning plastics. The company’s main initiative is eliminating single-use plastics entirely. 

Included in the partnership are the valley’s professional men’s and women’s basketball teams, the Phoenix Suns and Mercury, as well as the professional men’s soccer team, Real Mallorca. 

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Joe Biden’s About to Floor It to a Green Future – Straight into State Speed Traps

Joe Biden needs to put the pedal to the metal as he races toward his goal of ridding America’s energy sources of carbon emissions by 2035. But the president-elect’s headlong rush toward a green future may be slowed by a snarl of political speed limits in the states.

One of Biden’s most ambitious aims is to completely clean up the electrical grid, today powered mostly by fossil fuels, in only 15 years. Many energy executives consider that goal quixotic because it would require a breathtakingly fast transformation of the massive power industry — from replacing hundreds of dirty power plants to upgrading thousands of miles transmission lines.

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Sierra Club Will Address History of Racism, White Supremacy, Restructure Leadership

Environmental group. The Sierra Club, pledged to examine its “substantial role in perpetuating white supremacy” and to remove or rename monuments of founder John Muir, Fox News reports.

According to the organization’s website they plan future blog posts to talk more about the struggles Indigenous people, people of color, and their white allies went through to get this organization to evolve on issues like immigration and environmental justice. The posts will also include the viewpoints of its founder, famed conservationist John Muir. In an open letter entitled “Pulling Down Our Monuments,” Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said it was time for the Sierra Club to reckon with the words of Muir and other early members.

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Commentary: Will COVID-19 Kill Environmental Leftism?

The coronavirus has had, at least, the unanticipated benefit of obscuring and diminishing the very tedious public clamoring about climate change. It is a slightly redeeming virtue of crises that they tend to supersede and diminish previous crises; if a crisis is serious, public opinion can rarely worry about more than one menace at a time.

When Iran took over the role of principal promoter of terrorism in the Middle East, and Turkey, rebuffed by Europe, began imposing itself on the fringes of the Arab world, support for the Palestinian onslaught against Israel effectively collapsed. All the nonsense about Israel as an “apartheid state” has almost stopped, and the simpering of naïve or devious advocates of one big happy, multiracial Palestine (a formula for the subjugation or expulsion or even massacre of the Jews one more time) is rarely heard.

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Commentary: Greens Ignore Population Growth and Mass Migration

At its best, the environmental movement is based on evidence, balances benefits with costs, and focuses on the good of humanity. This is just common sense, the classic values of prudence and conservatism. But, as with the Romantic-era critics of the Industrial Revolution, there is no small amount of aesthetics and even religion at the root of modern environmentalism, and its manic concern for global warming and associated demands for the West to jettison its economic and material progress.

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Democrats Join Forces to Urge the Supreme Court to Block the Southern Border Barrier Based on ‘the Environment’

by Kevin Daley   Environmental groups and House Democrats urged the Supreme Court not to disturb a lower court order blocking the reallocation of military funds for border wall projects. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to put that ruling on hold while litigation continues July 12. Granting that request — called a stay — would give the government an irreversible victory, a coalition of environmentalists led by the Sierra Club warned. “If a stay is granted and wall construction begins, there will be no turning back,” the green groups told the justices in court papers. U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam barred the administration from using $2.5 billion in military funds for border wall construction. The trial court’s injunctions stalled border barrier construction projects in Arizona and New Mexico. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the administration’s request to stay Gilliam’s ruling while litigation continued by a 2-1 vote July 3. The government filed a stay application with the Supreme Court on July 12. Environmentalists fear ‘irrevocable victory’ Stays are supposed to preserve the status quo among litigants while a lawsuit proceeds through court. If the justices grant the administration’s request, the government can begin construction on several border wall projects the courts…

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Commentary: Novelist Michael Crichton and His Warnings about the Corruption, Politicization of Science

by Edward Ring   Just over 10 years ago, the world lost Michael Crichton, bestselling author and screenwriter, who succumbed to cancer at age 66. His loss was greater than we could have known at the time. During the final years of his life, Crichton became increasingly focused on the politicization of science. Few critics of this corruption, if any, are as articulate and influential as Michael Crichton was in his time. And now politicized science, and the justifications it provides activists, journalists, politicians, and corporate opportunists, is more dangerous than ever. Crichton’s scientific background – he obtained a medical degree in 1969, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies – distinguished him from the typical author of thrillers, and informed his life-long interest in science and technology. Whenever Crichton expressed skepticism about the latest environmental crisis of the century, he had credibility. One of the most succinct and moving examples of Crichton’s thoughts on this topic came in the form of a speech he gave in 2003 at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club, titled “Environmentalism As Religion.” The transcript offers a compelling defense of rational environmentalism vs. environmentalism as a religion, and warns against the politicization of…

