Earth Day: Real Environmentalism Has Been Hijacked by the ‘Climatistas’

Since the first Earth Day in 1970, the United States has become a leader in protecting the environment and the preservation of nature. Most don’t know this—it isn’t taught in schools, and the media leads us to believe the opposite. 

Nearly everywhere, our air, lakes, rivers, and streams are far cleaner than they were in 1970. No more smog clouds over Los Angeles and other cities; the Cuyahoga River in Ohio doesn’t catch fire from pollution; and Fox River in Wisconsin, home of 26 paper companies, now has fish that are edible and water that is swimmable. 

But there is more work to do. 

Unfortunately, the “climatistas,” like the Marxist Sandinistas, have hijacked the environmental movement. They have imposed their “green” ever-expanding agenda on our nation. Using tax subsidies, laws, and regulations they have lobbied for, sued for, and demonstrated for, they have forced their ideology onto regular Americans and our environment, harming everyday people. 

They support wind, solar, and electric cars no matter the cost, which will end 80% of our prosperity, given that most of our energy comes from oil, coal, and natural gas.

Never mind the millions of birds, thousands of rare birds and eagles, and endangered bats killed by 90,000 wind turbines spread across our country. To do what the climatistas want, we will have to pay for an additional 400,000 wind turbines. Meanwhile, a Harvard study tells us that building that many wind turbines will warm U.S. temperatures. 

Never mind the sudden alarming spike in whale and dolphin deaths that coincide with the construction of offshore wind turbines—with electricity that is at least five times more expensive to produce than electricity derived from natural gas—as well as the destruction of thousands of miles of natural habitat for rare animals and prime farmland taken out of production by solar panel installations. 

Never mind the polluted rivers, lakes, and waterways caused by the mining and processing of lithium and cobalt for electric cars and electric grid batteries, or the chemicals and acids that China dumps into the environment processing them, or the coal China burns making them. China gets 56% of all its energy from coal and is building hundreds of new coal plants, while India gets 75% from coal. 

What’s more, electric cars take five to seven years to break even on carbon dioxide emissions compared to gas cars that last 20 years or longer, while batteries cost $10,000-$30,000 and will need to be replaced or will have limited range and charging issues throughout their lifetimes. 

Never mind the trillions in borrowed taxpayer subsidies causing inflation, of which wind and solar get at an astounding 50% subsidy while just adding more costs to our electricity rates. Adding wind and solar to our electricity mix will make rates skyrocket, just as Barack Obama told us they would. 

Germany, Denmark, and United Kingdom users pay four times the average of American rates, and California pays double. All because they keep adding wind, solar, batteries, and ever more transmission wires, causing their rates to climbing faster while the reliability of their electricity sources has tanked. 

Electric users are catching on to how the climatistas and their corporate and media minions have been lying to them.

Never mind that the climatistas want to control what you eat and how you live. “Go vegan! Eat bugs instead of meat!”

“Live in 15-minute cities and pay a fine if you drive out of the area more than 100 times a year!” What if your job, school, or child care is outside the border of these cities, or you move, or get a new job, or transfer to a new school? Think of the surveillance needed to track your movements. 

They want to make flying more expensive and to limit your plane flights to once every three years. Even your dog is bad for the climate. Dogs and cats eat and breathe besides being beloved family members. 

If the climatistas get control, they will do what all totalitarian regimes do: control the people. Violence, environmental decay, and societal and economic rot will set in. It always looks glorious when they are selling you the “green” dream, until it becomes our nightmare.

It is time for real environmentalists—grown-ups with a clear vision—to take back their movement from the climatistas and their singular focus on the circle-of-life required plant food that is known as CO2. 

Each of us exhale about 700 pounds of CO2 a year—more if you are a runner or more physically active—and we must breathe in trace amounts of CO2 or we die. Could we humans actually be the carbon they want to reduce?

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