Earth Daze

Yesterday, I asked NukeBoy1 if he was done with his homework because we had to leave soon to get him to his guitar lesson.  “All except the assignment that I have to do with an adult”, he said.  As the only “adult” in the house at the time, I sat down with him to do the assignment.  I had forgotten that it was Earth Day until I looked at the paper.

The top of the paper stated:

The purpose of this exercise is to determine how many trees would need to be planted to offset the carbon produced by one of your families’ cars in one year.

That’s sort of dancing around the issue, don’t you think?  Why didn’t they just come out and say it:

Every time your Dad drives you to your guitar lesson, another polar bear dies.

Or maybe they could have tried to raise his guilt level by stating:

Way to go, you selfish, selfish child; asking Grandma to fly up for your birthday has caused an ice sheet the size of Manhattan to break away from the polar ice caps.  We are all going to die!

Unbelievable; not only is the indoctrination of our children rampant in the schools, now they are inserting it into math problems!  Do the assignment with an adult?  As in; your parents are obviously too stupid and uncaring to understand this, so by doing the assignment with them you’ll help us raise their guilt and shame level to the point that from this day forward you will only be fed organic vegetables, tofu and NPR.

Look, I’m all for a clean environment and being a good, responsible steward for Mother Earth; but I also realize that scaring the crap out of people is great for slasher movies, but not so good for normal human existence.  We teach our kids not to throw trash out the window of a moving car and to turn the lights out when you leave the room.  Admittedly, the turning out the lights is more a financial motivation for me than a save the planet one.  Save the planet?  Hell, save my electric bill; it was over a hundred dollars last month!  The point is; I’m sick and tired of being told that we evil Americans are killing the planet when India is pumping out more CFC’s and carbon emissions in 6 months than we have since the Industrial Revolution.  And China?  Oh, don’t get me started on China.  You want to see responsible environmentalism in action?  Look at what the USA has done over the past 5 decades in technology advancements that make the world a better place for everyone.  Quit telling all of us that we are the problem when in actuality, we are the closest thing to an answer that you eco-warriors have got!  The combined populations of the 2 biggest emerging economies on earth; India and China, is 2.4 Billion people.  They account for nearly 40% of the worlds population.  The United States?  About 300 Million, or 4 1/2% of the worlds population.  You could have 8 United States of Americas and just barely be even with India and China population wise, yet our little 4.5% of the worlds population manage to produce between 20 and 30% of the worlds goods.  And we do it in a clean, efficient way.  China pollutes more making a few thousand lead-filled baby cribs than we do with our entire auto industry.  Well, what’s left of it.  You know why you don’t see environmentalist protesters in China?  Because Chinese tanks can’t read protest signs.  You want to see an accurate block quote of what environmentalist policy can do for the world?  Here’s one:

Every time you pass ethanol legislation, a family in Mexico goes hungry.

There is a reason that you love Mexican food; because that stuff is good!  Corn is a staple in Mexican food, and when the price of corn goes up 60% in a matter of month, it gets harder to feed your family.  Especially when you are trying to survive on 4 dollars a day.  The fallacy of using Ethanol to save the planet is the fact that corn effects so many other things.  Corn is used to feed the cattle, chickens, turkeys and hogs that are on your dinner plate every night.  It is used for cooking oil, corn meal, beverages; ever heard of high fructose corn syrup?  Where do you think it comes from?  Eat eggs?  Eggs come from chickens, do you see where this is going?  There is a reason that you saw beef, poultry, cheese and soda prices skyrocket last year during the summer.  The domino effect is finally making some of the policy makers take pause.  Thank God.  Let’s not forget how many acres of forest would have to be razed by carbon spewing tractors to add enough corn fields to meet the demands of the Ethanol peddlers in Washington.  Talk about your carbon footprint.

This debatable issue could be avoided if the government would just do one thing; get out of the way.  Let Americans do what Americans have always done; figured out a better, faster, cheaper, cleaner, more profitable way to do things.  You can’t legislate innovation.  Quit telling my kids that they’re killing animals and ruining the planet every time they fall asleep with the television on.  Don’t send condescending homework home with my son expecting me to break down in tears and then teach him the words to kumbaya.  Oh, the answer to his homework problem?  346.  346 trees would need to be planted to offset one years worth of carbon emissions from our little ole Dodge Caravan.  I did some rudimentary calculations and figured that our neighborhood will have to purchase the State of Kansas and plant trees no more than 18 inches apart to offset it’s carbon footprint for the next 10 years.  After that?  I don’t know, but Nebraska better get ready to relocate too.