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Far-Left Environmentalists Aren’t Impressed with Robert Francis ‘Beto’ O’Rourke’s $5 Trillion Climate Change Agenda

by Michael Bastach   Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke’s $5 trillion climate change plan has not enthused far-left environmentalists, who say it doesn’t go as far as the Green New Deal. “Beto claims to support the Green New Deal, but his plan is out of line with [the] timeline it lays out and the scale of action that scientists say is necessary here in the United States to give our generation a livable future,” Sunrise Movement executive director Varshini Prakash said in a statement. Sunrise Movement Statement in Response to @BetoORourke's Climate Plan: Thread: pic.twitter.com/VzN9Uz6pz5 — Sunrise Movement 🌅 (@sunrisemvmt) April 29, 2019 The Green New Deal, introduced by Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in February, calls for a World War II-style takeover of the U.S. economy to replace fossil fuels with renewables and vastly expand the welfare state, all of which is estimated to cost up to $93 trillion over a decade. O’Rourke, on the other hand, aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, getting halfway there by 2030. The plan also calls for a slew of new regulations and re-entering the Paris climate accord. O’Rourke unveiled his $5 trillion climate change agenda Monday at Yosemite National Park. O’Rourke framed his plan…

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Commentary: How the Greens Turned the Golden State Brown

by Edward Ring   In October 2016, in a coordinated act of terrorism that received fleeting attention from the press, environmentalist activists broke into remote flow stations and turned off the valves on pipelines carrying crude oil from Canada into the United States. Working simultaneously in Washington, Montana, Minnesota, and North Dakota, the eco-terrorists disrupted pipelines that together transport 2.8 million barrels of oil per day, approximately 15 percent of U.S. consumption. The pretext for this action was to protest the alleged catastrophe of global warming. These are the foot soldiers of environmental extremism. These are the minions whose militancy receives nods and winks from opportunistic politicians and green investors who make climate alarmism the currency of their political and commercial success. More recently, and far more tragic, are the latest round of California wildfires that have consumed nearly a quarter million acres, killed at least 87 people, and caused damages estimated in excess of $10 billion. Opinions vary regarding how much of this disaster could have been avoided, but nobody disputes that more could have been done. Everyone agrees, for example, that overall, aggressive fire suppression has been a mistake. Most everyone agrees that good prevention measures include forest…

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‘Big Green, Inc.’: Inside The $4 Billion Wealthy Liberal Foundations Handed To Environmentalists

by Michael Bastach   Major foundations handed nearly $4 billion to global warming activists, anti-fossil fuel campaigners and other environmentalists over the past eight years, according to a database debuted Monday. The website Big Green, Inc. tracked $3.7 billion in commitments from major grant-making foundations to environmental causes from 2008 to 2016. It’s a project of the free market Institute for Energy Research and is based on nonprofit tax filings. IER president Tom Pyle said the vast web of funding detailed by Big Green, Inc. shatters the notion environmentalists are locked in a David versus Goliath-like struggle against energy companies. “The truth is the environmental left is a deep-pocketed and powerful force in American politics that is working to stop all natural gas, oil, and coal production in the United States,” Pyle said in a statement. IER’s project found, for example, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation gave out $2 billion in grants to environmental causes, including climate activism, between 2008 and 2016 — the largest grant-maker in the database. The Energy Foundation handed out $444 million in grants and the Sea Change Foundation doled out $373 million. The Energy Foundation got funding from liberal billionaire Tom Steyer’s charitable trust from 2009…

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IG Is Investigating Allegations of Collusion Between Volvo and EPA Officials to Sabotage President Trump’s Auto Regs Roll-Back

big rig truck

by Tim Pearce   Federal investigators are probing into a 2017 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report that claimed refurbished trucks emitted significantly more pollution than new models. The EPA Office of Inspector General (OIG) announced Tuesday that it would look into allegations that EPA officials improperly colluded with truck manufacturer Volvo to conduct a study that found that “glider trucks” – refurbished truck engines fixed in new bodies – emit as much as 40 times the pollution of new vehicles. The Trump administration is attempting to repeal Obama-era regulations that classified glider trucks as “new motor vehicles” and placed them under a much stricter class of emissions standards. Glider trucks are generally cheaper, though less efficient, than new models, earning the ire of environmentalists and large truck companies, including Volvo. After placing a stay on the rule that would put off enforcement until Dec. 2019, the EPA reversed course in June and lifted the stay. EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler lifted the stay following a D.C. Circuit Court ordered the EPA to enforce the Obama-era regulation. Anti-glider groups and companies have lobbied against the repeal of the regulations, often touting the 2017 EPA study on glider truck emissions. Congressional Republicans asked the OIG to look into…

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Radical Environmentalism’s Connection to California’s Historic Wildfires

wildfire

By Printus LeBlanc   California is once again on fire. The Mendocino Complex fire, south of Redding and the Carr fire, is now the largest wildfire in California history. The blaze is giving firefighters trouble, as it has leapt across barriers, natural and man-made, burning more than 280,000 acres so far. Many were quick to point to the blaze as evidence of global warming because apparently global warming is the cause of everything. But the environmental radicals do raise an interesting question, why does this keep happening out west? The short and sweet answer is, the environmental policies pushed by the environmental radicals have contributed to and made forest fires out west much worse. Forest fires were a common sight in the early 20th century. The fires were numerous and large. The available data from National Interagency Fire Center shows the 1920s and 30s were the toughest years out west. From 1926-1929 there was an average of over 140,000 fires per year, burning over 270 acres per fire. The 1930s saw over 180,000 fires per year while burning 218 acres per fire. From the 1940s through the 1970s the average size of fires continued to drop with the 70s being the low point at…

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Court Spikes Environmental Lawsuit Over Trump’s National Monument Cutbacks

Donald Trump

by Tim Pearce   A district court spiked an environmental lawsuit Monday seeking to force the Trump administration to turn over documents related to cutting back national monuments. U.S. District Judge David Nye told the environmental group Advocates for the West (AW) that a dozen documents the organization argued should be made public are protected as presidential communications, The Associated Press reported. The documents “contain legal advice to the president and his advisers and should remain protected,” Bye wrote, according to the AP. “While public disclosure is an important and necessary part of any free society, so too is candor and privacy when those at the highest levels of government strive to determine the best course of action.” The documents reveal past administrations’ reasons for establishing and expanding national monuments under the Antiquities Act between 2006 and 2016, according to AW. “This decision shows how difficult it is to force sunlight on a government that flourishes in secrecy,” AW attorney Todd Tucci told the AP. “President [Donald] Trump’s abrupt change in interpretation of the Antiquities Act should be subject to the light of day.” Trump signed executive orders on Dec. 4 rolling back the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in…

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Liberal-Majority Cities Decry the Environmental Danger of Drinking Straws

drinking straws

By Natalia Castro   Cities have banded together in recent weeks to launch a campaign against drinking straws. The charge? Straws are sucking the life out of the environment. Lawmakers have started a campaign, the likes of which have not been seen since the war on drugs, to remove this contraband from city streets in an effort to save the people of this great republic. This is not a joke, this is real but rest assured, it is exactly as ridiculous as it sounds. To be fair, these pesky pieces of plastic do have a frustrating way of making milkshakes difficult to drink, but do they deserve the vile and dehumanizing rhetoric the left has thrown at them? I thought these harsh words were reserved for Donald Trump? Apparently, no one and nothing is safe. San Francisco has joined several other California cities in proposing a straw ban. So, while being an illegal immigrant will give you government benefits and a voter ID card, selling a straw could result in a hefty fine. Just kidding, San Francisco doesn’t even require voter IDs. It was just weeks ago when Democrats were arguing for marijuana legalization, so individuals did not sit in jail for…

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Watchdog Group Launches Website Exposing Intimate Aspects Of Enviro-Led Climate Litigation

by Chris White   A Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group is launching an online archive giving the public a sneak-peek at how state attorneys general and activists conspired to engage in climate litigation against energy companies. ClimateLitigationWatch will publish documents involving court cases against the energy industry. The group’s website also offers the first searchable database of records showing activists and politicians working hand-in-glove on litigation aimed at throttling oil producers. The project, which the Government Accountability & Oversight (GAO) kick-started, will also release profiles of the people involved in the litigation, along with trading cards detailing their role in current cases. AGs Maura Healey of Massachusetts and Eric Schneiderman of News York will almost certainly be included in the profiles — both of whom are at the center of the lawsuits. Schneiderman’s decision to resign Monday following reports he physically abused four women could diminish New York’s involvement in the cases. His successor could potentially continue where Schneiderman left off or lead the probes into a different direction. “We’re not going to get into the science debate and other arguments. We’ll just show the public the documents, so you can decide,” Christopher Horner, one of the key figures spearheading the ClimateLitigationWatch project, told The…

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Trump Takes Apart Another Favorite Tool Enviros Use To Push Climate Crusades

by Chris White   The Trump administration released a new set of regulatory guidelines all-but destroying activists’ ability to cajole and browbeat retirement pension funds into taking up green energy investments. The Labor Department issued a warning Monday to managers of retirement funds to avoid using politically motivated investment strategies to tackle environmental issues. Several retirement funds have used exotic techniques during the past several years to submit proposals designed to push political campaigns. Using resources to promote so-called environmental, social and governance (ESG) proposals is a violation of a pension fund’s fiduciary duty unless the proposal can financially improve the company’s value. If the shareholder cannot demonstrably prove the proposal’s financial benefit, then pension recipients can sue the retirement fund for mishandling their money. “Fiduciaries (including investment managers) may not routinely incur significant plan expenses to pay for the costs of shareholder resolutions or special shareholder meetings, or to initiate or actively sponsor proxy fights on environmental or social issues,” a DOL press statement on the rule change notes. The new guidance rule comes as reports consistently warn about the real-world consequences of forcing pensions to take up green activist agendas. A report published in July 2017 suggested public pension funds…

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Report: The Endangered Species Act Doesn’t Work Because It Hammers Landowners With Draconian Regs

by Tim Pearce   The Endangered Species Act (ESA) may protect nearly every listed species from extinction, but the law’s recovery rate for threatened and endangered populations is dismal, so far. The Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) released a report Wednesday pointing out a severe shortfall of the ESA: only two percent of species listed under the law have been officially removed from the list as “recovered.” An April 16 study by The Heritage Foundation concluded the real recovery rate is closer to one percent. Proponents of the ESA, however, credit the law for keeping 99 percent of listed species from dying out, though that stat is based on the flawed assumption every listed species would go extinct without federal protection. Still, the ESA is much better at preventing an ailing species from getting worse rather than encouraging its growth. “Few species protected by [the ESA] have gone extinct. That’s reason for celebration,” PERC fellow Jonathan Wood, who authored the Wednesday report, wrote. “But … we want endangered species to recover as well. Achieving that goal, without sacrificing the law’s success at preventing extinction, requires reform that aligns the incentives of private landowners with the interests of rare species while maintaining regulatory protections for endangered species.”…

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Trump Backs Regulation-Slashing Scott Pruitt at EPA as Angry Liberals Circle

President Donald Trump maintains his confidence in Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt, who has killed hundreds of excessive bureaucratic regulations, according to multiple reports Tuesday. Pruitt incurred ire in the liberal mainstream media most recently over reports of high travel and security expenses funded with taxpayer dollars, the $50-per-night he spent staying in a lobbyist’s wife’s condo for a few months in 2017 and the news that he procured raises for two of his staffers against White House protocol.

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Much to the Consternation of Some ‘Environmentalists,’ Scott Pruitt is Bringing Transparency to the EPA

Scott Pruitt

by Printus LeBlanc   Recently, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt announced a policy change that is driving several “scientists” mad. Pruitt announced the EPA would no longer use “science” from outside groups that refuse to share data. This has become a problem for the agency because previous administrations would receive reports from outside groups and make decisions based on the report without reviewing the data. Any scientist will be able to tell you junk data going in means junk results coming out. In an interview given to The Daily Caller, Pruitt stated, “If we use a third party to engage in scientific review or inquiry, and that’s the basis of rule-making, you and every American citizen across the country deserve to know what’s the data, what’s the methodology that was used to reach that conclusion that was the underpinning of what—rules that were adopted by this agency.” Pruitt continued, “When we do contract that science out, sometimes the findings are published; we make that part of our rule-making processes, but then we don’t publish the methodology and data that went into those findings because the third party who did the study won’t give it to us.” Many climate change alarmists…

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